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lincoln network

The umbrella organization over Studio, Deployed and Policy seeking to bridge the gap between innovators and policymakers for a freer and more abundant future.

lincoln studio

A product studio that partners with donors to create new technology products to solve policy and social problems. The liberty skunkworks.

lincoln deployed

A full-service digital agency that specializes in product strategy, design, and software engineering, for customers that align with our mission.

lincoln policy

A boutique think tank that works with policymakers and tech innovators to promote market-oriented ideas to stengthen American innovation.

Blog

April 16, 2020 | Garrett Johnson

SBA.gov vs. Instacart – Collapsing IT Infrastructure During Covid 19

Exploding demand for government assistance at nearly every level has strained many old technology systems to the point of crashing, causing millions of Americans nightmares. Any startup would dream of the hockey-stick traffic spikes experienced by state unemployment pages or by the federal Small Business Administration (SBA) since mid-March, but the current crisis provides another
Blog

September 22, 2021 | Zach Graves

Lincoln Announces New Fellowship on Emerging Technologies

FACET — Fellowship on Advancing Critical Emerging Technologies Lincoln Network is excited to announce a new resident fellowship program at the intersection of national security and emerging technologies. Fellows will spend a year working with our team in Washington, DC to translate academic ideas to actionable policies that advance American innovation. The program will focus
Blog

September 14, 2021 | Dan Lips

Congress should know what federal agencies are wasting

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
Commentary, Publications, Uncategorized

September 14, 2021 | Dan Lips

Congress Is Warning That the Federal Government Remains Vulnerable to Cyberattacks

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
Commentary, Publications

September 14, 2021 | Dan Lips

How Congress and NIST Can Help Organizations Better Manage Cyber Risk

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
Commentary, Publications

September 2, 2021 | Dan Lips

Reviewing the Data: How GAO Saves Taxpayer Dollars

A review of nonpublic data estimating GAO’s financial accomplishments since 2002 In July, the House of Representatives passed the Fiscal Year 2022 Legislative Branch funding bill—legislation that would provide $729 million for the Government Accountability Office, an increase of $68 million over the prior year’s funding level. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is Congress’s watchdog:
Publications, Research

September 1, 2021 | Zach Graves

Announcing the second Policy Hackers cohort

We’re excited announce Lincoln Network’s second cohort of Policy Hackers–10 tech professionals from around the country passionate about helping bridge the gap between innovators and policymakers. Fellows will remain in their current roles while engaging with policy experts, lobbyists, academics, and government officials throughout the year-long program. The programming is aimed at helping fellows build
Blog

August 26, 2021 | Dan Lips

On Bitcoin and Border Security

How El Salvador’s plan to make crypto legal tender might change the “push”and “pull” factors  The crisis at the U.S. southern border continues unabated with Customs and Border Protection reporting a more than three-fold increase in encounters at the border compared to last year. While 2020 was a down year for illegal border crossings (perhaps
Blog

August 3, 2021 | Dan Lips

Why Fiscal Conservatives Should Cheer the House’s Leg Branch Funding Bill

The House of Representatives passed the Legislative Branch funding bill last week–increasing funding for Congress, the Capitol Police, and related agencies by nearly 14 percent over last year’s budget. For fiscal conservatives concerned about the ballooning federal debt, this is one area of the budget where we should be cheering for more funding than less. 
Blog

July 27, 2021 | Bonnie Kavoussi

The Case for a Longevity Moonshot

As the government debates spending more money on community college and the child tax credit, there is one form of government spending that could significantly improve the lives of every single person on earth. It’s time for the U.S. government to devote significant resources to finding a cure for aging and extending the human lifespan.
Blog

July 26, 2021 | Joel Thayer

Options to Give the Universal Service Fund a Much-Needed Upgrade

As telecommunications revenues decline, a tax to promote universal service – passed onto everyday consumers – continues to increase. The reason: That tax replenishes the Federal Communications Commission’s Universal Service Fund’s annual budget of $5 billion to $8 billion. The fund is the commission’s primary tool to close the so-called “digital divide” by supporting four
Research

July 22, 2021 | Zach Graves

Coalition to Congress: Invest in Policy and Oversight Capacity to Strengthen Article I

Click here to view a PDF of the letter. Hon. Richard Shelby, Vice ChairU.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations Hon. Mike Braun, Ranking MemberSubcommittee on the Legislative BranchU.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations Re: Strengthening Article I with Policy and Oversight Capacity Dear Vice Chair Shelby and Ranking Member Braun, We the undersigned right-of-center organizations and individuals
Letters & Testimony

July 14, 2021 | Dan Lips

Congress May Soon Know How Much Federal Agencies Are Wasting

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
Commentary

July 14, 2021 | Dan Lips

The GAO at 100

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
Commentary

July 6, 2021 | Zach Graves

Policy Update for April-June 2021

The following post was originally set as an email newsletter to our friends and supporters. Re: Lincoln Policy Team Activities for Q2 Dear friend of Lincoln: I’d like to share with you some of our team’s recent outputs, covering a range of issues from technology governance, to national security, to congressional modernization and the future of oversight.
Blog

June 28, 2021 | Dan Lips

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

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,
Blog

June 24, 2021 | Zach Graves

Funding Bill Takes a Giant Leap to Rebuild Congressional Capacity

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
Blog

June 22, 2021 | Zach Graves

Expanding the FTC’s role to counter China

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
Blog

June 16, 2021 | Zach Graves

House anti-monopoly proposals seek to radically reshape the tech sector

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,
Blog

June 16, 2021 | Zach Graves

Building state capacity at FTC and DOJ

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
Blog

June 14, 2021 | Dan Lips

A New Strategy to Use Technology to Promote American Values Abroad

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
Blog

June 14, 2021 | Marshall Kosloff

The Realignment Conference

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
Blog

June 9, 2021 | Dan Lips

Questions for Thursday’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing On “Atrocities in Xinjiang: Where Do We Go From Here?”

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
Blog, Letters & Testimony

June 2, 2021 | Dan Lips

A New Strategy for U.S. Public Diplomacy: Using Virtual Education and Incentives to Promote Understanding of American Values

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
Research

May 26, 2021 | Dan Lips

Before Investing More in R&D, We Must Secure Research Institutions From Outside Threats

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
Commentary

May 26, 2021 | Lincoln Network

Policy Hackers Fellowship Application Now Open for 2021-2022

We believe the future should be better represented in Washington. That’s why we’re creating Policy Hackers, to develop a new cohort of innovation policy advocates. Applications are open from now until July 18, 2021. Policy Hackers is a year-long, non-resident fellowship program for tech professionals (Please Note: This Fellowship is not for people who already
Blog

May 24, 2021 | Joel Thayer

Broadband Plan Needs a Lighter Touch

Democratic legislatures and the Biden Administration are correct to focus on closing the so-called “digital divide”—a phenomenon that describes the disparity of those without broadband access. But propping up artificial competition, using European public-utility models, and having highly prescriptive technical mandates to achieve this goal have shown to widen the divide than close it. Last
Blog

May 17, 2021 | Zach Graves

How To Fix Big Tech Without Big Government

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
Commentary

May 17, 2021 | Zach Graves

Pay Congressional Staff More! Says Bipartisan Group of 30 Orgs to House Approps

Click here to download a PDF of the letter 30 organizations and 11 congressional experts sent a bipartisan letter to House appropriators today calling to restore funding levels for congressional personal office and committee staff, amounting to double-digit percentage increases. The bipartisan letter was organized by the progressive organization Demand Progress and the conservative organization Lincoln
Letters & Testimony

May 4, 2021 | Zach Graves

GAO’s Next 100 Years: Oversight, Insight, and Foresight

2021 year marks the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Government Accountability Office (GAO). After World War I, Congress sought to control growing government expenditures and debt and created GAO to assess the legality and adequacy of government expenditures. Today, GAO provides critical support to Congress through its audits, legal opinions, and analyses that
Blog

April 30, 2021 | Zach Graves

Francis Fukuyama on Tech and Democracy

I recently joined American Purpose editor-in-chief Jeff Gedmin for a discussion with Francis Fukuyama on technology and democracy. Watch the full video below. Francis Fukuyama is chairman of the editorial board of American Purpose. He is Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), director of the Ford Dorsey Master’s in International
Blog

April 29, 2021 | Dan Lips

Former Comptroller General David Walker on GAO’s 100th Anniversary

In 2021, the Government Accountability Office is marking its 100th anniversary serving as Congress’s nonpartisan watchdog. Former Comptroller General David Walker led GAO from 1998 to 2008–initiating a series of lasting reforms to strengthen GAO’s value and return-on-investment for Congress and American taxpayers.  In a recent interview, I asked former Comptroller General Walker about his
Blog

April 26, 2021 | Zach Graves

The App Store Competition Debate, Explained

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
Commentary, Publications