A redacted version of the National Reconnaissance Office Congressional Budget Justification Book for Fiscal Year 2006 was released to the Federation of American Scientists last week in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit and in compliance with a court order. The more intelligible portions of the document are now posted here (pdf).
Jargon-heavy and formulaic, the redacted volume will nevertheless be of interest to close students of the NRO.
“The NRO develops and operates unique and innovative space reconnaissance systems and conducts intelligence related activities essential for U.S. national security.”
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.