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Understanding The Techlash: Implications For U.S. Innovation Policy

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

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 26, 2021 | Alexiaa Jordan

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

Broadband Plan Needs a Lighter Touch

May 24, 2021 | Joel Thayer

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

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

May 17, 2021 | Zach Graves

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

May 13, 2021 | Dan Lips

Click here to download a PDF of the letter Chairman Ryan, Ranking Member Herrera Beutler, and Members of the Subcommittee: My name is Dan Lips. I am the Director of National Security and Government Oversight with the Lincoln Network. I respectfully urge the subcommittee to fully fund the Comptroller General’s FY2020 budget request of $744.3

May 11, 2021 | Dan Lips

What does the local public school in your community spend per-student? A new technology tool developed by Lincoln Studio in partnership with EdChoice can give you an answer. Project Nickel is a first-of-its-kind search engine of U.S. public school per-student spending data required to be reported to the U.S. Department of Education under a bipartisan

May 4, 2021 | Zach Graves

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

Francis Fukuyama on Tech and Democracy

April 30, 2021 | Zach Graves

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

April 29, 2021 | Dan Lips

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

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

April 15, 2021 | Zach Graves

This post was co-authored by Zach Graves and Dan Lips. The FY2022 appropriations process is underway. While it represents a small fraction of overall spending, one of the most important challenges on Congress’s agenda is meeting the funding needs for the Legislative Branch, and providing resources for key support agencies like the Government Accountability Office

April 12, 2021 | Dan Lips

An Interview with Deloitte Analysts William Eggers and Steve Berman The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office issues more than a thousand recommendations to Congress and executive agencies each year to improve operations and increase fiscal efficiency. According to the Comptroller General’s annual estimates, the Congressional watchdog agency routinely achieves a return-on-investment of more than $100

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

April 1, 2021 | Joe Kane

Click here to download a full PDF of this Lincoln Policy Short. If you are tired of Zoom calls, spend too much time on TikTok, or are reading this on your computer screen, we have good news: The Internet still works. For most Americans, this is unsurprising. But three years ago there was an uproar

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 26, 2021 | Zach Graves

Click here to download a PDF of the letter Chairman Kilmer, Vice Chairman Timmons, and esteemed members of the Committee: Thank you for the opportunity to testify. My organization, Lincoln Network, works to bridge the gap between Silicon Valley and DC. This work entails building up and future-proofing our institutions with the capacity they need

March 26, 2021 | Alexiaa Jordan

Click here to download a PDF of the letter Good morning, my name is Alexiaa Jordan. I am a Next Generation National Security Fellow with the Center for New American Security, a Policy Analyst with the Lincoln Network; and I am a former staffer in the Illinois state legislature. Thank you for allowing me to

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 19, 2021 | Dan Lips

Days before Congress passed the $1.9 trillion emergency spending package, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office issued a grim snapshot of the nation’s fiscal condition. CBO warned that the “growing debt burden could increase the risk of a fiscal crisis and higher inflation as well as undermine confidence in the U.S. dollar, making it more costly to finance public and private

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

March 4, 2021 | Zach Graves

Majorities of both Republicans and Democrats now support increased regulation of the tech industry. Responding to this pressure, policymakers on both sides of the aisle have become increasingly critical of big tech, and are looking to advance new legislation. However, because their underlying grievances are different—with the right focusing on anti-conservative bias, and the left

March 4, 2021 | Dan Lips

The global technology competition between the United States and the People’s Republic of China becomes more evident by the day. President Xi Jinping is expected to call for a new 5-year plan this week for the PRC to achieve technology independence from the West at an annual meeting of the legislature. On Monday, the Biden

February 26, 2021 | Zach Graves

Dear Honorable Majority Leader Schumer, Honorable Minority Leader McConnell, Honorable Chairwoman Klobuchar, and Honorable Ranking Member Blunt: The COVID-19 pandemic, growing economic hardship for many American families, a national reckoning over racial injustice, and the January 6 siege of the Capitol have strained our democracy, underscoring the need for a strong, well-prepared Congress. While democratic

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

February 24, 2021 | Dan Lips

On Tuesday, Dr. Eric Schmidt testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee. The former Google CEO and current chair of the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence offered a sobering message to Congress about China’s technology strategy: [R]ight now, the United States is not playing to win. It is the Chinese who are competing to

February 22, 2021 | Jordan McGillis

With a population of just 1.3 million, Estoxnia may seem an unlikely adversary to the People’s Republic of China, but a report published Wednesday by its intelligence service has established the Baltic country as a vocal opponent of Chinese sharp power. The report’s final section is devoted to reproaching China for its “increasingly confrontational foreign

February 19, 2021 | Garrett Johnson

Lincoln Network is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that was founded in 2014 with a mission to help bridge the gap between Silicon Valley and DC from a pro-market, pro-innovation perspective. Lincoln’s founders recognized that the government needs, and the people it serves deserve, new ideas and technologies to increase efficiency, effectiveness, and responsiveness. We founded

February 17, 2021 | Zach Graves

Dear Speaker Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Schumer, House Republican Leader McCarthy, and Senate Republican Leader McConnell: We write in firm opposition to the proposed enclosure of the U.S. Capitol with permanent security fencing. The Capitol and surrounding buildings must remain open to all engaged in the business of our democracy. Congress should be the shining

February 17, 2021 | Jordan McGillis

Twelve months from now, two thousand athletes representing almost 100 countries are slated to march under their national flags into Beijing National Stadium to mark the opening of the 2022 Winter Olympics. Beijing National Stadium—the Bird’s Nest—was the focal point of the 2008 Summer Games and hosted that year’s opening ceremony, an awe-inducing tribute to