“Finding data on federal grants and contracts awarded to states and congressional districts, local governments, nonprofit organizations, contractors, and other eligible entities may present challenges,” a new report from the Congressional Research Service observes.
The various tools that are available to help meet those challenges are cataloged and described by CRS in Tracking Federal Funds: USAspending.gov and Other Data Sources, May 13, 2015.
Other noteworthy new and updated CRS reports include the following.
Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza: Ongoing Outbreak, CRS Insights, May 19, 2015
Selected Issues in Homeland Security Policy for the 114th Congress, May 19, 2015
Congressional Primer on Responding to Major Disasters and Emergencies, updated May 19, 2015
Deployable Federal Assets Supporting Domestic Disaster Response Operations: Summary and Considerations for Congress, updated May 13, 2015
Critical Infrastructures: Background, Policy and Implementation, updated May 12, 2015
Human-Induced Earthquakes from Deep-Well Injection: A Brief Overview, updated May 12, 2015
Candidates, Groups, and the Campaign Finance Environment, CRS Insights, May 19, 2015
Uncertainty in Financial Projections of Social Security, CRS Insights, May 14, 2015
Freedom of Navigation and Territorial Seas, CRS Legal Sidebar, May 18, 2015
Iran, Gulf Security, and U.S. Policy, updated May 19, 2015
Perspectives on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) “Torture Report” and Enhanced Interrogation Techniques: In Brief, updated May 14, 2015
Government Collection of Private Information: Background and Issues Related to the USA PATRIOT Act Reauthorization in Brief, May 19, 2015
Sunset of Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001, memorandum for the House Judiciary Committee, May 19, 2015
“One thing became increasingly clear: AI doesn’t simply introduce a new category of risk. It changes the speed, scale, complexity, and interaction of risks that already exist.”
In an ideal world, we would not have state or federal climate intervention research bans. We would have researchers and institutions that would not shy away from revealing the good, the bad, and the ugly of these technologies and doing so responsibly.
“What excites me is that it’s very tempting to be very discouraged, and say, ‘Oh, we’ve got these archaic institutions that are calcified and you could never change them.’ But I think we’re in the middle of a technological revolution that will upend lots of things, and does provide a window.”
Ask people what worries them most right now, and they’ll say the cost of living and their livelihoods, not climate change. But those concerns are not separate.