Recent reports of the Congressional Research Service on the 2008 budget appropriation cycle obtained by Secrecy News include the following (all pdf).
“Homeland Security Department: FY2008 Appropriations,” updated July 17, 2007.
“Federal Research and Development Funding: FY2008,” updated July 26, 2007.
“Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies: FY2008 Appropriations,” July 20, 2007.
“Financial Services and General Government (FSGG): FY2008 Appropriations,” updated July 20, 2007.
“Energy and Water Development: FY2008 Appropriations,” updated July 13, 2007.
January saw us watching whether the government would fund science. February has been about how that funding will be distributed, regulated, and contested.
This rule gives agencies significantly more authority over certain career policy roles. Whether that authority improves accountability or creates new risks depends almost entirely on how agencies interrupt and apply it.
Our environmental system was built for 1970s-era pollution control, but today it needs stable, integrated, multi-level governance that can make tradeoffs, share and use evidence, and deliver infrastructure while demonstrating that improved trust and participation are essential to future progress.
Durable and legitimate climate action requires a government capable of clearly weighting, explaining, and managing cost tradeoffs to the widest away of audiences, which in turn requires strong technocratic competency.