While most of Syria’s declared chemical weapons facilities have been destroyed, the possibility of undeclared stockpiles has been hard to rule out. UN investigators said they have confirmed the use of chemical weapons in attacks attributed to the Asad regime. Background on the subject was provided by the Congressional Research Service last week in Syria’s Chemical Weapons: Continuing Challenges, CRS Insight, September 8, 2017.
Other new and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service include the following.
Congressional Primer on Responding to Major Disasters and Emergencies, updated September 8, 2017
Congressional Considerations Related to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, CRS Insight, updated September 8, 2017
Patentable Subject Matter Reform, September 8, 2017
The DACA and DAPA Deferred Action Initiatives: Frequently Asked Questions, updated September 6, 2017
The End of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program: Some Immediate Takeaways, CRS Legal Sidebar, September 8, 2017
The research community lacks strategies to incentivize collaboration on high-quality data acquisition and sharing. The government should fund collaborative roadmapping, certification, collection, and sharing of large, high-quality datasets in life science.
The potential of new nuclear power plants to meet energy demand, increase energy security, and revitalize local economies depends on new regulatory and operational approaches at the NRC.
In anticipation of future known and unknown health security threats, including new pandemics, biothreats, and climate-related health emergencies, our answers need to be much faster, cheaper, and less disruptive to other operations.
To unlock the full potential of artificial intelligence within the Department of Health and Human Services, an AI Corps should be established, embedding specialized AI experts within each of the department’s 10 agencies.