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Declining Resources: Selected Agencies Took Steps to Minimize Effects on Mission but Opportunities Exist for Additional Action, GAO-17-79: Published: Dec 20, 2016. Publicly Released: Dec 20, 2016. “How are agencies responding to smaller budgets? Federal discretionary spending, which funds activities like law enforcement training and worker protection programs, declined by about 12% between fiscal years …
“PersonalData.IO is a free and open platform for citizens to track their personal data and understand how it is used by companies. It is part of the MyData movement, promoting a human-centric approach to personal data management. A lot of readers of this blog will be familiar with Freedom of Information laws, a legal mechanism …
“Policymakers, researchers and journalists alike will soon have access to roughly 4.2 million state government decisions in a single database. West Virginia University political science researcher, William Franko, a professor in the Rockefeller School of Politics and Policy, is part of a research team collecting every legislative bill, executive rule and judicial decision across all 50 states, …
“In the wake of the 2016 election, everyone from President Obama to Pope Francis has raised concerns about fake news and the potential impact on both political life and innocent individuals. Some fake news has been widely shared, and so-called “pizzagate” stories led a North Carolina man to bring a gun into a popular Washington, …
Via FAS – The Federal Food Safety System: A Primer. Renée Johnson, Specialist in Agricultural Policy, December 16, 2016. “Numerous federal, state, and local agencies share responsibilities for regulating the safety of the U.S. food supply. Federal responsibility for food safety rests primarily with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of …
Via FAS – Restrictions on Lobbying the Government: Current Policy and Proposed Changes, December 15, 2016 (IN10625). Jacob R. Straus, Specialist on the Congress “During the 2016 presidential campaign, President-elect Donald Trump proposed a series of ethics measures, including several lobbying-related provisions. They are:extending “cooling off” periods on lobbying the government for five years after …
Via FAS – U.S. Foreign Aid to the Palestinians, Jim Zanotti, Specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs. December 16, 2016. “Since the establishment of limited Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the mid-1990s, the U.S. government has committed more than $5 billion in bilateral economic and non-lethal security assistance to the Palestinians, …
“A recent survey asked “All things considered, do you think the world is getting better or worse, or neither getting better nor worse?”. In Sweden 10% thought things are getting better, in the US they were only 6%, and in Germany only 4%. Very few people think that the world is getting better. What is …
Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and the Economy – Executive Office of the President, December 2016 “Accelerating artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities will enable automation of some tasks that have long required human labor. These transformations will open up new opportunities for individuals, the economy, and society, but they have the potential to disrupt the current livelihoods of …
Social Security Offsets: Improvements to Program Design Could Better Assist Older Student Loan Borrowers with Obtaining Permitted Relief, GAO-17-45: Published: Dec 19, 2016. Publicly Released: Dec 20, 2016. “Older borrowers (age 50 and older) who default on federal student loans and must repay that debt with a portion of their Social Security benefits often have …
