The Department of Education published a new proposed regulation that would end
a Trump-Pence rule that added extra safeguards for the rights of faith-based campus groups. The Trump-Pence rule required public universities and colleges to respect the First Amendment rights of faith-based campus groups in order to receive federal grant money. The new Biden rule would force some student groups to either fight for their right to meet in court or lose the right altogether.
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.
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.