Commentary

An Unwillingness to Address Immigration Is Holding the Tech Industry Back

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

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

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 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

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

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

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

September 14, 2021 | Dan Lips

Congressional leaders remain focused on passing the $1 trillion infrastructure package and answering the Senate’s $3.5 trillion budget resolution. But a bipartisan effort is also underway that has the potential to save hundreds of billions of dollars over time by curbing waste, fraud, and abuse across government agencies. In July, the House of Representatives passed

September 14, 2021 | Dan Lips

Over the past year, Russia and the People’s Republic of China conducted successful cyber espionage campaigns against federal agencies, compromising some of the United States’ most sensitive information. The American public may wonder why federal networks remain vulnerable to serious data breaches despite the government spending billions on cybersecurity programs. But new reports from key

September 14, 2021 | Dan Lips

On Aug. 25, the Biden administration announced a new public-private initiative to improve the nation’s cybersecurity. The White House directed the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) to partner with industry and other stakeholders to develop a new framework to “improve the security and integrity of the technology supply chain.” The White House’s announcement

July 14, 2021 | Dan Lips

Fiscal conservatives haven’t had much to cheer on Capitol Hill in recent years. Even before the pandemic, Republican and Democratic leaders alike embraced a long-term path of deficit spending. The federal government’s debt is projected to grow faster than the nation’s economy, and there appears to be little political will to address the government’s structural fiscal

The GAO at 100

July 14, 2021 | Dan Lips

The Government Accountability Office will celebrate its 100th anniversary on Wednesday; members of Congress are marking the occasion by boosting the watchdog agency’s budget and leveraging its nonpartisan oversight to deliver new taxpayer savings and improve governance. The House Appropriations Committee recently included $729 million for GAO in the new legislative branch spending bill, an increase of

May 26, 2021 | Dan Lips

There’s a chance for bipartisan legislation that would do so, but universities are resistant to potential restrictions on international students. The Senate is expected to pass the United States Innovation and Competition Act of 2021 before breaking for the Memorial Day recess. The bipartisan package would authorize large funding increases for federal research and development. While the

May 17, 2021 | Zach Graves

Interoperability and open protocols can solve many of the problems of centralized cyber power without a heavy regulatory hand. Partisanship is at an all time high in Washington. But one issue policymakers on both sides seem to agree on is that something should be done to rein in the power of Big Tech. The American

April 26, 2021 | Zach Graves

On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee is hosting a hearing on mobile app store competition, featuring representatives from Apple and Google, as well as several app developers. The hearing is convened by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT), chair and ranking member of the Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights. This hearing comes

Biden’s Bungling Broadband Plan

April 5, 2021 | Joel Thayer

The Biden administration’s American Jobs Plan is riddled with issues, especially when it comes to a broadband deployment strategy. The plan seeks to impose 20th century command-and-control government mechanisms, akin to that of an electric grid, to a thriving and diverse internet ecosystem. Sadly, this plan will only leave consumers with less competition and higher

March 29, 2021 | Dan Lips

President Joe Biden’s announcement that he is open to reforming the Senate’s filibuster has energized calls from progressives to eliminate the Senate minority’s most powerful procedural tactic to block legislation or force compromise. But in his new memoir, Getting to the Heart of the Matter: My 36 Years in the Senate, former Michigan Senator Carl Levin

March 23, 2021 | Zach Graves

In 2013, The Economist coined the term “techlash,” predicting that CEOs of large tech firms would soon “join bankers and oilmen in public demonology.” In recent years, this has come to fruition. A majority of both Republicans and Democrats now support increased regulation of the tech industry. Additionally, half of Americans favor breaking up large firms like Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Google.

March 16, 2021 | Joel Thayer

In 2003, Tim Wu first coined the phrase “net neutrality” in his paper “Network Neutrality, Broadband Discrimination.” He defined a neutral network as “internet that does not favor one application over another.” Today, the Federal Communications Commission faces a choice: either regulate the entire internet ecosystem as a public utility or do not. The agency

March 16, 2021 | Dan Lips

The Biden administration has an opportunity to curb the ongoing opioid epidemic in a unique area: the postal system. This opportunity is the result of a 2018 federal law that required the U.S. Postal Service and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to begin turning away international packages that lack advance electronic data (AED) in order

February 24, 2021 | Zach Graves

Smartphone app store policies have come into focus recently, following a series of recent conflicts between app makers and app store operators (principally Apple and Google). These include the removal of conservative-oriented social media platforms Parler and Gab, and the ensuing debate about balancing free speech and harmful content. There have also been numerous conflicts

January 20, 2021 | Dan Lips

Alejandro Mayorkas, President-elect Joe Biden’s choice to be secretary of homeland security, brings significant experience to the role, having worked as deputy secretary during the Obama administration after serving as director of Citizenship and Immigration Services. But his confirmation to that office came while he was under inspector general investigation for allegations of preferential treatment

January 20, 2021 | Dan Lips

The inauguration will culminate in a transfer of power in Congress. For the first time in six years, Democrats will control the upper chamber when Vice President Kamala Harris takes office to break the 50-50 tie in the Senate. With Democratic leaders calling for the end of the Senate’s legislative filibuster, the Senate as an

Why GAO is Congress’s Best Investment

December 7, 2020 | Dan Lips

A new report examines the Congressional watchdog’s return-on-investment Facing a December 11 deadline to fund the federal government, Congress must finalize its annual spending bills or punt those negotiations into the new year. As lawmakers negotiate on Capitol Hill, taxpayers should keep an eye on one small line item in the federal budget. Last year,

October 30, 2020 | Garrett Johnson

The “break-them-up” crowd does not grasp the negative consequences of sweeping anti-tech actions. With declining public sentiment about the tech industry and its impact on society, we’ve witnessed a growing chorus of advocates and policymakers arguing that now is the time for the federal government to take drastic action. Indeed, half of Americans now favor breaking up and more

Avoiding the 1876 Scenario in November

October 8, 2020 | Garrett Johnson

By Garrett Johnson With five weeks to go, Americans from all walks of life and the different sides of the political spectrum should think ahead and prepare to do their part to help the country avoid an 1876 scenario. In 1876, the presidential election reopened the nation’s still healing wounds from the Civil War. The nation

October 8, 2020 | Sean Roberts

By Sean Roberts Viewers who watched the final moments of last week’s presidential debate got a glimpse of the potential crisis facing the United States in November. President Trump sharply criticized expanded voting-by-mail, warned that it will result in widespread fraud and mistakes, and committed to challenging results he deemed unfair. Former Vice President Joe

August 7, 2020 | Dan Lips

The Hill By Elise Bean and Dan Lips Click here to read the full article on the case for IG independence. The balance of power may soon shift in Washington, followed by a realignment in Congress on oversight. Republicans who, under the Trump administration, have resisted investigating executive branch actions may feel differently about a

Rebuilding Congress’ Policy Capacity

July 11, 2020 | Zach Graves

Click here to read the full article discussing efforts to modernize Congress. Earlier this month, the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress held a hearing on improving staffing capacity and policy expertise in Congress. A major theme of this discussion was the historical loss of congressional staff capacity, and how to address it. To reverse this

Congress Must Protect Federal Watchdogs

June 15, 2020 | Dan Lips

By Keith Ashdown, former Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee staff director and Dan Lips, Director of Cyber and National Security Policy President Trump recently fired several of the federal government’s most respected inspectors general–prompting a rare outcry of bipartisan criticism of the White House. Congressional Democrats were instinctively quick to condemn the president’s actions.

May 7, 2020 | Joel Thayer

To be competitive in the race to 5G, the U.S. must rely on and support its expert agency – the FCC…. If we have learned anything from the COVID-19 pandemic, it is the importance of a united front from the government. This is especially true of the United States’ position on 5G, which requires government

The Techlash After COVID-19

April 30, 2020 | Garrett Johnson

The technology industry’s rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic has renewed appreciation for platforms and tools like Facebook and Zoom and given advocates a triumphant narrative to trumpet. But the “techlash” is far from over. COVID-19 and its long-term fallout may mark only the beginning, not the end, of heightened scrutiny of tech. The argument that the tech industry cannot