The 2019 budget request for U.S. Special Operations Command — $13.6 billion — is 10% higher than the 2018 level and is the largest budget request ever submitted by US SOCOM.
U.S. special operations forces, which are currently deployed in 90 countries, have more than doubled in size from 33,000 personnel in 2001 to around 70,000 personnel in early 2018. Next year’s budget, if approved, would make them larger still.
For a newly updated overview from the Congressional Research Service, see U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF): Background and Issues for Congress, April 13, 2018.
Other recent CRS reports that have not otherwise been made publicly available include the following.
Federal Election Commission: Membership and Policymaking Quorum, In Brief, April 12, 2018
Regulatory Reform 10 Years After the Financial Crisis: Systemic Risk Regulation of Non-Bank Financial Institutions, April 12, 2018
Abortion At or Over 20 Weeks’ Gestation: Frequently Asked Questions, April 11, 2018
Millennium Challenge Corporation, updated April 12, 2018
Latin America and the Caribbean: Fact Sheet on Leaders and Elections, updated April 11, 2018
Softwood Lumber Imports From Canada: Current Issues, updated April 12, 2018
Yemen: Civil War and Regional Intervention, updated April 12, 2018
To fight the climate crises, we must do more than connect power plants to the grid: we need new policy frameworks and expanded coalitions to facilitate the rapid transformation of the electricity system.
Without information, without factual information, you can’t act. You can’t relate to the world you live in. And so it’s super important for us to be able to monitor what’s happening around the world, analyze the material, and translate it into something that different audiences can understand.
There is a lot to like in OPM’s new memos on federal hiring and senior executives, much of which reformers have been after for years, but there’s also a troubling focus on politicizing the federal workforce.
FAS is excited to announce it has acquired MetroLab Network (MLN), bringing together two teams with a shared commitment to harnessing science, technology and innovation to drive impact in new ways in communities across the country.