MISSING: Women and People of Color in Government Contracts in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina

Under Executive Order 11246, signed in 1965 by President Johnson, federal contractors having 50 or more employees and $50,000 in federal contracts must prepare a written affirmative action program. In the wake of a large rebuilding effort in areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina and Rita, the Department of Labor has signed a memorandum which allows companies receiving new contracts to be exempt from compliance with the affirmative action program requirements.

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NEW: General Accounting Office Releases Initial Findings on 2004 FDA Plan B Decision

The Washington Post reported today on initial findings from the Government Accountability Office's (GAO) report on the FDA's 2004 decision to reject the over-the-counter status of Plan B. The draft GAO report indicates that the decision was "highly unusual, was made with atypical involvement from top agency officials, and may well have been made months before it was formally announced." The full report will be available by the end of the month.

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NEW: VAWA Passed in Senate

After allowing the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) to expire, the Senate passed its version of VAWA 2005 earlier this week. While the Senate version includes many of the provisions excluded in the House version of the Act, it dropped a key program that would have extended unemployment insurance coverage to domestic violence survivors. As we have reported in earlier MISSING pieces, the issue of unemployment insurance is critical to those seeking to leave situations of domestic violence, and, in most states, individuals are ineligible for unemployment benefits if they leave work voluntarily without "good cause" or if they are discharged for "misconduct". Adding such a provision to VAWA 2005 would be a step towards addressing this problem.