Noteworthy new and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service include the following (all pdf).
“Tanzania: Background and Current Conditions,” December 20, 2007.
“Data Mining and Homeland Security: An Overview,” updated December 5, 2007.
“Polygraph Use by the Department of Energy: Issues for Congress,” updated December 10, 2007.
“Egypt: Background and U.S. Relations,” updated December 12, 2007.
“China and Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction and Missiles: Policy Issues,” updated December 13, 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.