February 2023

The Biden administration’s Treasury Department, Department of Labor, and Department of Health and Human Services proposed a new rule that would rescind a Trump-Pence rule ensuring religious and moral protections for employers. Under the Trump-Pence rule, employers with religious or moral convictions were not forced to supply birth control and other contraceptive measures to health care plan enrollees. The new Biden rule will dramatically limit these protections, entirely doing away with exemptions for non-religious moral objectors and shrinking protections for religious objectors.

Late Friday evening on February 3, the Biden administration notified Congress that
it would be waiving sanctions on nonproliferation activities involving Iran. The decision was made despite Iran’s continued noncompliance with its Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement, renewed concerns about Iran and Russia’s military alliance, and clear potential benefits to Russia’s state-owned energy giant, Rosatom.