Category «Congress»

Loopholes for Circumventing the Constitution: Warrantless Bulk Surveillance on Americans by Collecting Network Traffic Abroad

Arnbak, Axel and Goldberg, Sharon, Loopholes for Circumventing the Constitution: Warrantless Bulk Surveillance on Americans by Collecting Network Traffic Abroad (June 27, 2014). HOTPETS, 2014. Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2460462 “In this multi-disciplinary paper, we reveal interdependent legal and technical loopholes that intelligence agencies of the U.S. government could use to circumvent constitutional and statutory …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legislation, Patriot Act, Privacy

New poll on anniversary of Dodd Frank finds majority of Americans identify Wall Street with risk

“On the 4th anniversary of the passage of the Dodd-Frank law and nearly 6 years since the financial collapse of 2008, American voters still distrust Wall Street and big banks and strongly support tough financial regulation of them, according to a new national survey of likely 2014 voters. The result is a strong majority of voters supporting stricter regulations of the …

Subjects: Congress, Economy, Financial System, Legislation

Analysis of Recent Mass Shootings Released by Advocacy Group

“In 2013, Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America came together to tackle our shared goals. We’ve combined the best minds in policy-making with a grassroots movement of more than 2 million motivated members…Using FBI data and media reports, Everytown for Gun Safety developed an analysis of mass shootings …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Legal Research, Legislation

Privacy Protection for Customer Financial Information – CRS

Privacy Protection for Customer Financial Information – M. Maureen Murphy, Legislative Attorney. July 14, 2014 “One of the functions transferred to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) under P.L. 111-203, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank), is authority to issue regulations and take enforcement actions under the two major federal statutes that specify conditions under which customer …

Subjects: Congress, E-Records, Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Legislation, Privacy

Bipartisan Policy Center Recommends Improvements to Key Features of the Dodd-Frank Act

“The Bipartisan Policy Center’s (BPC) Financial Regulatory Reform Initiative today released three top ten lists highlighting key areas of progress made since the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act four years ago, along with 20 proposed action items for regulators and Congress to address the significant challenges that remain. These include: Top Ten Areas Where Dodd-Frank Made Progress Top Ten …

Subjects: Congress, Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Legislation

The 2014 Long-Term Budget Outlook

“Between 2009 and 2012, the federal government recorded the largest budget deficits relative to the size of the economy since 1946, causing its debt to soar. The total amount of federal debt held by the public is now equivalent to about 74 percent of the economy’s annual output, or gross domestic product (GDP)—a higher percentage …

Subjects: Congress, Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Health Care

New Data on Unaccompanied Children in Immigration Court

“Records just obtained under the Freedom of Information Act offer new insights about government policies governing the handling of the recent surge of unaccompanied children seeking entry into the U.S. As of the end of June 2014, the more than 100,000 case records obtained and analyzed by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) show that …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Courts, Legal Research

Brookings – A Cascade of Failures: Why Government Fails, and How to Stop It

“In this research paper, Paul C. Light writes that the “first step in preventing future failures is to find a reasonable set of past failures that might yield lessons for repair.” To meet this goal, Light asks four key questions about past federal government failures: (1) where did government fail, (2) why did government fail, …

Subjects: Congress, Economy, Government Documents

Access to Broadband Networks: The Net Neutrality Debate

CRS – Access to Broadband Networks: The Net Neutrality Debate. Angele A. Gilroy, Specialist in Telecommunications Policy. July 2, 2014. “As congressional policy makers continue to debate telecommunications reform, a major point of contention is the question of whether action is needed to ensure unfettered access to the Internet. The move to place restrictions on the owners of the …

Subjects: Congress, Government Documents, Internet

“For Official Use Only” is Used Too Much at DHS, House Says – FAS

Steven Aftergood, Secrecy News: “There is too much information that is marked “For Official Use Only” at the Department of Homeland Security, the House Appropriations Committee said in its report on DHS Appropriations for 2015….Here is the Committee language from its June 19 DHS Appropriations report: Over-Classification of Information – The Committee is concerned with the number of reports, briefings, …

Subjects: Congress, Defense, E-Government, E-Records, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Making the Grade Report 2014 – Infrastructure Leadership

“A new report was released that outlines innovative new ways that the federal government, industry and other stakeholders can work together to solve the crisis of the failing state of U.S. infrastructure. Entitled Making The Grade, the report is the result of experts from 45 different organizations, including corporations, professional organizations, think tanks, financial advisors …

Subjects: Congress, Economy, Transportation

Diverse organizations launch coalition focused on ending mass cyber surveillance

“We are a coalition of organizations from across the political spectrum joining forces to fight mass surveillance by the National Security Agency. We have different missions, different goals, different communities that we represent. However, we all agree that mass surveillance is contrary to freedom and democracy. It must be stopped. Surveillance that sweeps up the communications of …

Subjects: Congress, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legislation, Patriot Act, Privacy

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