Some noteworthy recent products of the Congressional Research Service include the following (all pdf).
“The Whistleblower Protection Act: An Overview,” March 12, 2007.
“China Naval Modernization: Implications for U.S. Navy Capabilities — Background and Issues for Congress,” updated February 7, 2007.
“Data Security Breaches: Context and Incident Summaries,” updated January 29, 2007.
“Bolivia: Political and Economic Developments and Implications for U.S. Policy,” updated January 26, 2007.
“The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS),” updated January 25, 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.