State of the Union: Frequently Asked Questions, and More from CRS
Noteworthy new and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service include the following.
History, Evolution, and Practices of the President’s State of the Union Address: Frequently Asked Questions, updated January 29, 2020
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol, and the Paris Agreement: A Summary, January 29, 2020
The Washington Post’s “Afghanistan Papers” and U.S. Policy: Main Points and Possible Questions for Congress, January 28, 2020
Solar Energy: Frequently Asked Questions, January 27, 2020
Challenges to the United States in Space, CRS In Focus, updated January 27, 2020
Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-2020, updated January 13, 2020
National Emergency Powers, updated December 5, 2019
Diplomacy with North Korea: A Status Report, CRS In Focus, January 22, 2020
The U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex: Overview of Department of Energy Sites, updated February 3, 2020
Presidential Pardons: Overview and Selected Legal Issues, January 14, 2020
Congressional Oversight Manual, updated January 16, 2020
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.