Friday 5: March 23, 2023

Happy Friday everyone! After a busy week, read a long and find out what you may have missed about the latest policy news!

Richard Eckstron, South Carolina’s comptroller general, will resign effective April 30 after disclosing that he inflated the state’s cash balances, which eventually reached about $3.5 billion. In his resignation letter to Henry McMaster, Eckstrom argued to move forward with legislation that would make his position appointed by the governor rather than elected every 4 years. At a later date, the General Assembly will nominate and elect the next comptroller general during a joint assembly. With his resignation, Eckstron will avoid a trial in the Senate.

A bill introduced in the senate aims to reduce the number of gun suicides in the state by creating a voluntary gun do-not-sell list. A person who struggles with thoughts of suicide can place themselves on the list, and if they attempt to purchase a gun, their name would be flagged during the background check. Additonally, it would be illegal for the merchant to sell this person a firearm. The individual would be able to remove themselves from the list, with the inclusion of a 14-day waiting period.

Over a dozen free speech advocacy organizations sent letters to Congress on Thursday to urge them against a nationwide TikTok ban as the platform receives criticism over data security. The organization argued that the ban would infringe on the rights that Americans have under the First Amendment to the Constitution. They cited the Supreme Court, saying they have ruled that the First Amendment includes the right to receive information without government interference. The organizations also argued that this would grant legitimacy to authoritarian regimes to shut down services that they do not support.

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley is launching a legislative push to end the normalized trade relationship between the United States and China. The bill would revoke the normalized trade relation status from China within two years and would allow the U.S. to subject Chinese imports to higher tariffs. Additionally, it would allow the president to place higher tax rates on select imports.

The Federal Reserve approved another quarter-percentage-point interest rate increase but nodded to greater uncertainty after banking stress. This is the ninth consecutive rise over the past year and will bring its benchmark federal funds rate to a range between 4.75% and 5%. Federal Chair Jerome Powell hinted that this may be the last raise for now, dependent upon the extent of any lending pullback that follows a bank run earlier this month.

Bonus: DNA from Beethoven’s hair has been studied with the hopes to determine the cause of his progressive hearing loss. Friends of Beethoven kept locks of his hair as keepsakes or remembrance at his deathbed. The researchers did not find a genetic cause for Beethoven’s deafness, but they did find that the Beethoven biological link was broken over the years.