The Constitution’s Take Care Clause, and More from CRS
The so-called Take Care Clause in the U.S. Constitution (requiring that the President “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed….”) “would appear to stand for two, at times diametrically opposed propositions–one imposing a ‘duty’ upon the President and the other viewing the Clause as a source of Presidential ‘power’,” according to a new study from the Congressional Research Service. See The Take Care Clause and Executive Discretion in the Enforcement of Law, September 4, 2014.
Other recent CRS products obtained by Secrecy News include the following.
The Doctrine of Constitutional Avoidance: A Legal Overview, September 2, 2014
Armed Conflict in Syria: Overview and U.S. Response, updated September 8, 2014
Libya: Transition and U.S. Policy, updated September 8, 2014
Asylum and Gang Violence: Legal Overview, September 5, 2014
Defense Surplus Equipment Disposal, Including the Law Enforcement 1033 Program, updated September 5, 2014
Aviation War Risk Insurance: Background and Options for Congress, September 5, 2014
Medal of Honor: History and Issues, updated September 5, 2014
Protection of Trade Secrets: Overview of Current Law and Legislation, September 5, 2014
China’s Leaders Quash Hong Kong’s Hopes for Democratic Election Reforms, CRS Insights, September 5, 2014
Using the NIST as an example, the Radiation Physics Building (still without the funding to complete its renovation) is crucial to national security and the medical community. If it were to go down (or away), every medical device in the United States that uses radiation would be decertified within 6 months, creating a significant single point of failure that cannot be quickly mitigated.
The federal government can support more proactive, efficient, and cost-effective resiliency planning by certifying predictive models to validate and publicly indicate their quality.
We need a new agency that specializes in uncovering funding opportunities that were overlooked elsewhere. Judging from the history of scientific breakthroughs, the benefits could be quite substantial.
The cost of inaction is not merely economic; it is measured in preventable illness, deaths and diminished livelihoods.