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Connecting today’s news with the research & opinion you need.

A Good Start

What to Know: A Washington Times editorial says the Trump administration’s new rules on asylum will help address the crisis at the border.

“But the asylum law was not supposed to be an invitation to unlimited economic migration,” the editorial reads. “But that is how the law is currently functioning, with Central Americans making their way here by the tens of thousands every month. They have learned exactly how to push the system's buttons in order to secure long-term permission to be inside the U.S., and this is why detention centers near the border are overflowing."

The TPPF Take: Congress should follow the administration’s lead and reform the asylum system.

“The current U.S. asylum system was designed for the Cold War and the exigencies of that era,” says TPPF’s John Daniel Davidson. “Today we face new challenges, and we need an asylum system that above all serves the national interest first. Enhanced border security measures and strict immigration enforcement will not, on their own, significantly reduce the number of migrants crossing the border.”

Higher Education 

What to Know: Sen. Josh Hawley has filed bills that will loosen the stranglehold of U.S. universities.

“A Republican senator says that American universities have a ‘monopoly’ on higher education, and he has some legislation aimed at breaking it up and putting more federal support behind vocational and skills training,” the Conservative Review reports. “Tuesday morning, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., announced a pair of bills to expand federal aid available for vocational training and to hold universities accountable when students can’t pay back their loans, calling the ideas a ‘bold reform of higher education.’”

The TPPF Take: Sen. Hawley’s bills are a breath of fresh air.

“We suffer from a lack of job applicants for middle-skills” jobs that don’t require a four-year degree,” says TPPF’s Tom Lindsay. “Senator Hawley’s bill would address this gap mightily through an alternative certification protocol that would allow Pell Grant funds to go toward programs such as apprenticeships and certification programs. His second bill calls for universities to bear some of the burden with taxpayers when students default on their loans. This would finally incentivize institutions to care about each of their students after they have pocketed all of the student’s federal loan dollars.”

Need A Hero?

What to Know: The EPA says our air is cleaner than ever.

“The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) pointed to a new study released Wednesday to emphasize what it characterized as the Trump administration’s achievements in decreasing air pollution,” The Hill reports. “The report showed that emissions from all six measured criteria air pollutants decreased between 2016 and 2018, the years Trump has been in office. It hailed this as part of decades-long trend of falling pollution rates that began in 1970, when the Clean Air Act was implemented. The results of the annual national air quality report showed that the emissions of six key pollutants dropped by 74 percent in that time period.”

The TPPF Take: This is great news; why haven’t we heard more about it?

“In any other political environment, this would be celebrated as major progress for the environment,” says TPPF’s Rob Henneke. “We’re making far greater progress than countries that passed draconian laws, and we’ve done it through innovation.”