Month: June 2021

Cost-Effective Policy Options to Help States Manage Growing Cybersecurity Risks

June 28, 2021 | Dan Lips

State and local governments are facing growing cyber threats. From ransomware attacks to data breaches, local governments are on the frontlines of the global cyber conflict that remains a top national security threat, according to the Director of National Intelligence. Like all organizations, state and local governments have limited resources to manage cybersecurity risks. Nationally,

June 24, 2021 | Zach Graves

Today at noon the House Appropriations Committee’s Legislative Branch Subcommittee will mark up its funding bill for fiscal year 2022. This legislation constitutes a big leap towards addressing the devastating decline Members of Congress have inflicted upon the Legislative Branch over the past quarter century, including a nearly 40 percent staffing reduction at committees and

June 22, 2021 | Zach Graves

The House Judiciary Committee’s package of anti-tech monopoly legislation heads to markup tomorrow. Included in it are several proposals to strengthen the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division (DOJ-ATR), the two primary US competition enforcement agencies. Out of this package, the two bills that are least controversial, and thus most

June 17, 2021 | Dan Lips

Click here to download a PDF of the letter Chairman Hassan, Ranking Member Paul, and Members of the Subcommittee, Thank you for the opportunity to testify. My name is Dan Lips. I am the vice president for national security and government oversight at Lincoln Network, a non-profit organization focused on bridging gaps between the technology

June 16, 2021 | Zach Graves

Following the House Judiciary Committee’s year-long investigation into digital market competition in the 116th Congress, a group of House lawmakers are advancing a bipartisan package of bills aimed at reining in big tech firms—namely, Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft. What the bills do If enacted, this package would dramatically reshape the US innovation ecosystem,

Building state capacity at FTC and DOJ

June 16, 2021 | Zach Graves

Within the House’s package of anti-monopoly proposals, the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act of 2021 is the odd one out. It has a longer legislative history, stronger bipartisan support, is relatively incremental, and is not explicitly targeted at big tech. Despite some nay-saying from the peanut gallery, as well as a more fraught political environment

June 14, 2021 | Dan Lips

President Biden’s ongoing trip to Europe, including meetings with the G-7 and NATO, has highlighted the many challenges facing the world’s leading democracies including the ongoing global democratic recession. The past year marked “the 15th consecutive year of decline in global freedom,” according to the non-profit Freedom House. Writing in the Washington Post before the

The Realignment Conference

June 14, 2021 | Marshall Kosloff

Join The Realignment podcast’s Marshall Kosloff and Saagar Enjeti for a live and in-person conference in Miami, Florida. Much like the podcast, this conference will explore the realignment reshaping America and the world — and what it means for politics, technology, foreign policy, and the ways we live and work. The conference will bring together

June 10, 2021 | Zach Graves

Click here to download a PDF version of the paper Zach Graves is a visiting fellow with the National Security Institute (NSI) at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School. This NSI law and policy paper offers an overview of the recent history, driving forces, and policy implications of the “techlash”—a phenomenon referring to a

June 9, 2021 | Dan Lips

On Thursday, the subcommittees of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will be holding a hearing to examine the People’s Republic of China’s atrocities in Xinjiang. Senators will hear testimony from leading human rights experts about the ongoing genocide occuring in the region. In March, the State Department issued its annual report on global human rights

June 2, 2021 | Dan Lips

Click here to download a PDF version of the paper Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has not established an effective strategy for winning hearts and minds or promoting democratic and liberal values abroad. During this period, the United States reduced its capacity for effectively conducting public diplomacy. While the United

June 1, 2021 | Dan Lips

On Tuesday, Lincoln Network and representatives of eight organizations sent a letter to Chairman Bob Menedez and Ranking Member Jim Risch of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee requesting a hearing on American tech firms supporting digital authoritarianism. The letter cited recent media reports about Apple’s business practices in the People’s Republic of China and the