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Testimony of Dan Lips to the U.S. House of Representatives, Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee

May 19, 2022 | Dan Lips

Click here to download a full PDF of the testimony. Chairman Ryan, Ranking Member Herrera-Beautler, and Members of the Subcommittee: My name is Dan Lips. I am Head of Policy at Lincoln Network. I respectfully urge thesubcommittee to fully fund the Comptroller General’s budget request of $810 million for theU.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) for

May 18, 2022 | Luke Hogg

Just over two years ago, as the world was confronting the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States hit a record unemployment rate of 14.7 percent. Since then, the U.S. labor market rebounded as everyday life has mostly returned to normal. But digging into the latest unemployment data reveals a thought-provoking trend that should have sweeping implications for U.S.

May 11, 2022 | Lars Schönander

Acoalition of dozens of former national security officials including former cabinet secretaries wrote to Congress this week urging lawmakers to use the ongoing conference negotiations of competitiveness legislation to allow more foreigners with science, technology, engineering and math expertise to work in the United States. “In today’s technology competition, the most powerful and enduring asymmetric

May 11, 2022 | Dan Lips

From cyber attacks to overseeing hundreds of billions in federal spending, state and local governments face growing technology challenges. A new bipartisan Senate bill would reform a half-century-old law to allow federal agencies to provide technology assistance to state and local partners and encourage greater cooperation between government agencies. Under the Intergovernmental Cooperation Act of 1968,

May 9, 2022 | Luke Hogg

For decades, immigration reform has been a white whale for Congress. Despite bipartisan legislative efforts, executive branch buy-in, and broad agreement that the current system is broken, immigration reform legislation has proven elusive. Now that a bipartisan group of Senators has once again begun legislative discussions on the topic, there may soon be opportunities to

May 9, 2022 | Luke Hogg

The United States has long been a global leader in innovation. The birth and growth of new distributed ledger technologies (DLT) is one area in which the strength of American inventiveness and entrepreneurial spirit has spawned a technological sea change. But the United States cannot afford to become complacent as global rivals work to develop

Can the Senate See the Future?

May 6, 2022 | Lars Schönander

U.S. Senate committees have various responsibilities. They evaluate nominees for executive branch positions, conduct oversight, and review legislation. Committees use hearings as a primary tool to find facts, analyze policy issues, and inform legislative and oversight actions. But a review of Senate-hearing witness-testimony data raises questions about lawmakers’ ability to anticipate national issues before they

Lincoln Studio Launches BIPBounty.org

May 5, 2022 | Brandon Detweiler

Lincoln Studio is proud to announce the launch of BIPBounty.org, a new project to support the open source development of Bitcoin. This new project incentivizes the research development and vetting of Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs) by creating a system for crowdsourcing tax-deductible bug bounties and distributing them to bounty winners. Lincoln Network has partnered with

April 27, 2022 | Luke Hogg

As the midterm elections approach, immigration policy is back in the news. With rising migration at the southern border and the Biden administration’s pending decision to lift Title 42 public health restrictions, illegal immigration will likely be a campaign issue in the months ahead. But there’s one aspect of immigration policy that deserves strong bipartisan

April 27, 2022 | Luke Hogg

As if like clockwork, the beginning of campaign season means that immigration is once again taking center stage in Washington. Amidst record breaking migration at the southern border and President Biden’s decision to end the Title 42 public health order, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, have been thrust back

April 25, 2022 | Luke Hogg

It’s time for the United States to wake up to the global challenges ahead, and the rivalry between liberal Western values and growing illiberal threats. Over the past few years, the European Union has taken an aggressive posture on tech regulation, targeting large U.S. tech firms and showing little regard for the global implications of

How (Not) to Waste A Crisis

April 21, 2022 | Evan Swarztrauber

In 2008, with the economy in free-fall, then-chief of staff to president-elect Barack Obama, Rahm Emanuel, told the Wall Street Journal, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.” The line has become

April 18, 2022 | Dan Lips

With millions of people filing their federal taxes this week, it’s a good time to check in on the nation’s finances. Last year, the federal government ran a nearly $2.8 trillion deficit. That pushed publicly held debt to an incomprehensible $24 trillion , or more than $70,000 per person. Washington is projected to spend at least $1

April 18, 2022 | Lars Schönander

Some books are timely because their authors felt a need to address a specific issue at a specific moment. Other books are timely because history just so happened to make the subject matter relevant. Nicholas Mulder’s The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War falls into the latter category. Mulder sets to

April 11, 2022 | Luke Hogg

One of the most important components of the U.S.-China rivalry for tech dominance is the global competition for talented scientists and engineers. Federal legislation currently being negotiated could help give the United States a competitive edge if an important provision makes it into the final package. For months, Congress has been hard at work on legislation aimed at “[turbocharging] America’s scientific

April 11, 2022 | Zach Graves

Lincoln Network is excited to announce two new members of its board of directors starting in May: Mike Solana, vice president at Founders Fund; and Laurent Crenshaw, global head of policy at Patreon. Mike Solana Mike is a vice president at Founders Fund focused on community and brand. He runs creative programming including Symposium (F50),

April 11, 2022 | Zach Graves

Lincoln Network is thrilled to announce the appointment of two nonresident senior fellows: Roslyn Layton and Jimmy Soni. Each brings a wealth of expertise in tech and innovation and policy, augmenting Lincoln’s growing roster of experts. Roslyn Layton Roslyn Layton, PhD is an international technology expert who explains the economics, security, and geopolitics of broadband

How Punishing Big Tech Harms America

April 5, 2022 | Luke Hogg

Last week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee expressing its support for legislation that would ban large tech platforms (primarily Amazon, Apple, Google, and Meta) from a range of “discriminatory” behaviors such as self-preferencing their own products. The letter argues that the American Innovation and Choice Online Act

April 4, 2022 | Dan Lips

The 117th Congress may be remembered as a time of intense polarization. But the leaders of a bipartisan House committee have been operating below the national political radar to improve how Congress works. Their latest effort has the potential to deliver substantial taxpayer savings. Formed in 2019, the House Select Committee on the Modernization of

Lincoln’s voice

March 23, 2022 | Zach Graves

Dear friend of Lincoln: I wanted to share a brief note to update you about how our approach to policy is evolving. When I started Lincoln’s policy team in 2018, it was a team of one. Even when we expanded a little, it didn’t make sense at the time to differentiate our individual views from

March 23, 2022 | Dan Lips

Lincoln White Paper Click here to download a PDF version of the paper. The United States faces unprecedented challenges in elementary and secondary education. Prolonged school closures caused widespread learning losses and other negative effects that threaten the future of a generation of American children. Today’s students will grow up in a future where emerging technologies

March 22, 2022 | Luke Hogg

With little chance of passage, are progressives attacking or feinting moderates? Over the past few years, lawmakers have considered tightening rules around mergers and acquisitions (M&As) as a way to rein in Big Tech’s bigness. Last week, in a rather unexpected move, progressives in Congress unveiled their counter to previous antitrust legislation. The bicameral Prohibiting

March 18, 2022 | Dan Lips

Cybersecurity researchers reported last week that Chinese hackers have breached the networks of six state governments since May. The news adds to the challenges facing state and local governments managing growing cybersecurity risks, including widespread ransomware attacks. The biggest cyber risk facing state governments is ransomware attacks. This entails hackers seeking to extract ransom payments by compromising

March 18, 2022 | Lars Schönander

Russian state-backed entities have contributed millions of dollars to organizations in the United States in order to gain influence. Unfortunately, at American post-secondary institutions, it is difficult to track where money is coming from. Section 117 of the Higher Education Act governs how universities report foreign contributions they receive. A review of the Department of Education’s current

March 18, 2022 | Lars Schönander

Last week, Sen. Marco Rubio sent letters to 22 university presidents calling on them to end partnerships with Chinese universities that are aiding Beijing’s military technology initiatives. The problem is real. Unfortunately, Congress and the public have limited visibility into how college campuses are being exploited. Since 1986, federal law has required postsecondary institutions to

March 3, 2022 | Luke Hogg

Earlier this week, Antonio García Martínez sat down with Saurabh Sharma and Nick Solheim of American Moment to discuss the early days of Facebook, the invention of ad-targeting, and what’s in store for the future internet, cryptocurrencies, and nation-states. Learn more about Antonio and his work here, and check out American Moment on their website

February 22, 2022 | Luke Hogg

In a rather unusual move, the Committee on House Administration (CHA) — whose primary jurisdiction is oversight and “the day-to-day operations of the House of Representatives” — recently held a hearing to discuss data privacy. While the first tranche of witness testimony was centered around the Government Publishing Office’s treatment of personally identifiable information, the

February 16, 2022 | Nathan Uldricks

Why the right needs to study management policy In November, the Biden Administration released the President’s Management Agenda Vision, outlining its agenda to overhaul the federal workforce and its operations. At the top level are some goals all Americans should like, such as improving how citizens interact with the federal bureaucracy and rebuilding domestic industrial capacity. Other goals, as

February 11, 2022 | Geoff Cain

At one time, the chipset cemented America’s position as a preeminent technological power. From the 1950s to 1970s, the US government and semiconductor companies like Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel worked together to turn America into the world’s biggest manufacturer of semiconductors. Semiconductors were the technological foundation of the Apollo missions, the first heat-seeking missiles and

Policy Update for October-December 2021

February 2, 2022 | Dan Lips

Re: Lincoln Policy Team Activities for Q4 2021 Dear friend of Lincoln: As 2021 comes to a close, I’d like to share with you some of our policy team’s recent work, covering a range of issues from tech regulation, improving government accountability, and modernizing governance. Lincoln Network co-founder and chairman Garrett Johnson announced our new

January 31, 2022 | Luke Hogg

Following months of disagreement between federal regulators on 5G rollout in the C-Band, Congress has finally decided to step in. On February 3rd, the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure will hold a hearing to examine 5G deployment and aviation safety. Last November, I argued that this dispute was a prime area for Congress to

January 21, 2022 | Dan Lips

Empowering members to engage in bipartisan fact-finding has the potential to reinvigorate Congress’s oversight authority under the Constitution Summary Since 2019, the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress has developed a successful track record of passing bipartisan recommendations that are resulting in real changes to improve the way that Congress works. An October

January 20, 2022 | Luke Hogg

The long awaited 5G rollout was once again delayed Wednesday due to ongoing disagreement between the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over potential spectrum interference. Two weeks ago, it appeared that the disagreement had been resolved. But a last minute push by the airline industry to block the plan forced

January 19, 2022 | Lars Schönander

By Lars Schonander and Dan Lips Executive Summary Federal law requires American colleges and universities to disclose foreign gifts and contracts to the Department of Education. But many institutions have not complied with the law. A bipartisan Senate investigation and a Department of Education review found that the widespread failure to comply has prevented Congress

Announcing the Inaugural FACET Cohort

January 12, 2022 | Zach Graves

We are excited to announce two new members of the Lincoln Network team through our Fellowship on Advancing Critical Emerging Technologies (FACET). The two full-time Senior Fellows in the FACET program will be based in Washington, DC, and work closely with our team to translate academic ideas into actionable policies that advance American innovation. The

January 5, 2022 | Luke Hogg

The Senate Banking Committee met late last year to discuss stablecoins. Among others, Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) voiced strong criticisms of stablecoins and decentralized finance (DeFi). Few likely expected the hearing to yield concrete policy proposals. That was until Ranking Member Pat Toomey’s (R-Pa.) opening remarks. A noted advocate for

January 4, 2022 | Lars Schönander

The United States Senate does not maintain a centralized repository for information about its committee proceedings that includes links to the videos. Our new website, https://www.senatecommitteehearings.com/, is our effort to address this issue and surface video from committee proceedings. Background The Senate publishes basic information about all upcoming meetings on this webpage. It is only

December 12, 2021 | Garrett Johnson

The new year is a time for new beginnings, and that’s especially true here at Lincoln Network as we start 2022. I will be moving into a non-executive leadership role as chairman of the board of directors, where I will be joined by my co-founder Aaron Ginn. This will allow us to remain involved in shaping Lincoln’s

December 8, 2021 | Dan Lips

The House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress is building a track record of bipartisan success with nearly two-thirds of its recommendations from the 116th Congress being enacted to date. On Wednesday, the Select Committee passed its latest series of recommendations–including several proposals that would reform the way that Congress works with the Government

December 6, 2021 | Luke Hogg

Click here to download a PDF of the letter. Dear Chairman Durbin and Ranking Member Grassley: We write to support your efforts to bring the Open Courts Act (S. 2614) to a vote before the Senate JudiciaryCommittee on December 9. We have long appreciated your commitment to transparency in all branches ofgovernment, including the judiciary,