Noteworthy new reports from the Congressional Research Service which have not been made readily available to the public include the following (all pdf).
“The REAL ID Act of 2005: Legal, Regulatory, and Implementation Issues,” April 1, 2008.
“The Social Security Number: Legal Developments Affecting Its Collection, Disclosure, and Confidentiality,” updated February 21, 2008.
“Congressional Authority To Limit U.S. Military Operations in Iraq,” updated February 27, 2008.
“Taiwan’s 2008 Presidential Election,” April 2, 2008.
“The North Korean Economy: Leverage and Policy Analysis,” updated March 4, 2008.
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.