President Bush issued Executive Order 13462 last week redesignating the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB) as the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board (PIAB), and modifying the Board’s functions and interactions with the executive branch.
The Order appeared to diminish the Board’s autonomy and to further reduce its influence, which has been negligible in recent years.
It was reported by Pamela Hess of the Associated Press in “New White House Order Bolsters Intelligence Chief’s Power,” February 29.
The new Order and the 1993 Order that it superseded were critically compared by Smintheus in Daily Kos.
This is bigger than a singular elimination of race and ethnicity questions. It could accelerate the second wave of widespread reductions to demographic data, leaving public health officials with even less information to deliver better health outcomes for all Americans.
Soft law was never meant to be a permanent solution. Treating it as one, and letting the sandcastle stand in for the skyscraper indefinitely, is how we end up with a decade of voluntary commitments and no enforceable accountability to show for it.
FAS has partnered with ICLEI USA to launch the CRI Local Advisory Council.
We sat down with Dr. Max Moritz and Chief Rob Hazard to discuss how communities use time, money, and data to reduce the risk that wildfires pose.