News release: “Today at a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit of the House Committee on Financial Services, eleven bills will be discussed that will weaken the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and make it harder to protect consumers in the financial marketplace. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has proven itself to… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Legislation
Markey, Hatch Release Discussion Draft of Legislation Addressing Student Privacy
Focuses on need to protect students, provide tools to parents when information shared with third parties “Washington (May 14, 2014) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), a member of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), a member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, today released a discussion draft… Continue Reading
Women and Health Care in the Early Years of the ACA
Key Findings from the 2013 Kaiser Women’s Health Survey May 15, 2014 | Alina Salganicoff, Usha Ranji, Adara Beamesderfer and Nisha Kurani “The passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010 heralded a new era in health care coverage, with major implications for women’s health and access to care. Provisions such as the mandatory inclusion of maternity care, coverage… Continue Reading
CRS – Afghanistan: Drug Trafficking and the 2014 Transition
Afghanistan: Drug Trafficking and the 2014 Transition, Liana Rosen, Specialist in International Crime and Narcotics; Kenneth Katzman; Specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs. May 9, 2014, “Experts widely assess that Afghanistan will remain the world’s primary source of opium poppy cultivation and opium and heroin production, as well as a major global source of cannabis resin, in the coming years. In… Continue Reading
CRS – How Social Security Benefits Are Computed
How Social Security Benefits Are Computed: In Brief. Noah P. Meyerson, Analyst in Income Security, May 12, 2014 “Social Security, which paid $812 billion in benefits in 2013, is the largest program in the federal budget. There are currently about 58 million Social Security beneficiaries. Most Social Security beneficiaries are retired and disabled workers, whose monthly benefits depend… Continue Reading
Public Papers of the President Barack Obama
Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Barack Obama (2010, Book II). July 1 to July 1, 2010. Barack H. Obama. Pages 1001 1952. See also Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Barack Obama (2010, Book I) Continue Reading
CRS – Ukraine: Current Issues and U.S. Policy
Ukraine: Current Issues and U.S. Policy, Steven Woehrel, Specialist in European Affairs. May 8, 2014 “After a failed effort to violently disperse pro-European Union protests, the government of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych collapsed on February 21, 2014. The Ukrainian parliament approved a new pro-reform, pro-Western government on February 27. New presidential elections arescheduled for May 25. Russia has… Continue Reading
Congress Seeking Transparency and Oversight of NSA Collection of Metadata
New York Review of Books – We Kill People Based on Metadata by David Cole [snipped] “Supporters of the National Security Agency inevitably defend its sweeping collection of phone and Internet records on the ground that it is only collecting so-called “metadata”—who you call, when you call, how long you talk. Since this does not include the actual content… Continue Reading
Judicial Activity Concerning Enemy Combatant Detainees: Major Court Rulings
CRS – Judicial Activity Concerning Enemy Combatant Detainees: Major Court Rulings. Jennifer K. Elsea, Legislative Attorney; Michael John Garcia, Legislative Attorney. April 21, 2014 “As part of the conflict with Al Qaeda and the Taliban, the United States has captured and detained numerous persons believed to have been part of or associated with enemy forces. Over the years, federal courts… Continue Reading
Privacy Case Moves Forward Against Facebook and Zynga
EPIC: “The Ninth Circuit found that the companies may have violated Facebook’s privacy policies when they disclosed user information for advertising purposes. Separately, the court ruled that there was no violation of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act because the data disclosed (including Facebook IDs and HTTP referers) is not “contents” of a communication. Congress is set to consider several ECPA reforms,… Continue Reading
Interactive visualization allows you to explore actual patterns of lawmaking in Congress
Legislative Explorer or LEG/EX © University of Washington Center for American Politics and Public Policy. A data-driven discovery tool for learning about how bills become law. “Researchers at the University of Washington’s Center for American Politics and Public Policy are applying data-driven discovery methods popular in the natural sciences to visualize and learn about lawmaking. Legislative Explorer, or LegEx,… Continue Reading
EPIC – White House Publishes Report on “Big Data and Future of Privacy”
“The White House has released a report on big data and the future of privacy. The report “Big Data: Seizing Opportunities, Preserving Values” makes several recommendations to the President: “(1) advance the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights; (2) pass national data breach legislation; (3) extend privacy protections to non-U.S. persons; (4) ensure data collected on students in schools is… Continue Reading
