GovInfo at UC San Diego Library

In addition to being a government information librarian, I also am the subject specialist at the library for Urban Studies & Planning and for Environmental Studies. So, I pay especially close attention to federal environmental issues as they touch on each of those areas of my responsibility. This week, two House committees released staff reports that outline and criticize many environment-related actions taken by the Trump administration. The Energy & Commerce committee exami...nes rollbacks related to climate change, scientific integrity, environmental justice, clean air and clean water, while the Natural Resources committee (https://naturalresources.house.gov//chair-grijalva-release) "sums up the human, environmental and economic consequences of Trump-era mismanagement." Links here are to the press releases, which link to the respective reports. See more

Yesterday, the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released a report detailing "a selection of significant investments, policies, and other actions undertaken by President Trump and Federal departments and agencies during the Administration’s first term to advance science and technology progress." An email-only press release about the report, "Advancing America's Global Leadership in Science & Technology," lists "ending the COVID-19 pandemic" as the administration's first accomplishment. The Politico article below includes a link to a copy of the press release, added to the story after several people (myself included) questioned the source of quoted material, and a link to the report.

I heard about this at last week's Depository Library Conference but almost forgot about it... Tomorrow at 10am (PDT), the Internet Archive is hosting a free roundtable for librarians who work with U.S. government information. Discussion will focus on "digitizing, curating, preserving and making government information available on archive.org."

In this week's roundup: marine litter report, technologies white paper from NARA, report on federal response to homelessness, upcoming briefing on racial disparities in maternal health, OIGs on mail delivery/DOI ethics pledge violations/Census briefings to Commerce Secretary, health outcomes for LGBT veterans, withdrawal from World Health Organization, sources for federal workforce statistics, court blocks "arbitrary and capricious" SNAP rule, executive order on civil service protections, and more. https://ucsd.libguides.com/usgov/roundup

This week, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) released a new strategic plan to reduce homelessness. Expanding the Toolbox: The Whole-of-Government Response to Homelessness gives an overview of the homeless situation and presents 8 "solutions" for responding to homelessness. The PDF plan is linked below. Organizations that focus on homelessness have criticized the new plan. See, for example, a joint statement by 10 such organizations at https://nlchp.org/joint-statement-usich-2020-plan/ and a statement by the National Alliance to End Homelessness at https://endhomelessness.org/statement-in-response-to-usich/ .

Want to brush up on your knowledge of the Electoral College before the election? The National Archives (NARA) has the who, what, where, when, whys and hows, along with a general FAQ, 2020 timeline, and historical Electoral College vote results back to 1892.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a report that concludes the Veterans Administration (VA) needs better data to assess health outcomes of LGBT veterans. The report recommends that the VA collect and analyze data on sexual orientation and self-identified gender identity to help assess health outcomes, determine health needs, and address health disparities for LGBT veterans. In Appendix II, the VA concurs with all recommendations and describes actions being taken to address the issues.

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) is hosting a public virtual roundtable discussion today (Oct. 20) from 10:30-11:30 PST. A link to the commission's Youtube channel is in the press release below. The discussion centers on "Election Night Results Reporting for the 2020 Presidential Election and how election officials and representatives from the media are preparing... Speakers will discuss misinformation and disinformation, unofficial results, managing expectations, ballots received after the election, and audits. Speakers will answer questions from the EAC Commissioners."

In this week's roundup: new tool for NTSB data, WTO decision on US/EU tariffs, digital jigsaw puzzles, ED civil rights data collection release, FY20 budget results, OIGs on wage determinations in construction projects/Commerce Dept. top challenges, comparing state eligibility criteria for the IDEA, K-12 data breaches, recommendations on making Congress work better, USPS agrees to reverse recent service changes, court finds head of US Agency for Global Media broke the law, agencies' rush to secure regulatory changes, and more. https://ucsd.libguides.com/usgov/roundup

Welcome news that the U.S. Postal Service settled a lawsuit earlier this week by agreeing to reverse all changes that have slowed mail delivery and to prioritize election mail. The lawsuit was filed in Montana, but the agreement applies to all states. The full agreement is available at https://www.courthousenews.com//10/MontanaUSPS-SETTLEMENT. .

Someone asked me last week if there's a way to know when Congressional hearings are taking place without having to go to individual committee websites. While many who read this page likely already know the answer to that, I thought it might be of interest to others, so... Yes, there is! Committee schedules are posted to Congress.gov, which is also home to lots of additional legislative information. You can choose daily or weekly views of the schedules, and there are options t...o filter results to the Senate or House or to a specific committee. Clicking the "meeting details" link brings up information including witnesses, documentation, and videos as available. My favorite tip for this site: changing the "view" option from compact to expanded will populate individual listings with the hearing title, which makes it much easier to find items of interest.

It looks as though the battle over when to end Census counting is done, as the Supreme Court yesterday set aside a lower court order that had extended the count through October 31. According to a press release, the Census Bureau has determined that self-responses and field data collection will end on October 15. The SCOTUS decision was unsigned, and Justice Sotomayor offered the only written dissent. The decision (with dissent) is below; the related press release is at https://www.census.gov//2020-census-data-collection-ending .

I know many of us have already begun filling out election ballots, but I did want to share an election guide that I recently created. The guide focuses on election resources for San Diego and California, but also links to a few helpful national resources.