New and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service that Congress has withheld from online public distribution include the following.
Marine Corps Drawdown, Force Structure Initiatives, and Roles and Missions: Background and Issues for Congress, January 9, 2014
Border Security: Immigration Inspections at Port of Entry, January 9, 2014
Oil and Chemical Spills: Federal Emergency Response Framework, January 13, 2014
Aereo and FilmOn X: Internet Television Streaming and Copyright Law, January 13, 2014
Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) and the Role of Congress in Trade Policy, January 13, 2014
Privacy Protection for Customer Financial Information, January 9, 2014
Russian Political, Economic, and Security Issues and U.S. Interests, January 9, 2014
Egypt: Background and U.S. Relations, January 10, 2014
Armed Conflict in Syria: Overview and U.S. Response, January 14, 2014
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.