The Roosevelt Institute: “Social scientists have traditionally struggled to identify clear links between political spending and congressional voting, and many journalists have embraced their skepticism. A giant stumbling block has been the challenge of measuring the labyrinthine ways money flows from investors, firms, and industries to particular candidates. Ferguson, Jorgensen, and Chen directly tackle that… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Legislation
Sabin Center Launches Database of State Environmental Actions
Earth Institute: “The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law has launched a new database to track environmental actions undertaken by state attorneys general. The center partnered with StateAG.org, a research and education website, to build the database, which includes legal actions initiated by state attorneys general against the federal government, private actors and other public… Continue Reading
The Nation’s Fiscal Health: Action is Needed to Address the Federal Government’s Fiscal Future
The Nation’s Fiscal Health: Action is Needed to Address the Federal Government’s Fiscal Future, GAO-17-579T: Published: May 3, 2017. Publicly Released: May 3, 2017. “A plan is needed to put the nation on a sustainable long-term fiscal path. But in the near-term, Congress and executive branch agencies have opportunities to improve the government’s fiscal condition,… Continue Reading
DATA Act: As Reporting Deadline Nears, Challenges Remain That Will Affect Data Quality
DATA Act: As Reporting Deadline Nears, Challenges Remain That Will Affect Data Quality, GAO-17-496: Published: Apr 28, 2017. Publicly Released: Apr 28, 2017. “Under the DATA Act, federal agencies must improve the federal spending data that are available to the public through the USASpending.gov website. We’ve reviewed the implementation of the DATA Act and found… Continue Reading
New bill would preserve public access to public data online
Sunlight Foundation – “Today, Sunlight joins a diverse coalition of government transparency, data innovation, scientific groups and environment defense advocates in supporting new bipartisan bill in Congress to preserve public access to public data. The Preserving Data in Government Act speaks to a matter of of heightened public interest in the spring 2017, as open… Continue Reading
Cybersecurity: Critical Infrastructure Authoritative Reports and Resources
CRS – Cybersecurity: Critical Infrastructure Authoritative Reports and Resources, Rita Tehan, Information Research Specialist, April 21, 2017. “Cybersecurity: Critical Infrastructure Authoritative Reports and Resources Congressional Research Service Summary Critical infrastructure is defined in the USA PATRIOT Act (P.L. 107-56, §1016(e)) as“ systems and assets, physical or virtual, so vital to the United States that the… Continue Reading
GPO releases digital Congressional Record from 1961-1970
The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) partners with the Library of Congress to release the digital version of the bound Congressional Record from 1961-1970 on GPO’s govinfo (www.govinfo.gov). This release covers debates and proceedings of the 87th thru the 91st Congresses. Spanning approximately 380,000 Congressional Record pages, this era covers historical topics such as: The… Continue Reading
CRS – Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act: Background and Summary
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act: Background and Summary. Baird Webel, Coordinator, Specialist in Financial Economics. April 21, 2017. [via FAS] Beginning in 2007, U.S. financial conditions deteriorated, leading to the near-collapse of the U.S. financial system in September 2008. Major commercial banks, insurers, government-sponsored enterprises, and investment banks either failed or… Continue Reading
CRS – The War Powers Resolution: Concepts and Practice
“This report discusses and assesses the War Powers Resolution and its application since enactment in 1973, providing detailed background on various cases in which it was used, as well as cases in which issues of its applicability were raised. It will be revised biannually. In the post-Cold War world, Presidents have continued to commit U.S.… Continue Reading
Now users can download search results from Congress.gov
“The Congress.gov legislative database now has the ability to download search results. Anytime you do a search, anywhere in Congress.gov, you will see a “Download Results” link next to “Save this Search” link in the upper left corner. This will produce a .csv file that can be opened by a spreadsheet application.” For more information… Continue Reading
Killing Privacy Is Fine Because “Nobody’s Got To Use The Internet,” House Rep Says
WaPo via Consumerist: “From a distance, it can often be easy to criticize Congress as being out of touch, no matter what members are actually doing or what policies they’re proposing. But every once in a while, you get a response so staggeringly clueless you wonder if a lawmaker is living on the same planet… Continue Reading
Updates to the My Congressional District Tool
“The U.S. Census Bureau recently updated the My Congressional District web application for the 115th Congress. Other updates include: Statistics from the 2015 American Community Survey and maps for the congressional districts within the states that were redistricted in September 2016 (Florida, Minnesota, North Carolina and Virginia). Embeddable functionality. Re-enabled ability to download a .csv… Continue Reading
