New and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service that Congress has withheld from online public disclosure include the following.
Oman: Reform, Security, and U.S. Policy, updated February 5, 2016
Saudi Arabia: Background and U.S. Relations, updated February 5, 2016
Senate Committee Rules in the 114th Congress: Key Provisions, February 8, 2016
Medicare Trigger, updated February 8, 2016
Federal Freight Policy: In Brief, February 5, 2016
Local Food Systems: Selected Farm Bill and Other Federal Programs, February 5, 2016
Commemorative Commissions: Overview, Structure, and Funding, February 5, 2016
Ocean Energy Agency Appropriations, FY2016, February 5, 2016
Allocation of Wastewater Treatment Assistance: Formula and Other Changes, updated February 5, 2016
The New START Treaty: Central Limits and Key Provisions, updated February 5, 2016
Iran’s Nuclear Program: Tehran’s Compliance with International Obligations, updated February 8, 2016
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.