Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act

OLR Report 2016-R-0001 provides a brief summary of the FAST Act, which was signed into law by President Obama on December 4, 2015.  The act provides $305 billion in federal funding for transportation projects over five federal fiscal years (FFYs 2016 to 2020). It is the first long-term comprehensive transportation law since 2005.

The act includes $225.2 billion for highway investment, $61 billion for federal transit programs, and $10 billion for the Federal Railroad Administration and Amtrak.  States will get about a 5.1% increase in funding in FFY 16 and annual increases ranging from 2.1% to 2.4% in subsequent years.

Connecticut will receive about $3.5 billion over five years, or about $700 million annually, for highway and transit programs, which is about $62 million more per year than Connecticut received in 2015.  The state Department of Transportation says the act’s importance isn’t in the amount of money it provides, which does not change dramatically from previous levels, but in the predictability and assurance of funding it provides.  

For more information, read the full report here.

All Parents Worry About Their Children but for Different Reasons

It turns out that demographics play a role in the types of worries parents have about their children, according to a recent Pew Research Center report.

For instance, according to the report:

1. Low-income parents are more concerned than higher-income parents about teen pregnancy (50% to 43%) and their children getting into trouble with the law (a 2:1 margin). 
2. Black parents are more likely than white parents to worry about their children being shot (39% vs. 22%).
3. White parents are more likely than black parents to worry that their children might struggle with anxiety or depression (58% vs. 35%) or have problems with drugs or alcohol (40% vs. 23%).
4. Hispanic parents worry more than black or white parents about all eight measures included in the survey, from being bullied to having problems with drugs or alcohol.

According to the study, some worries are shared by all groups regardless of income. “At least half of all parents, regardless of income, worry that their children might be bullied or struggle with anxiety or depression at some point. For parents with annual family incomes of $75,000 or higher, these concerns trump all others tested in the survey.”

The study is based on a survey of 1,807 American parents with children younger than age 18 conducted on September 15 to October 13, 2015.

 

Millennials: America’s Newest Caregivers

Although taking care of elderly parents and relatives is a task that commonly falls to Baby Boomers, almost a quarter of all adults caring for seniors are Millennials between the ages of 18 and 34, according to research by the AARP Policy Institute and the National Alliance for Caregiving and reported by Kaiser Health News.

According to AARP, about 40 million Americans considered themselves a caregiver in 2013, and the work they perform is estimated at $470 billion. Caregivers routinely face significant financial and emotional stress, a 2015 AARP report notes.

In Connecticut, about 459,000 caregivers, about 12.8% of the state’s population, contributed 427 million care hours in 2013, according to the 2015 AARP report. This is just slightly higher than the national average of 12.7%. The report estimates the economic value of this caregiving at $5.9 billion.

Mississippi has the highest concentration of caregivers, with 16.8% of the population caring for an elder. North Dakota, in contrast, has the lowest concentration at 8.6%.

Report Tracks Campus Sexual Violence Policy Issues Considered by Legislatures

The Education Commission of the States (ECS) and NASPA – Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (formerly, the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators) have characterized sexual violence and related policy issues from higher education institutions as a “top-tier policy issue across the states.” These organizations have teamed up to produce the publication “State Legislative Developments on Campus Sexual Violence: Issues in the Context of Safety.”

This policy brief looks at 23 states that have considered or enacted legislation across the following areas, intended to protect students and support sexual assault survivors:

1. Defining affirmative consent: building a common understanding of welcomed sexual behavior by defining consent in statute or directing institutions to do so
2. Role of local law enforcement: defining, clarifying, or expanding the role of law enforcement in campus reporting and investigating reports of sexual assault
3. Transcript notation: addressing the notation of a sexual assault on student perpetrators’ transcripts
4. Role of legal counsel: addressing the role of legal counsel in the campus adjudication process

The brief examines legislative activity during the 2013-2015 sessions.

Happy Caucus Day, Iowa!

In Iowa, it’s Caucus day, which kicks off the 2016 Presidential election season. But what is a caucus exactly, and how does it differ from the traditional balloting process? A recent report on the 2016 Presidential nominating process from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) answers these questions and many more.  Other questions the report addresses include:

• What is front-loading?
• Why do Iowa and New Hampshire go first?
• How do primary and caucus results determine the election of national convention delegates?
• Where and when are the 2016 national conventions?

Click here to find out the answers and read the full report.

Wikipedia.org

Are you a Gamer?

Ten percent of Americans who report ever playing video games consider themselves to be “gamers.”

Among the key findings of a recent Pew Research Center survey on Americans’ video game habits are the following:

1. Half of American adults play video games on a computer, TV, game console, or portable device like a cellphone, and 10% consider themselves to be “gamers.”
2. Nearly equal numbers of men and women play video games (50% and 48% respectively), although men are over twice as likely to call themselves “gamers” (15% of men v. 6% of women).
3. Four of every 10 adults believe that violence in video games is related to violent behavior, but slightly over half disagree with the statement “people who play violent video games are more likely to be violent themselves.”
4. A quarter of all adults (26%) think video games are a waste of time; Twenty-four percent think most games are not a waste of time. One-third think some games are a waste of time. And 16% don’t know what to think of the issue.
5. Almost half of adults are unsure if video games portray minorities and women poorly.

Click here for highlights of the report.