Month: August 2023

By Adam Andrzejewski of OpenTheBooks substack

California governor Newsom’s administration is funneling millions of taxpayer dollars into a nonprofit promoting “neogenders” like foxgender and autismgender and facilitating secret gender transitions for students in his state and across the country.

It’s no longer only “he” and “she” or “man” and “woman” in the California public schools. And if Gavin Newsom gets his way, it’s coming to your school too.

The California Department of Public Health is in partnership with the California-based Gender Spectrum organization through a nine-year grant to “conduct rigorous evaluation” of Gender Spectrum’s “professional development programs.”

The organization’s undergirding ideology is one of radical “liberation” from the “gender binary,” encouraging youth to invent their own “genders,” which parents are urged to “affirm.”

However, their “Resources” include a so-called “Gender Support Plan,” which explicitly excludes a child’s parents at the child’s request. Some initiatives start with kids in kindergarten.

In the hours before we published, today, Gender Spectrum’s website became no longer accessible and they didn’t respond to multiple comment requests.

Millions In Taxpayer Dollars

Gender Spectrum will collect $2,340,000 from the California Department of Public Health, Office of Health Equity for the California Reducing Disparities Project. Here’s how the payments break down:

Started in the Jerry Brown era when Newsom was lieutenant governor, the grant originally ran from 2017-2022. However, in March 2022, the Newsom administration more than doubled the annual funding and gave Gender Spectrum an extension until June 2026. In 2022 the California Department of Health gave the organization $355,260 as a part of these payments, up from $160,958 in 2021.

The grant gives financial and technical assistance to two Gender Spectrum professional development programs: The Foundations of Gender Inclusive Schools Training and The Gender Spectrum Inclusive Schools Network. The programs impart, among other items “concrete strategies for applying the lens of gender diversity to school practices.”

The plan is to continue to bring these programs to more schools.

Our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com found state payments to Gender Spectrum after we broke open the California state checkbook for the first time in history last year.

How To Use Neopronouns

Our report uses web resources found on Gender Spectrum’s website, and direct quotes and slides from the Gender Spectrum Family Conference 2022, which featured the organization’s executives as presenters and facilitators.

One presentation covered the intricacies of “neoidentities.”

Neogenders, or neoidentities, are words other than “man” and “woman” which individuals use to describe their gender. Neogenders may “describe gender as a personal, aesthetic, synesthetic, or head-space oriented experience.” A neogender may have a corresponding neopronoun other than “he” and “her.”

For example, someone could identify as “foxgender” and use the “foxself” pronoun. This does not necessarily mean the person believes he or she is a fox, but rather the person identifies with “aspects of a fox, whether that’s their appearance, their personality, or how they’re viewed in society.”

If one were to use the foxself pronouns, one could say “Fox said fox would rather do it foxself.” Instead of “She said she would rather do it herself.”

There are an unlimited number of genders one can have, so if an adult does not understand a child’s chosen neogender right away, that is understandable. In fact, youth don’t even have to properly understand their own neogenders, because they are on a “gender journey” that will likely change over time.

Keeping It Secret – Parents Don’t Need To Know

Gender Spectrum’s mission appears to drive a wedge between children and their parents.

Parents are told they should unreservedly “affirm” their child’s neogender. And if parents aren’t affirming, they can expect to be cut out of this aspect of their child’s social and psychological development entirely.

As Naomi Cruz, Manager of Family and Educational Programming at Gender Spectrum, says:

“If parents are not supportive of neogender identities and the youth is feeling really torn because of that, I definitely recommend supporting that youth in the ways that you can, so definitely making sure to use this youth’s pronouns when it’s safe to. The youth may request, obviously, ‘don’t use these pronouns around my parents,’ but when you two are alone or in spaces where their parents are not there, or the youth has indicated that it’s safe, making sure to use those neopronouns or making sure to refer to them in ways that make them feel gender affirmed.”

In other words, as soon as parents leave the room, a teacher or other adult can start referring to their child as “fox,” “rock,” “moon,” or whatever else the child fancies. It’s a little secret they don’t have to share with parents.

With One Exception

If a child chooses a gender that encompasses a racial, ethnic, religious, or disability group they are not a part of, the parent must direct the child to a different neogender. For example, only autistic people are allowed to use “autigender” or “autismgender.” Cruz provides a script for parents to correct their children in these cases:

“Yes, I understand that this term means something to you, but perhaps we can create another term or another pronoun that also has a meaning to you, but isn’t specific to a certain racial, ethnic, or other group where there are closed identities and pronouns.”

Cruz did not mention if the parent should redirect the child back to its own sex (or species), but we assume this action would not be considered “affirming.”

Gender Support Plans

Gender Support Plans are essentially tools to help administrators facilitate the social transition of a child’s gender while at school.

Gender Spectrum’s six-page document covers which bathrooms, locker rooms and facilities the student will be using, which name they will go by, and the “go-to adults” on campus.

Parental knowledge of their child’s gender plan is entirely up to the child, whether or not parents would be supportive of such a transition.

The plan even includes strategies for keeping parents in the dark about their child’s “gender identity.” Such plans have been found in schools across the country.

During the Gender Spectrum Family Conference in October 2022, Carla Pena, Director of Training, stated that this is a part of the training administrators and educators receive through Gender Spectrum’s programs:

“We also give this training to school educators and administrators who are working with trans and gender expansive kids, and it’s not always the case that caregivers are supportive of their child’s gender, their gender journey, in that case, if parents are not supportive or if the child is not out, that’s not necessarily someone who will be a part of the gender support team.”

Secret school gender transitions have been an organizational priority for a long time. As reported in the Washington Examiner, in 2015 Gender Spectrum co-authored a report titled “Schools in Transition,” which was also sponsored by the National Education Association, one of America’s biggest teachers’ unions.

What seemed like a radical notion then has effectively permeated schools nationwide, boosted by partnerships at the state and national level.

A Federal Partnership Too

The state of California isn’t the only institution boosting the Gender Spectrum’s work; the organization consulted on the National Sex Education Standards, cited by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control for use in schools nationwide.

The standards were published in 2021 and included goals like:

• By 2nd grade define gender identity
• By 5th grade children should be able to describe the role of puberty blockers on those who identify as transgender. Also, fifth graders should differentiate between sexual orientation and gender identity and explain that gender expression and gender identity exist along a spectrum
• By 8th grade define anal sex and describe “pregnancy options” including abortion.

The CDC’s website says of this guidance:

“The standards are designed to help schools focus on what is most essential for students to learn by the end of a grade level or grade span and can be used to create lessons and curricula with aligned learning objectives.”

Gender Spectrum’s Kim Westheimer was listed as one of the consultants on the National Sex Education Standards. Westheimer also gave a talk at the 2022 Family Conference, stating that exposing children to different ideas of gender encourages them to take on different gender identities:

“Things like social media and YouTube are giving young people more permission to explore their identity and maybe to try on new identities and decide if those are right for them or not. I would say that’s a good thing, not a bad thing, and that kids should be supported in that.”

The CDC has recommended Gender Spectrum resources in at least three other agency documents or webpages: LGBTQ Inclusivity In Schools: A Self-Assessment Tool; Dating Matters: Strategies to Promote Healthy Teen Relationships; Creating Safe Schools for LGBTQ+ Youth.

Gender Spectrum has not received federal contract or grant funding, but has received $297,111 in federal small business Covid-19 loans. Their first Paycheck Protection Program $153,110 loan in April 2020 was forgiven. On February 26, 2021, the organization took a $145,833 PPP loan and the current status is undetermined.

The organization has partnered with other national groups like National Association of Secondary School Principals, the National PTA, the American School Counselors Association, and the School Superintendents Association.

SUMMARY

Gender Spectrum openly brags about the organization’s national, and even international impact, reaching youth from Switzerland to Singapore.

The half a million dollars in funding from the state of California between 2021 and 2022 (and $2,340,000  by 2026) will go a long way with Gender Spectrum. Indeed, within the California Department of Public Health’s Request for Proposals for the grant Gender Spectrum won is a stipulation for the organization to “increas[e] its current project scale to allow for effective evaluation.”

Along with evaluating the program for supposed “effectiveness” the CDPH stated:

“secondary program goals include the development of infrastructure and business practices to expand and improve existing efforts in order to provide quality mental health services to more at-need community members.”

If California school districts push back, then the California Attorney General sues.

On August 28 California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a lawsuit against the Chino Valley Unified School District in California to halt the district’s mandatory gender identity disclosure policy. The policy would inform parents if a child asks to use a different name or pronoun in school, a policy which Bonta says is “wrongfully and unconstitutionally discriminating against and violating the privacy rights of LGBTQ+ students.” 

Gavin Newsom stated in one of his wife’s documentaries (also shown in schools),

“At the end of the day a budget is a set of values. Budget reflects your values.”

California voters and taxpayers should consider how this spending reflects their own values and parents nationwide should be alert to how Newsom’s values are being exported to their children’s schools.

NOTE: We reached out for comment, context, and background to Gender Spectrum, the California Department of Public Health, and Gov. Newsom’s office. None responded by publication. If they do respond, we’ll do our best to update the piece in real time.

North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un has blasted the US, Japan and South Korea for continuing to hold joint war games in waters off the Korean Peninsula. He has warned during official celebrations marking the formation of the DPRK’s navy that US actions in the region have become more “frantic” and thus could unleash nuclear war.

“The US imperialists are getting more frantic than ever before in the joint naval military exercises with their vassal forces in the waters around [North Korea],” he said during a Tuesday address before naval officers. And on Wednesday it’s being newly reported that—

N.KOREA LAUNCHES BALLISTIC MISSILE INTO EAST SEA: S.KOREA JCS

He added that this is while the US is “putting the deployment of reinforced nuclear strategic assets in the waters around the Korean Peninsula on a permanent basis.”

The reference is to the fact that the US Navy this summer docked its nuclear-armed submarine USS Kentucky in South Korea. The Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine made port call at the coastal city of Busan in July, a first which hasn’t happened in decades.

As we reported earlier this week, Kim has said he is authorizing the navy “expanded use of tactical nuclear weapons”. He spelled out that, “From now on, KPA’s Navy will become a part of the national nuclear deterrence force, tasked with strategic missions,” according to KCNA.

Kim’s heightened nuclear rhetoric is directly related to the new trilateral agreement between Tokyo, Seoul and Washington, inked this month at Camp David – which also assures further military drills.

In fresh statements, the North Korean leader referred to the trio as “gang bosses”…

The gang bosses of the US, Japan and the ‘Republic of Korea’ were closeted with each other, where they announced that they would conduct on a regular basis the tripartite joint military exercises under different codenames, and set about its implementation.

He then stated this increases the chances of nuclear war breaking out…

“Owing to the reckless confrontational moves of the US and other hostile forces, the waters off the Korean Peninsula have been reduced into the world’s biggest war hardware concentration spot, the most unstable waters with the danger of a nuclear war,” he asserted.

The White House has meanwhile stated that it remains open to dialogue with Pyongyang, and wants a nuclear-free peninsula, yet all the while it has sent a nuclear-armed sub there – which doesn’t bode well for any near future peace talks, which haven’t happened since the Trump administration.

Authored by Philip Wegmann via RealClear Wire,

Republicans on the House Oversight Committee have requested that the National Archives turn over all documents and flight manifests regarding trips that Hunter Biden took on Air Force Two, as well as Marine Two, during his father’s time as vice president.

It is the latest in the ongoing probe of how the younger Biden made millions of dollars overseas and whether his father, the current president, improperly benefited from those dealings. For months, Republicans have searched for a connection to tie the two men together.

The White House has alternately insisted that President Biden never discussed business with his son and also that he was never in a business relationship with him. And there is not yet evidence that the president either profited from Hunter Biden’s overseas business activity or took actions in his official capacity because they would benefit the Bidens.

But Oversight Chairman James Comer believes he may soon find a link: flight manifests.

“Devon Archer, a longtime Biden family associate, has stated it is ‘categorically false’ that Joe Biden played no role in his son’s foreign business dealings,” Comer wrote in a Wednesday letter to the Archives obtained early by RealClearPolitics.

🚨JOE ABUSED VP PRIVILEGE🚨

Recent reporting indicates that, as VP, Joe Biden abused Air Force Two by allowing his son Hunter to tag along to AT LEAST 15 COUNTRIES to sell “The Brand” to enrich the Biden family. Hunter would regularly schedule business meetings while traveling… pic.twitter.com/eZl6HA07G4

— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) August 30, 2023

“Flights on Air Force Two around the world to seal business deals,” he said, “are evidence of that role.”

Throughout his father’s time as vice president, Hunter Biden often tagged along on domestic and international flights. A Fox News report cited in Comer’s letter found that he traveled to at least 15 different countries during that time. After founding the consulting firm Rosemont Seneca Partners, he flew with his father on Air Force Two to Africa, Asia, Canada, Europe, and Mexico.

“I can catch a ride with him,” Hunter Biden wrote a business associate who was reportedly a foreign agent ahead of an official trip to Belgium and Spain in April of 2010, according to emails contained on the laptop that the president’s son abandoned at a repair shop.

Flying with his father was so frequent that Hunter Biden often informed staff to make room for him on Air Force Two at the last minute. “Plan on me being in plane,” he wrote Kathy Chung, a former aide to the vice president, less than 12 hours before a 2012 cross-country flight to California.

Family members of presidents and vice presidents often tag along during official travel, but it is rare that those next of kin are also employed as international business consultants – a fact that Obama administration officials reportedly worried would invite questions that Hunter Biden was “leveraging access for his benefit.”

One trip was of particular concern to Democrats in 2013 – and now to Republicans in 2023.

When the vice president stepped off Air Force Two onto a Beijing tarmac, he waved to the photographers. His son was by his side that year, dressed in a black overcoat. Hunter Biden had asked his father if he could travel with him during a state visit to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The vice president agreed, and Hunter Biden used the trip to meet with representatives from BHR Partners, a private investment firm controlled by the Bank of China.

On the ground in Beijing, Hunter Biden arranged for his father to meet Jonathan Li, who ran a Chinese private equity fund called Bohai Capital. After the vice president departed, they reportedly had a meeting. He later told the New Yorker, who first reported the incident, he couldn’t understand the fuss over the meeting.

“How do I go to Beijing, halfway around the world,” Hunter Biden told the magazine of his meeting with his Chinese business associates, “and not see them for a cup of coffee?”

Republicans don’t find the foreign travel on government jets, and subsequent private business, so innocent. The Oversight Committee points to that travel as an obvious abuse.

“Then-Vice President Biden’s misuse of Air Force Two and Marine Two is indicative of yet another way in which the President has abused his various offices of public trust and wasted taxpayer money to benefit his family’s enterprise, which consisted of nothing more than access to Joe Biden himself,” Comer wrote in the letter.

Oversight wants the National Archives to pass along “all documents and communications” regarding Hunter Biden’s travel on Air Force Two and Marine Two as well as “all Air Force Two and Marine Two manifests.”

They are also seeking any records related to the president’s business associates, namely Devon Archer, who previously testified before Congress; Eric Schwerin, who was frequently admitted into the Obama White House; and Jeffrey Cooper, who reportedly handled the Biden family finances.

Unlike Hunter Biden, however, there aren’t any public records of those individuals flying with the former vice president.

Curiously, the committee is also requesting documents “referring to or relating to any security incidents on Air Force Two or Marine Two” during Biden’s time as vice president.

“The walls are closing in on the Biden Family due to consistent and diligent efforts by House Republicans who’ve followed the money, conducted meticulous interviews and hearings, and uncovered undeniable corruption,” said Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, who co-signed the letter with Comer, in a statement.

“The American people deserve to know how much their former Vice President and current President abused his power to shake down foreign governments and enrich his family to the tune of millions of dollars,” he added.

Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Brownstone Institute,

National Public Radio was in a frenzy this morning but it felt like the movie Groundhog Day: they were spreading tremendous alarm about the rise of Covid cases.

We have to stop the spread, the announcer said, and that’s why masks are coming back to classrooms.

However, they added, relief is on the way in the form of a new vaccine. 

Rinse, repeat – as the shampoo bottles say. 

This line of thinking – stop the spread to reduce strain on hospitals, mask up, and so on – is being echoed by all major media organs. Leading the way is of course the New York Times. 

I’m a bit superstitious about stories in the New York Times designed to drum up disease panic.

It was February 28, 2020, when this paper threw out one hundred years of editorial policy on infectious disease to counsel panic over calm, thus paving the way for what would come two weeks later: the astonishing wreckage of Covid lockdowns and everything that entailed. 

There was a reason the Times was chosen to be the first media outlet to take this line on Covid. It would be exceedingly naive to think that this was driven by an independent editorial judgment. Someone likely put them up to it. 

Regardless, I knew that day that the darkness was falling, that this was likely the beginning of a grand experiment in public health that would not only fail to achieve its aims but also wreck American liberty and prosperity. After all, sectors of the ruling class had been gaming pandemics for twenty years. They needed to justify the endless hours and billions put into the grand project of pandemic planning. 

The result was a calamity without precedent.

We are nowhere near recovered. Substantial numbers of people today fear lockdowns far more than Covid, and for very good reasons. It was the crisis of our lives. 

Even more striking, we’ve yet to have a reckoning. The people in charge today are the same people who did this or their direct successors. There have been no apologies but rather quite the reverse. They worked hard to codify lockdowns as the preferred policy for pandemics, and we have every reason to suspect that they will repeat the experience if they can get away with it. 

That’s why my heart jumped a beat at the above-the-fold headline in the Times yesterday morning. 

This happens at the same time we are getting more reports of new mask mandates, school closures, and the rollout of a new Covid vaccine invented by the usual suspects that President Biden has personally suggested that every American take. From all appearances, it does seem like another lockdown could be coming, or perhaps they are just trying to scare us into the reminder that they can do it if they want to. 

Just this morning, the White House spokesman took to the lectern to warn Americans about ominous subvariant BA.2.86, not to be confused with all the other subvariants being tracked in a pseudoscientific track-and-trace operation being run by the usual suspects. 

The Washington Post was chosen to announce the terror behind this one.

“While only about a dozen cases of the new BA.2.86 variant have been reported worldwide – including three in the United States – experts say this variant requires intense monitoring and vigilance that many of its predecessors did not. That’s because it has even greater potential to escape the antibodies that protect people from getting sick, even if you’ve recently been infected or vaccinated.”

You will notice that BA.2.86 is not on the current list. That only means it could be the worst yet, whatever that means. 

It will surely be added. And no doubt every commentator on TV in the coming months will have great expertise with all this coded gibberish, spouting off these letters and numbers like they are known friends while the rest of us stare at our screen in amazement at the flashy science these experts are tossing around. 

Our pro-lockdown friend and Pfizer board member Scott Gottlieb is already at it, letting all these subvariant names roll off his tongue on CNN and thus display his astonishing mastery over the microbial kingdom. . 

This could be the way in which Lockdown 2.0 will be different from 1.0. The last time, the main spokespeople like Deborah Birx spoke to us like children to make sure we got the message. The downside of that approach is that it invites regular people to comment on the wisdom of lockdowns. 

The next time around, they will be much more sciency about it, with all this talk of subvariants, R-naughts, hospitalization rates, wastewater examinations, and so on, and do so in ways that intimidate regular people into thinking our opinions cannot possibly matter much. 

Let’s take a closer look at this New York Times piece. 

“But for Americans who have become accustomed to feeling that the nation has moved beyond Covid,” the newspaper says, “the current wave could be a rude reminder that the emerging New Normal is not a world without the virus.”

Are we really continuing to imagine the goal of eradication still? That seemed to be the purpose of the lockdowns in the first place, if there was any goal at all. It’s utterly impossible to create a world in which there are no viruses. And actually such a world would be stunningly dangerous, for it is the presence of pathogens that themselves train the immune system in the art of resistance, same as exercise makes the body more healthy. 

Sadly, this was the great taboo subject for three years, and, as a result, there was almost no talk of natural immunity during the last Covid mania. And there has been little to no reckoning since those days about the meaning of endemicity, the failure to recommend repurposed drugs as therapeutics, and the positive contribution of widespread exposure to creating the public health benefit of stronger immune systems. All of these topics were denounced and then censored. Oddly, they still are. 

To this day, public health officials continue to pretend that they did everything right. Oh sure, they could have locked down earlier, forced masks earlier, and imposed vaccine mandates with much more ferocity. So far as they are concerned, this was their only failing. And they have no intention of making those supposed mistakes again. 

In my own circles, everyone believes that they will never get away with it all again simply because there is too much resistance. I’m not so optimistic actually. Let’s say that 20 percent of the population is still convinced of the entire Covid religion. These people working with media and Big Tech, combined with daily propaganda from Covid, might be enough to overcome a large portion of the public that swears they will not comply this time. 

Honestly, I never believed they would get away with it the first time. How in the world do you convince Catholic Bishops to demand the closure of Churches on Easter under the excuse of the widespread circulation of a virus with a 99-plus percent survival rate in which the verified deaths from Covid alone is centered on a population older than life expectancy itself? I never could have imagined such a thing would be possible. 

But the desire on the part of aspirational professionals – in academia, industry, and religion – to stay out of trouble and continue to ascend the ranks is so powerful as to cause multitudes to bury their best instincts for what they imagine will be a temporary but prudent compliance. I do not for a moment believe that bravery on the level of the Amish or the Hasidim is widespread enough in the population to create a mass resistance movement. 

“Some institutions have responded to the recent increase in Covid infections by reinstating pandemic-era rules,” writes the Times.

Then the article proceeds to celebrate all the cases of pandemic restrictions, without a hint that these didn’t work last time and won’t work this time either. Again, there has been no reckoning, which only increases the likelihood of a new round of lockdowns. 

Lockdowns were the most successful state/corporate policy in world history for convincing the population to give up volition, liberty, and money to the biomedical cartels and all its associated parts. 

Every government benefitted and so did all the biggest companies, particularly the digital ones that had been working for a leg up and a big win from the great reset. Something that is this monstrously successful for them becomes a model for the future, which they try and try until the population gets utterly and completely sick of it, as they did with the religious wars of old. 

Until that day comes, lockdowns will be an ever present threat. 

Another day, another disappointing set of macro data that curb-stomps the ‘soft-landing’ narrative as US Macro Surprise Index just suffered its biggest 9-day decline since May 2022…

Source: Bloomberg

Specifically, the suddenly disappointing labor market data has sent rate-change expectations plunging below pre-Powell-Jackson-Hole levels…

Source: Bloomberg

The market is now pricing in 110bps of rate-cuts in 2024…

Source: Bloomberg

Treasury yields had a volatile day – swinging from up around 4bps to down around 6bps, as ADP disappointed (and GDP didn’t help). By the close, a rather unusual event occurred with the entire curve ending practically unchanged on the day…

Source: Bloomberg

The 2Y Yield tumbled intraday to basically unchanged on the month, back into the range of the early payrolls and CPI moves…

Source: Bloomberg

The lower yields and dovish drift in STIRs sent long-duration stocks higher. Nasdaq led the day (Dow lagged but was still green). NOTE there was quite a oump and dump after the cash open but the pain trade is higher for now…

For context, this recent rebound has the S&P and Nasdaq back up to only being down around 2% on the month. Small Caps are still down 5%…

Source: Bloomberg

‘Most shorted’ stocks saw a 4th day in a row with an opening squeeze push, but again with little follow-through…

Source: Bloomberg

NVDA extended its bounce, but was unable to breach $500 – its Call Wall – and reversed at that resistance…

The dollar slipped lower once again, back to two week lows, but still up nicely

Source: Bloomberg

Bitcoin gave back some of yesterday’s SEC-GBTC win gains, but found support around $27,000…

Source: Bloomberg

Gold continues its charge back towards unchanged on the month, nearing $1950 (spot) intraday today…

Source: Bloomberg

Oil prices ended higher today, with WTI tagging $82 intraday. Another slam-down attempt struck shortly after the inventory data showed crude stocks at their lowest since Dec 2022…

Finally, as Bloomberg’s Simon White notes, stocks’ rally in response to bad economic news might be short lived as there is plenty of room to catch down to burgeoning recession risks…

Source: Bloomberg

With low volatility, more instability, and pricing that is not expectant of a near-term recession, risks are mounting for equities.

A new rule proposed by the Department of Labor would mean that millions of workers would be eligible for overtime pay if they work more than 40 hours per week.

In a Wednesday statement, the labor department proposed bumping the annual salary threshold from the current $35,568 per year set by the Trump administration to around $55,000 under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Those who are salaried, make over $55k (est.), or work in a “bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity” aren’t eligible for the time-and-a-half rate for working more than 40 hours per week, Bloomberg reports.

The change will benefit an additional 3.6 million or so workers according to the DOL. The department also proposes to auto-adjust this threshold every three years based on current earnings data.

That said, the proposal could have a domino effect on hiring and operational decisions within companies. Smaller businesses operating with slim margins might have to cut back on hiring, reduce hours, or even consider layoffs to offset the increased labor costs. Companies might also resort to legal loopholes or reclassify roles to skirt around these labor mandates, creating a whole new layer of bureaucratic mess.

Business groups that would be directly impacted by increased payroll costs under the rule change are expected to challenge the final version of the measure – particularly because of precedent set by previous litigation involving past overtime regulations.

An effort by the Obama administration to raise the salary threshold of the overtime test to $47,476, which would have offered new overtime protections to millions, was blocked in federal court in 2017. The Texas-based US district court found that the Obama-era salary threshold was set so high it made the job duties piece of the exemption test irrelevant, and expanded protections to workers Congress sought to exclude.

That ruling could be used as ammunition against the latest proposal from the Biden administration, if a court could similarly be convinced that the new threshold crowds out other parts of the test. The DOL’s latest proposal doesn’t include any major changes to the job duties provisions. -Bloomberg

While Democrats will be sure to cheer their new 2024 election talking point, the $55,000 salary cap falls far short of the $82,732 threshold some had suggested. 

Once the proposal is officially entered into the Federal Register, the public will have 60 days to submit input on potential changes, according to the report.

And one final thing, with all of the Biden administration’s crowing about bring down inflation (reminder, just slowing rate of ascent in prices, not actually lowering prices), how does the president think praising unions’ 40%-plus wage-hikes and encouraging a new wave of OT pay-hikes will affect ‘inflation’? Presumably, that money-supply sending gas prices and home prices higher will be Putin’s fault too (or Trump’s)?