Brief #148 – Environment Policy
By Jacob Morton
On August 16, 2022, President Joe Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act, H.R. 5376. The new law is a scaled-back version of the Biden administration’s Build Back Better Act, intended to reduce the national deficit and lower inflation while investing in domestic energy production, creating jobs, and lowering healthcare drug costs. Here is a look at how the new law impacts U.S. environmental and climate policy.
Brief #66 – Technology Policy
By Mindy Spatt
Who’s Afraid of a President, or a Presidential Front Runner? Uber and Lyft are lobbying to kill legislation supported by President Biden, and Lyft is pushing a California ballot initiative that likely presidential candidate Governor Gavin Newsom is staunchly opposed to.
Brief #147 – Environmental Policy
By Haley Moore
A new law ensures a future for forests with the environment in mind.
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was passed into law on August 16, 2022. $375B will go to aid the climate crisis over the course of the next decade.
Brief #65 – Technology Policy
By Steve Piazza
On March 9 of this year, President Biden issued Executive Order 14067 “Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets.” Its impetus is a directive for governmental departments and agencies to examine the government’s role regarding the centralization of digital assets, specifically those pertaining to financial transactions.
Brief #146 – Foreign Policy
By Yelena Korshunov
Since the day when Russia started a so-called “special operation in Ukraine”, the iconic phrase of the average Russian has become “But all are afraid of us!”
When a Siberian grandma tells you that she doesn’t have heating, water, and electricity in her old house in February when the outside temperature falls to -13F and the air in her unheated bedroom is freezy, and her family still uses a wobbly wooden toilet in the backyard, she will proudly add “But all are afraid of us!”
Brief #142 – Health & Gender Policy
By Geoffrey Small
The abortion battle in the U.S. justice system continues months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade. Major federal, state, and city lawsuits are unfolding across the country, potentially setting legal precedents that will determine the future of reproductive rights.
Brief #33 – Elections & Politics
By: Ian Milden
Control of the U.S. Senate will be up for grabs in the 2022 mid-term elections. Competitive races in key states will determine the balance of power. In this brief, I will preview the US Senate races in Arizona and Wisconsin.
Brief #145 – Foreign Policy
By Abran C
This week marked an important date for Ukraine, August 24, 2022, which marks six months since the Russian invasion and the 31st anniversary of the countrys independence from the Soviet Union. The same day also saw a missile strike on an eastern Ukrainian train station that killed 22 people.
Brief #146 – Environmental Policy
By Todd J. Broadman
The Colorado River, a water source that irrigates 5 million acres of farm land and supplies 40 million people with drinking water, has long been severely overallocated. For decades, so much water has been diverted to supply farms and cities that the river’s delta in Mexico has dried up. Those that depend on its bounty are now in crisis as the western U.S. has undergone a 23-year megadrought and the nation’s largest reservoirs have subsequently dropped their water levels by three-quarters.
Brief #193 – Civil Rights;
By Rodney A. Maggay
In early 2020 the Wall Street Journal first broke a story claiming that federal agencies were acquiring cellphone data information to be used for enforcement of immigration policies.
In response to the story, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agencies for the release of documents related to how the government acquires cell phone location information.