Noteworthy new and newly updated reports from the Congressional Research Service include the following (all pdf).
“Presidential Transitions,” updated December 27, 2007.
“Engineered Nanoscale Materials and Derivative Products: Regulatory Challenges,” January 22, 2008.
“NATO in Afghanistan: A Test of the Transatlantic Alliance,” updated January 7, 2008.
“The Changing U.S.-Japan Alliance: Implications for U.S. Interests,” updated January 10, 2008.
“Does the Army Need a Full-Spectrum Force or Specialized Units? Background and Issues for Congress,” January 18, 2008.
“Security Classified and Controlled Information: History, Status, and Emerging Management Issues,” updated January 2, 2008.
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.