A substantial new report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) considers the potential threat posed by radiological dispersal devices or “dirty bombs.” At the direction of Congress, the CRS does not make its publications directly available to the public. The “dirty bomb” report, as well as a shorter, abridged version of the report, and the other new reports listed below were obtained by Secrecy News (all pdf).
“‘Dirty Bombs’: Technical Background, Attack Prevention and Response, Issues for Congress,” June 24, 2011
“‘Dirty Bombs’: Background in Brief,” June 24, 2011
“Amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Extended Until June 1, 2015,” June 16, 2011
“Gun Control Legislation,” June 9, 2011
“State Taxation of Internet Transactions,” June 7, 2011
“Kazakhstan: Recent Developments and U.S. Interests,” June 1, 2011
“U.S. Foreign Aid to the Palestinians,” May 31, 2011
“New Zealand: Background and Bilateral Relations with the United States,” May 27, 2011
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.
FAS is launching the Center for Regulatory Ingenuity (CRI) to build a new, transpartisan vision of government that works – that has the capacity to achieve ambitious goals while adeptly responding to people’s basic needs.