Month: July 2022

July 26, 2022 | Geoff Cain

This piece was originally published on Substack. A 19-year-old computer hacker invited me into his home in Lviv, Ukraine, ready to show off his weaponry: three large monitors from which he coordinated cyber-attacks into Russia’s increasingly closed-off internet. It was March 2022, and he wanted to strike back at Russia’s opening missile salvos. But he

Cutting It as a Tech Writer

July 22, 2022 | Geoff Cain

This piece was originally published on Substack. Another week, another media blow-up. Yesterday, an editor at The New Yorker, Erin Overbey, accused the magazine of retaliating against her for protesting gender inequalities, when it opened a “performance review” into her work. She claimed her boss, editor-in-chief David Remnick, inserted two errors into her articles during the performance

On Hostage Diplomacy

July 20, 2022 | Geoff Cain

This piece was originally published on Substack. Hostage-taking has become a feature of diplomacy involving authoritarian governments. Today, President Biden signed an executive order that will allow the United States to sanction people or governments that take Americans hostage, and will set up a warning system for Americans planning a trip. This comes as WNBA

July 20, 2022 | Dan Lips

This piece was originally published in National Review. With interest rates rising, the federal government’s debt problem is about to get much worse. The Congressional Budget Office recently warned that rising interest rates, projected trillion-dollar deficits, and the ballooning national debt will cause federal spending on debt payments to “increase substantially.” The federal government’s interest payments are projected to

Lincoln Welcomes New Fellow

July 18, 2022 | Zach Graves

Lincoln Network is thrilled to announce the appointment of Jessica Seale as a nonresident fellow. In this position, she will contribute to Lincoln’s work on congressional modernization. Jessica’s experience in the federal government makes her a perfect addition to Lincoln’s policy team. She previously led technology design and implementation for the Paycheck Protection Program at

July 18, 2022 | Luke Hogg

By Jonathon Hauenschild and Luke Hogg With the August recess approaching and the November elections looming, the window is rapidly closing for the current Congress to enact legislation updating antitrust laws to hold big technology companies accountable. That could be good news for American consumers, since the flagship bill under consideration in the Senate might force

A Bipartisan Vote for Good Government

July 15, 2022 | Dan Lips

This piece was originally published in The Hill. On Tuesday, Congress proved that lawmakers can still work together on passing good government reforms when the House of Representatives passed the Improving Government for America’s Taxpayers Act. The vote shows growing bipartisan support for addressing the nation’s fiscal challenges by using nonpartisan oversight to reform government programs.

July 14, 2022 | Reynold Schweickhardt

Click here to download a PDF version of the paper. Despite many reforms over time, Congress has struggled to keep up with the pace of technological change and the new burdens it has brought. In particular, because of its distributed governance, legislative branch IT operations must contend with a greater number of coordination problems, inefficiencies, and vectors

July 12, 2022 | Luke Hogg

Conservatives across the country have grown increasingly distrustful of large online platforms. From content suppression during COVID-19 to the deplatforming of Parler to large-scale data breaches, high-profile incidents have led many on the center-right to question Big Tech’s influence over our lives. With Republicans poised to gain seats in Congress in November, lawmakers should be looking ahead to the 118th

July 5, 2022 | Dan Lips

By Zach Graves and Dan Lips TikTok is one of the fastest growing social media apps, with more than 80 million U.S.-based active users, including an astounding 70 percent of all American teenagers. Through its rise in popularity, the app has been plagued by a series of security and privacy concerns related to its parent company, ByteDance, and its

July 4, 2022 | Zach Graves

With rising influence spending by illiberal governments and state-backed firms (e.g. TikTok and Huawei)—including on think tanks and advocacy groups—I’m proud to announce that Lincoln’s Board of Directors has formally adopted a policy of refusing gifts from entities tied to authoritarian regimes. Specifically, we will refuse donations from foreign governments, foreign firms (including their US