Taking an election-season shot across the aisle, the White House has released a report that says because Republicans are bottling up certain Democratic sponsored bills, states and cities are moving ahead on the issues on their own.

Ringingly entitled “Taking Action on the Ground: Progress on the President’s Priorities in State and Local Communities” accuses the GOP of stalling legislation to raise the minimum wage and expand employee sick leave policy. As a result, states are adopting the White House recommendations on such issues.

“While Congress has stood in the way of addressing these issues, mayors and governors of both parties are working with the President to make progress,” the report states.

Highlights of this partisan report include:

17 states and the District of Columbia have increased their minimum wage since President Obama first called for an increase in his 2013 State of the Union;
17 cities and counties have implemented paid sick leave policies and 10 cities and counties have implemented paid family leave policies since January 2014;
34 Governors proposed increasing funding for early education since the President announced preschool for all in 2013;
Since its launch in March 2015, 31 cities, states, and tribal communities have joined the President’s TechHire initiative to rapidly train workers for technology jobs that pay 50 percent more than the average private-sector American job;
More than 50 communities that participated in the MBK Community Challenge have completed their own local action plans;
More than 700 state, county and city officials have joined the Mayors Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness since the First Lady announced the program in June 2014.

For those seeking a digestible review of presidential objectives and the White House’s record of success in seeing those objectives taken up outside the Beltway, the report lives here.

Instant Insights /

Cities, states embrace sick leave, minimum wage increase

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