In the News
Sex workers have gained the backing of a small group of Democratic lawmakers after largely being shut out of the policymaking process.
The turning point was the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), also referred to as SESTA after the original Senate bill, which was framed as a way to punish online platforms facilitating trafficking and abuse but was broadly opposed by the very industry it was meant to help.
Despite the best efforts of sex workers to dissuade lawmakers, the bill passed through both chambers easily and was signed by then-President Trump in 2018.
Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) on Friday introduced legislation to strengthen the federal workforce in the wake of a year of escalating cyber threats and attacks.
The Federal Rotational Cyber Workforce Program Act aims to build up the federal government's cybersecurity by establishing a program to allow cybersecurity professionals to rotate through multiple federal agencies and enhance their expertise.
Congress is on the cusp of something that doesn't happen often these days: passing a bill with wide, cross-party support. Its co-author, South Bay Rep. Ro Khanna, believes the landmark technology investment legislation would not only have a big impact in his Silicon Valley district, but all over the U.S.
Rep. Ro Khanna met Tuesday with a group of Sunnyvale mobile home owners who say changes made by park ownership have made their homes unsellable and threaten their ability to stay in one of Silicon Valley's last affordable housing refuges.
"I was very outraged," Khanna said after the meeting. The congressman has already introduced a bill that would regulate rents and selling rights at mobile home parks, but on Tuesday he urged the Sunnyvale City Council to pass its own legislation to protect mobile home residents, potentially including rent controls.
A group of congressional Democrats is asking President Joe Biden on Tuesday to fulfill a campaign promise and use his executive authority to mandate the inclusion of a gender-neutral "X" marker on federal IDs.
"We believe that a gender-neutral marker ("X") should be available on all federal IDs, and that accurate gender markers should be accessible using a self attestation standard," a letter to Biden first reviewed by The 19th states.
Ro Khanna, the dynamic progressive US representative from California, was inspired to enter politics by the legacy of his grandfather, Amarnath Vidyalankar (1901–1985), the legendary Indian trade unionist, independence campaigner, and parliamentarian. Though he was born and raised in the United States, Khanna traveled frequently to India as a youth, and he speaks movingly of how "our family's values come from my grandfather's embrace of a Gandhian worldview"—in particular, Mahatma Gandhi's belief "in the oneness not of merely all human life but in the oneness of all that lives."
With millions of lives at stake amid a rapid spread of COVID-19, Indian-American Congressman Ro Khanna said he hoped President Joe Biden would call the Pfizer CEO to let India produce its vaccine at least for six months or a year.
Khanna, who represents Silicon Valley in the US House of Representatives, has been an ardent supporter of the move by India and South Africa at the World Trade Organization (WTO) for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver of COVID-19 vaccines.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
How much more can the United States help India? The U.S. is now sending oxygen for COVID patients, raw materials for vaccines and other supplies for a country now leading the world in daily new infections. Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna of California joins us. He is vice chair of the Congressional India Caucus.
Congressman, good morning.
RO KHANNA: Good morning, Steve.
Hopes were high for the Endless Frontier Act when it was first introduced in 2020. The bipartisan, bicameral bill promised to boost U.S. efforts to compete against China by sending $100 billion to the National Science Foundation, refocusing its efforts on emerging technology like semiconductors and AI and even changing its name to the National Science and Technology Foundation. But the bill stagnated last year as Congress battled over COVID-19 recovery and the upcoming election.
Swedish climate advocate Greta Thunberg urged a House subcommittee on Thursday to end tax breaks for fossil fuel producers, saying their existence was a "disgrace," and she accused lawmakers who have failed to remove them as "proof that we have not understood the climate emergency."