Declarations

Fighting for TRIA

“The backstop remains a critical component to a stable terror insurance market, particularly for nuclear, biological, chemical, and radiological (NBCR) events, and has enabled insurance to be placed and investments to be made.”

— Michelle Sartain, president, Marsh U.S. and Canada, encouraging federal lawmakers to reauthorize the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA). Marsh McLennan lost 358 employees in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. The program has been a model public-private partnership, said Sartain, who has worked at Marsh for over 28 years. She offered 17 pages of testimony covering TRIA’s history and features–and outlined how industries such as healthcare and higher education rely on TRIA.

Where’s The Beef?

“This law has nothing to do with protecting public health and safety and everything to do with protecting conventional agriculture from innovative out-of-state competition. That is not a legitimate use of government power.”

— Paul Sherman, a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit law firm representing UPSIDE Foods and Wildtype, cultivated meat companies that filed a lawsuit against Texas officials over a new law banning the sale of lab-grown meat in Texas for two years. During the Senate committee hearing on the bill, lawmakers expressed concerns that cultured meat will disrupt traditional family farms, as well as concerns over product labelling and safety.

Vax Attacks

“We don’t need to do any projections. We handle outbreaks all the time. So, there’s nothing special that we would need to do.”

— Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, when asked about studying the impacts of halting immunization requirements for children, on CNN’s State of the Union. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is pushing to make his state the first one to dismiss immunization requirements. Florida’s current plan would lift mandates on school vaccines for hepatitis B, chickenpox, Hib influenza, and pneumococcal diseases such as meningitis, according to the state’s health department.

Safety Snaps Stalled

“You have to be a little crazy to do this job.”

— Kellen Cloud, longtime employee at Green Mountain Flagging, a company that stations traffic controllers at construction sites across Vermont. Data shows more people are injured or killed in work zones today than a decade ago. A pilot program surveilling work zones using automated cameras was slated to begin July 1, 2025, but the Vermont Agency of Transportation leaders said no law enforcement agency has signed on to help out. While police officers typically park near construction sites with their cruisers’ lights flashing, they’re encouraged to remain at their posts rather than leave to chase down a speeder, several state officials said.

Post-disaster Scholastics

“People think, natural disaster–mental health. They don’t think about the academic component to it. You put that aside when you have a little kiddo crying because they don’t have a house to live in. You’re not going to say, ‘OK, snap out of it. We’ve got math to do.'”

— Carrie Dawes, health and wellness coordinator for Paradise Unified. After the Paradise, California, area was devastated by the 2018 Camp Fire, officials found continuing challenges in getting kids on track academically. After the fire, schools set academics aside and focused on mental health. Today, student testing shows that even once the immediate effects of the fire subsided, scores still lagged.

Seeking Federal Flood Funds

“I will continue to urge the Trump administration to approve the remainder of my request, and I will keep fighting to make sure Wisconsin receives every resource that is needed and available.”

— Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, who requested federal flood aid for residents in six counties, but Trump approved it for three. More than 1,500 Wisconsin residential structures were destroyed or damaged in August floods at a cost of more than $33 million, along with more than $43 million in public sector damage. Trump’s latest declarations approved public assistance for local governments and nonprofits in all affected states except Wisconsin, where assistance for individuals was approved.