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Category Archives: Congress

National Firearms Commerce and Trafficking Assessment (NFCTA): Crime Guns – Volume Two

NPR – According to a new federal report, illegal machine gun converters are becoming more prevalent in the U.S. The report – National Firearms Commerce and Trafficking Assessment (NFCTA): Crime Guns – Volume Two from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) documents new data and trends in the use of guns by criminals… Continue Reading

Far-right judges are crafting a theory that would empower courts to strike down trillions of dollars in federal spending

Slate: “…During his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Joe Biden criticized Republicans for proposing to “sunset” Medicare and Social Security every five years. In response, many Republican lawmakers booed the president, prompting him to quip, “So, folks, as we all apparently agree: Social Security and Medicare is off the books now.” Perhaps… Continue Reading

AI State of the Union

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Tuesday, February 7, 2023 – FiscalNote Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: NOTE) (“FiscalNote”), a leading AI-driven enterprise SaaS technology provider of global policy and market intelligence – is leveraging its proprietary AI technology to provide a live transcript of the address in real-time, paired with video coverage and non-partisan automated and human-enhanced analysis to… Continue Reading

The Law of AI for Good

Lobel, Orly, The Law of AI for Good (January 26, 2023). San Diego Legal Studies Paper No. 23-001, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4338862 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4338862  – “Legal policy and scholarship are increasingly focused on regulating technology to safeguard against risks and harms, neglecting the ways in which the law should direct the use of new technology,… Continue Reading

New GPO Sponsored Webinars

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST): A New Window to the Infrared Universe; Dr. Louis Barbier (National Aeronautics and Space Administration); Wednesday, February 1, 2023; 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. (EST) Role of Regulations.gov in the Federal Rulemaking Process; Tobias Schroeder (General Services Administration); Wednesday, February 8, 2023; 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. (EST): Prices and Wages… Continue Reading

Records Released In Response to Presidential Records Act (PRA) questions under the Trump Administration

NARA: “NARA officials are often consulted about the management of presidential and federal records. The Presidential Records Act governs access to records after the end of an administration. The National Archives received records from the Trump Administration, which ended on January 20, 2021. We are in the process of preserving and providing access to these records, including all… Continue Reading

NIST Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework

NIST AI 100-1 Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0) January 2023 – “…As directed by the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020 (P.L. 116-283), the goal of the AI RMF is to offer a resource to the organizations designing, developing, deploying, or using AI systems to help manage the many risks of… Continue Reading

New Online Tool Provides Health Snapshot of All 435 U.S. Congressional Districts

“Today, researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), unveiled the Congressional District Health Dashboard (CDHD), a new online tool that provides critical health data for all 435 congressional districts and the District of Columbia. The dashboard incorporates 36 key measures of health, such as deaths from… Continue Reading

GPO Digitizes Historic Congressional Directories From the 1800s

“The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) is digitizing historic volumes of the Congressional Directory from the 19th and 20th centuries. The first release includes Directories from 1869–1888, as well as 1993. Additional digitized historic Congressional Directories will be released on GovInfo as they are completed. Historically, the Congressional Directory has been one of the most… Continue Reading

How much misinformation are you exposed to?

“Misinformation exposure scores measure how much the politicians and public organizations you follow tend to lie (based on fact-checking their claims by PolitiFact). These scores go from 0 (none of the fact-checked claims by politicians and public figures you follow are false) to 1 (all of the fact-checked claims by politicians and public organizations you… Continue Reading

Jan6th Committee – Social Media & the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol – Summary of Investigative Findings

Washington Post – Social Media & the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol – Summary of Investigative Findings – “…The Select Committee has also collected evidence from a high-ranking employee serving on Twitter’s Safety Policy Team on January 6th; she said that she was deeply concerned about the content that was being posted on… Continue Reading

Visualizing Congressional Productivity

Center for Data Innovation: The Economist has created a visualization tracking productivity in the U.S. Congress. The visualization shows the number of major bills passed in every session of Congress from 1947 to 2023 as well as the party that held control over the House, Senate, and presidency during each session. In the visualization, bills… Continue Reading