Category «Congress»

Operation Warp Speed Contracts for COVID-19 Vaccines and Ancillary Vaccination Materials

CRS Insight – Operation Warp Speed Contracts for COVID-19 Vaccines and Ancillary Vaccination Materials, December 22, 2020: “Operation Warp Speed (OWS) is an interagency partnership between the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Defense (DOD) that coordinates federal efforts to accelerate the development, acquisition, and distribution of COVID-19 medical countermeasures. …

Subjects: Congress, Economy, Government Documents, Health Care

The Plague Year – The mistakes and the struggles behind America’s coronavirus tragedy

The New Yorker published a 40-page account by Lawrence Wright about how American botched its virus response, December 28, 2020: “There are three moments in the yearlong catastrophe of the COVID-19 pandemic when events might have turned out differently. The first occurred on January 3, 2020, when Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for …

Subjects: Congress, Economy, Education, Government Documents, Health Care

Proposals for Reform: National Task Force on Rule of Law & Democracy

Brennan Center – “The Task Force is a nonpartisan group of former public servants and policy experts. We have worked at the highest levels in federal and state government, as prosecutors, members of the military, senior advisers in the White House, members of Congress, heads of federal agencies, and state executives. We come from across …

Subjects: Congress, Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Legal Research

GPO To Close Brick and Mortar Bookstore in Washington DC

“The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) will permanently close its brick-and-mortar bookstore at 710 North Capitol Street NW in Washington, DC on January 4, 2021. After lengthy consideration, GPO, in consultation with the Joint Committee on Printing and its congressional oversight committees, determined that the bookstore is no longer financially viable due to changes in …

Subjects: Congress, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation, Libraries

House watchdog details extensive meddling with CDC Covid-19 reports

New documents show political appointees sought to influence at least 13 reports as they ignored warnings from career officials: “The House panel probing the Trump administration’s coronavirus response released new documents detailing political appointees’ extensive efforts to modify or scuttle scientific Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports, as it also ordered top Trump health …

Subjects: Censorship, Congress, Free Speech, Government Documents, Health Care, Legal Research

LC – New “Past Presentations” Webpage in Legal Research Institute

In Custodia Legis – [December 15, 2020] marks the last webinar of 2020 for the Law Library, but don’t fear! We have created a new webpage so that you will be able to enjoy a selection of our past presentations again and again! We have expanded our previous “webinar archive” to include many of our …

Subjects: Congress, Education, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Legislation, Search Engines

SolarWinds Attack—No Easy Fix

CRS Insight, December 15, 2020. SolarWinds Attack—No Easy Fix: “On December 13, 2020, the cybersecurity firm FireEye published research that a malicious actor was exploiting a supply chain vulnerability in SolarWinds products to hack into government and private sector information technology (IT) networks. SolarWinds confirmed the security incident.The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued …

Subjects: Congress, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, E-Government, E-Mail, E-Records, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

LC Complete Digitization of 23 Early Presidential Collections

Library of Congress Blog: “The Library of Congress has completed a more than two decade-long initiative to digitize the papers of nearly two dozen early presidents. The Library holds the papers of 23 presidents from George Washington to Calvin Coolidge, all of which have been digitized and are now available online. The Library plans to …

Subjects: Congress, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries

Tracking Federal Awards: USAspending.gov and Other Data Sources

CRS report via LC – Tracking Federal Awards: USAspending.gov and Other Data Sources, Updated December 16, 2020: “USAspending.gov, available at https://www.USAspending.gov, is a government source for data on federal awards by state, congressional district (CD), county, city, and zip code. The awards data in USAspending.gov are provided by federal agencies and represent contracts, grants, loans, …

Subjects: Congress, E-Government, Economy, Financial System, Health Care, Legal Research, Search Engines

Resources for Tracking Federal COVID-19 Spending

CRS report via LC – Resources for Tracking Federal COVID-19 Spending, Updated December 16, 2020: “Congress has responded to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic with supplemental appropriations measures providing relief and assistance to individuals and families, state and local governments, businesses, health care providers, and other entities. For more information, see CRS Report R46474, …

Subjects: Congress, Economy, Government Documents, Health Care, Legal Research, Legislation