For now, the Congressional Research Service still does not make its products directly available to the public. Americans who want online access to CRS reports have to make their own arrangements.
Some noteworthy new CRS reports obtained by Secrecy News include the following (all pdf).
“Defense: FY2008 Authorization and Appropriations,” May 11, 2007.
“Nuclear Weapons: The Reliable Replacement Warhead Program,” updated May 11, 2007.
“International Reaction to the Palestinian Unity Government,” May 9, 2007.
“Coast Guard Deepwater Program: Background, Oversight Issues, and Options for Congress,” updated April 30, 2007.
“Underlying Strains in Taiwan-U.S. Political Relations,” updated April 20, 2007.
“The Speech or Debate Clause: Recent Developments,” updated April 17, 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.