Civil Rights
A delegation of congressional members led by Hispanic Caucus chair Joaquin Castro and Rep.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted Wednesday to enact new protections against age discrimination in the workplace, approving a bill that supporters say will give older workers the same safeguards other protected groups enjoy.
"I've heard from workers, many in the technology industry, who believe they have been dismissed or denied employment because of their age," Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Beaverton, said on the House floor Wednesday.
Representative Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) talked about House legislation designed to protect older Americans from job discrimination.
"Under the 41-year-old law, it's very, very challenging for pregnant women to bring a claim and to prevail to get the support and relief that they need," said Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici, a Democrat from Oregon. She and Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler, a Republican from Washington are co-sponsors of a new bill, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, that would make it easier for women to get temporary accommodations during their pregnancies.
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus has condemned the Trump Administration for its plans to send Mexican asylum seekers to Guatemala as part of a bilateral agreement between the Department of Homeland Security and the Guatemalan Government.
Meanwhile, Castro and Congressman Filemon Vela of Brownsville have announced they will lead a congressional delegation to Brownsville and Matamoros to investigate the impacts of the Trump Administration's Remain in Mexico policy and the use of tent court facilities to adjudicate Remain in Mexico asylum cases.
On Jan. 1, Oregon's law turned 10 years old. For a decade, it has required state schools to interview at least one qualified minority candidate for all head coach and athletic director openings. The result has been historic gains in diversity hiring.
The decades-long quest of Chinook tribal members to regain federal recognition gets another airing in court on Monday. A U.S. District Court judge is scheduled to hear oral arguments on cross-claims for summary judgment in a lawsuit brought by the tribe against the Department of the Interior.
When two students hung a banner reading "Build A Wall" in the cafeteria at a school that's about half Hispanic or Latino, it predictably set off a firestorm.
The banner was hung for just a few minutes on May 18, 2016, at Forest Grove High School before it was taken down. The next morning, hundreds of Forest Grove High students walke out of class in protest, with many of them marching all the way from campus to the Forest Grove School District administration building on Main Street.
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the Columbia River In-Lieu and Treaty Fishing Access Sites Improvement Act, sending it to the president's desk to be signed into law.
Bonamici said she was grateful that the House passed the legislation to address historical injustices and honor the fishing treaty rights of four Columbia River Tribes.