logo
'A miracle': Lawmakers approve covering IVF treatment for state employees after tearful debate

'A miracle': Lawmakers approve covering IVF treatment for state employees after tearful debate

Yahoo06-03-2025

Several Utah representatives shared personal stories of struggling to conceive Wednesday during a tearful debate as the Legislature voted to authorize coverage for fertility treatments for state employees.
Freshman Rep. Jason Thompson, R-River Heights, was 'honored' to support SB242, which he called the 'most personal' bill of the session.
'For many couples, the journey to parenthood is natural and straightforward. However, for some — including my wife and I — it was not,' Thompson said, his voice breaking with emotion. 'Our struggle with infertility was emotionally devastating, causing immense distress, anxiety, doubt and a profound sense of incompleteness and failure.'
But thanks to in vitro fertilization, Thompson said he and his wife are now the 'proud parents of six children.'
'In vitro fertilization was not just a treatment, it was a miracle,' he said.
Utah has a pilot program to provide $4,000 for IVF and other fertility treatments for state employees, but under SB242, that would expand to cover all 'qualified assisted reproductive technology cycles.' Although IVF can cost up to $20,000 per procedure, fiscal analysts estimate the bill will cost taxpayers about $150,000 a year and raise insurance premiums for state employees by about 37 cents per member per month.
'This bill is great,' said Rep. Stephanie Gricius, R-Eagle Mountain, the bill's floor sponsor. 'It's going to help our state employees have the families they want, which is also going to make them happier, which we know leads to greater employee retention.'
The bill is sponsored by Sen. Calvin Musselman, R-West Haven.
Thompson wasn't the only lawmaker with a personal story to share about the miracle of IVF, and he wasn't the only one to grow emotional during debate.
'As someone who also is so grateful for this medical advancement so that I could have my little girl ... I am rising in support of this today,' said Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Herriman. 'We are a pro-family state, and we do want to make it possible for them to expand their home.'
'I've got three beautiful little nieces today because of this particular procedure,' added Rep. Ryan Wilcox, R-Ogden. 'If we are truly a pro-family state, then this one should be pretty easy.'
It was. SB242 passed unanimously Wednesday and will take effect July 1 if signed by Gov. Spencer Cox.
'For me, I don't ever want to stand in the way of two people and their ability to have a baby,' Gricius said. 'We want everybody to have as many as they want because that is the Utah way.'

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Trump aides want Texas to redraw its congressional maps to boost the GOP. What would that mean?
Trump aides want Texas to redraw its congressional maps to boost the GOP. What would that mean?

Yahoo

timean hour ago

  • Yahoo

Trump aides want Texas to redraw its congressional maps to boost the GOP. What would that mean?

This coverage is made possible through Votebeat, a nonpartisan news organization covering local election administration and voting access. Sign up for Votebeat Texas' free newsletters here. Republicans representing Texas in Congress are considering this week whether to push their state Legislature to take the unusual step of redrawing district lines to shore up the GOP's advantage in the U.S. House. But the contours of the plan, including whether Gov. Greg Abbott would call a special session of the Legislature to redraw the maps, remain largely uncertain. The idea is being driven by President Donald Trump's political advisers, who want to draw up new maps that would give Republicans a better chance to flip seats currently held by Democrats, according to two GOP congressional aides familiar with the matter. That proposal, which would involve shifting GOP voters from safely red districts into neighboring blue ones, is aimed at safeguarding Republicans' thin majority in Congress, where they control the lower chamber, 220-212. The redistricting proposal, and the Trump team's role in pushing it, was first reported by The New York Times Monday. Without a Republican majority in Congress, Trump's legislative agenda would likely stall, and the president could face investigations from newly empowered Democratic committee chairs intent on scrutinizing the White House. Here's what we know about the plan so far: On Capitol Hill, members of the Texas GOP delegation huddled Monday night to discuss the prospect of reshaping their districts. Most of the 25-member group expressed reluctance about the idea, citing concerns about jeopardizing their districts in next year's midterms if the new maps overextended the GOP's advantage, according to the two GOP aides, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private deliberations. Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Lubbock, was skeptical of the idea. 'We just recently worked on the new maps,' Arrington told The Texas Tribune. To reopen the process, he said, 'there'd have to be a significant benefit to our state.' The delegation has yet to be presented with mockups of new maps, two aides said. Each state's political maps must be redrawn once a decade, after each round of the U.S. census, to account for population growth and ensure every congressional and legislative district has roughly the same number of people. Texas lawmakers last overhauled their district lines in 2021. There's no federal law that prohibits states from redrawing district maps midcycle, said Justin Levitt, an election law professor at Loyola Marymount University and a former deputy assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice's civil rights division. Laws around the timing to redraw congressional and state district maps vary by state. In Texas, the state constitution doesn't specify timing, so the redrawing of maps is left to the discretion of the governor and the Legislature. Lawmakers gaveled out of their 140-day regular session last week, meaning they would need to be called back for a special session to change the state's political maps. Abbott has the sole authority to order overtime sessions and decide what lawmakers are allowed to consider. A trial is underway in El Paso in a long-running challenge to the state legislative and congressional district maps Texas drew after the 2020 U.S. Census. If Texas redraws its congressional maps, state officials would then ask the court to toss the claims challenging those districts 'that no longer exist,' Levitt said. The portion of the case over the state legislative district maps would continue. If the judge agrees, then both parties would have to file new legal claims for the updated maps. It isn't clear how much maps could change, but voters could find themselves in new districts, and Levitt said redrawing the lines in the middle of the redistricting cycle is a bad idea. 'If the people of Texas think that their representatives have done a bad job, then when the [district] lines change, they're not voting on those representatives anymore,' Levitt said. 'New people are voting on those representatives.' The National Democratic Redistricting Committee, Democrats' national arm for contesting state GOP mapmaking, said the proposal to expand Republicans' stronghold in Texas was 'yet another example of Trump trying to suppress votes in order to hold onto power.' 'Texas's congressional map is already being sued for violating the Voting Rights Act because it diminishes the voting power of the state's fast-growing Latino population,' John Bisognano, president of the NDRC said. 'To draw an even more extreme gerrymander would only assure that the barrage of legal challenges against Texas will continue.' When Republicans in charge of the Legislature redrew the district lines after the 2020 census, they focused on reinforcing their political support in districts already controlled by the GOP. This redistricting proposal would likely take a different approach. As things stand, Republicans hold 25 of the state's 38 congressional seats. Democrats hold 12 seats and are expected to regain control of Texas' one vacant seat in a special election this fall. Most of Texas' GOP-controlled districts lean heavily Republican: In last year's election, 24 of those 25 seats were carried by a Republican victor who received at least 60% of the vote or ran unopposed. The exception was U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Edinburg, who captured 57% of the vote and won by a comfortable 14-point margin. With little competition to speak of, The Times reported, Trump's political advisers believe at least some of those districts could bear the loss of GOP voters who would be reshuffled into neighboring, Democratic-held districts — giving Republican hopefuls a better chance to flip those seats from blue to red. The party in control of the White House frequently loses seats during midterm cycles, and Trump's team is likely looking to offset potential GOP losses in other states and improve the odds of holding on to a narrow House majority. Incumbent Republicans, though, don't love the idea of sacrificing a comfortable race in a safe district for the possibility of picking up a few seats, according to GOP aides. In 2003, after Texas Republicans initially left it up to the courts to draw new lines following the 2000 census, then-U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a Sugar Land Republican, embarked instead on a bold course of action to consolidate GOP power in the state. He, along with his Republican allies, redrew the lines as the opening salvo to a multistate redistricting plan aimed at accumulating power for his party in states across the country. Enraged by the power play, Democrats fled the state, depriving the Texas House of the quorum it needed to function. The rebels eventually relented under threat of arrest, a rare power in the Texas Constitution used to compel absent members back to return to Austin when the Legislature is in session. The lines were then redrawn, cementing the GOP majority the delegation has enjoyed in Washington for the past two decades. However, what's at play this time is different than in the early 2000s, when Republicans had a newfound majority in the Legislature and had a number of vulnerable Democratic incumbents they could pick off. Now, Republicans have been entrenched in the majority for decades and will have to answer the question of whether there's really more to gain, said Kareem Crayton, the vice president of the Brennan Center for Justice's Washington office. 'That's the tradeoff. You can do that too much so that you actually make them so competitive that the other side wins,' Crayton said. 'That's always a danger.' Texas Republicans are planning to reconvene Thursday to continue discussing the plan, according to Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Irving, and Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Houston, who said they will attend the meeting. Members of Trump's political team are also expected to attend, according to Hunt and two GOP congressional aides familiar with the matter. Natalia Contreras is a reporter for Votebeat in partnership with the Texas Tribune. She's based in Corpus Christi. Contact Natalia at ncontreras@ Disclosure: New York Times has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. Big news: 20 more speakers join the TribFest lineup! New additions include Margaret Spellings, former U.S. secretary of education and CEO of the Bipartisan Policy Center; Michael Curry, former presiding bishop and primate of The Episcopal Church; Beto O'Rourke, former U.S. Representative, D-El Paso; Joe Lonsdale, entrepreneur, founder and managing partner at 8VC; and Katie Phang, journalist and trial lawyer. Get tickets. TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.

Big Beautiful Bill would ban regulating AI
Big Beautiful Bill would ban regulating AI

Boston Globe

time3 hours ago

  • Boston Globe

Big Beautiful Bill would ban regulating AI

How did they give away the future of American workers to tech executives? Buried in President Trump's Advertisement Iin Massachusetts, the Republicans' ban would block the State House from considering legislation that would safeguard our fundamental rights. Labor unions, led by the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, and community members have come together to urge the Legislature to pass an act fostering artificial intelligence responsibility, known as the FAIR Act. Advertisement The bill would establish needed guardrails around the use of AI and similar technologies by employers and in the workplace. It would restrict the use of AI-driven worker surveillance tools, many of which are already being used, and prevent employers from relying solely on automatic decision-making systems in hiring, firing, or promotion. With workers increasingly being asked to incorporate AI into their everyday work, this legislation would also establish strong anti-retaliation protections and worker autonomy provisions. If AI tools are to be used for good, we need meaningful human oversight and worker input at every step of their implementation. Preventing states like Massachusetts from considering policy like the FAIR Act would halt community-based momentum and leave workers and their families exposed to the unchecked harms of AI. This kind of giveaway for tech billionaires is the exact opposite of what Americans want from Congress. are wary of how US companies develop and use AI. But congressional Republicans are not listening to workers. Instead, they follow Elon Musk and the other Big Tech executives who want to make Washington, D.C. the next Silicon Valley and hope you won't notice the single section in Trump's bill that lines their pockets and strips you of democracy until 2035. Advertisement Trump urged House Republicans to pass the bill with the AI ban in it. But there is one more hurdle to the president's agenda ahead — the Senate. Senators must now decide whether they will stand with the interests of workers and everyday people or the interests of Big Tech billionaires. The line between tech innovation and tech domination will be drawn not in Washington, but in the workplaces, schools, and sectors where AI transforms our lives, for good and bad. It is the job of state and local representatives to adapt to these changes and pass regulations that make sense for their communities — if only Republicans don't stifle democracy first.

Texas Set To Roll Out Country's Biggest School Choice Initiative
Texas Set To Roll Out Country's Biggest School Choice Initiative

Yahoo

time4 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Texas Set To Roll Out Country's Biggest School Choice Initiative

(Texas Scorecard) – After decades of campaigning by education reform advocates, Texas is set to enact the nation's largest education savings account program, opening new options for up to 100,000 students. The state will spend the next year preparing for the program's 2026-2027 launch. Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 2, which creates the ESA program, into law on May 3. An ESA allots funds to parents for use toward a range of educational expenses, including private school tuition, tutoring, and online learning. The program, which has been allocated $1 billion by the Legislature, will support up to 100,000 students, making it the largest launch of a universal school choice program in the nation, according to the governor. Most students will receive $10,000. However, special needs students will receive $11,500, and homeschool students are eligible for $2,000. The ESA program will be managed by the Texas comptroller. The comptroller will maintain a list of pre-approved vendors and educational providers, but participating families will also be able to request approval for other vendors and educational providers to suit their needs. A specific provision in the legislation dictates that no rule or action may prohibit or restrict religious or institutional values when distributing funds. In addition, it prevents limitations on participating parents when 'determining the methods or curriculum to educate students.' If the program is not maxed out the first year, a weighted lottery will determine who is next in line to receive funding. Once the program is rolled out, students will be considered in the following order: Siblings of currently participating students All other students Former students who have previously been enrolled in the program but have since stopped for a period of time The program further prioritizes students based on household income and disability status: Households 500 percent below the federal poverty line whose participating child has a disability Households 200 percent below the poverty line, which are expected to be the largest qualifying group Households 200 percent above the poverty line Households 500 percent above the poverty line No more than 20 percent of the funding will go towards the latter priority group, though it's unlikely to reach that amount. The comptroller's office will provide further details on the application process in 2026. In addition to school choice, lawmakers also passed House Bill 2, which covers public school finance. The total K-12 education funding for the 2026–2027 biennium is about $80 billion out of a $338 billion state budget. HB 2 increases the basic allotment per student from $6,160 to $6,215, which districts can use to meet a variety of needs, while the rest of the funding is earmarked to expand teacher incentives and create more grant funding. However, additional oversight of public education was also a priority of lawmakers. Senate Bill 12 increases parental control and oversight in K-12 education, limits DEI-related activities, and enhances transparency and accountability in Texas schools. It also bans instruction or programming regarding gender identity and sexual orientation.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store