Earlier this year, the Department of Defense released two annual reports on the status of its chemical and biological defense efforts (both pdf):
“Department of Defense Chemical and Biological Defense Program,” Annual Report to Congress, April 2007.
“Report on Activities and Programs for Countering Proliferation and NBC Terrorism,” Counterproliferation Program Review Committee, Volume I, Executive Summary, May 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.