Welcome to the District Sentinel Substack, in which we sift through mountains of information churned out each week by the federal government to bring you nuggets of news. This is the inaugural issue. Without further ado, let's dive right in.
More like “OSHIT”
If the official U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been horrendous (and it has been), the federal agency charged with enforcing workplace safety regulations is accurately representing the country. Last year, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) failed to prioritize oversight of the healthcare industry, according to a report issued by the Department of Labor inspector general, despite the fact that the industry accounted for 24 percent of all pandemic-related complaints lodged with OSHA between early February and late October (2,363 complaints, in nominal terms). And although 1,700 healthcare workers died of COVID-19 as of September, OSHA only conducted 497 coronavirus fatality inspections between February and late October, resulting in violations for 124 different establishments. While the healthcare industry should have received special attention, medical workers can take a crumb of solace from the fact that OSHA failed everyone: complaints to the regulator from all workers last year were up by 15 percent, while inspections plummeted by 50 percent.
Perhaps OSHA will turn things around with Donald Trump no longer at the helm of the federal government. The DOL inspector general issued four recommendations to OSHA, and the agency concurred with all of them, citing executive orders issued by President Biden as evidence that it's en route to improving performance, or at least trying to. One of the recommendations urged OSHA to consider emergency temporary standards: legally binding orders, which the agency hasn't issued since 1983. OSHA regulators have, instead, relied on issuing guidance, which, as the IG noted: “is not enforceable and employers cannot be required to comply.”
Housing Cliff Confirmed
The U.S. and state governments, at least, haven't totally botched COVID housing policy. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) confirmed last week what has already been reported: emergency bans on throwing people out of their homes have stopped millions of families from facing eviction and foreclosure during the pandemic. The CFPB found that, at the end of last year, 12 million households (not individuals) are in arrears on their housing payments. The cohort makes up some 10 percent of the entire U.S. population.
Those delinquent include some 3.2 million homeowners, 2.1 million of whom are behind on mortgage payments by at least 3 months. There were 427,000 such seriously delinquent borrowers at the end of 2019, the report noted. Meanwhile, the 8.8 million renters behind on payments to their landlords are disproportionately poor, and from communities of color, though 8.7 percent of all delinquent renters were from households making $75,000 or more. The CFPB warned that emergency protections for renters and mortgagees are set to expire soon, and that, as they do, “many households will face difficulties navigating significant payment arrearages or permanent income losses.”
The report contrasts sharply with Republican criticism of Democrats' $1.9 trillion COVID relief package. Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) said last month, in the words of a Fox News reporter, that the U.S. is “well past the point where our economy is collapsing. in fact [the] economy [is] growing rapidly…[the] last thing we need is massive trillion dollar universal spending bill.” Ten percent of all households facing an extremely precarious situation in the coming months suggests otherwise.
DHS: Not Racist on Paper
The Department of Homeland Security, like all federal agencies, is supposed to comply with civil rights laws: a fact that might make you say “lol.” The agency's record strongly suggests that this compliance only exists on paper; in some respects, quite literally. Last week, DHS officials asked for approval to continue using documentation ("Form 3095") distributed to grantees to prove that those receiving money from the agency are obeying federal civil rights statutes.
Intriguingly, DHS noted that it gives advice to grantees required to complete the form, which is a questionable practice given the agency's own less-than-stellar record on civil liberties. As last week's filing in the Federal Register notes, DHS “directly help[s] recipients address ... gaps and deficiencies by providing technical assistance on developing or improving policies and procedures to prevent discrimination and ensure accessibility.” Somehow, this practice doesn't seem to have made for great “Countering Violent Extremism” programs; local initiatives funded by DHS aimed at stopping radicalization, which appear to be based entirely on bogus science, and stereotyping, and have sewn distrust in targeted communities.
Last Friday, we submitted a FOIA request to DHS asking the agency for all records related to the filing of Form 3095 by CVE grantees, which are mostly local police departments. To listen to us discuss the matter on our podcast, District Sentinel Radio, and to support our FOIA work and all of our work, generally, subscribe to our Patreon for $5/month.
Want to send us tips? Get in touch with Sam Knight
Email: samueledwardsknight@gmail.com
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