Blog – Lincoln Policy

New Framework Could Help Bring Clarity to Confusing Crypto Rules

October 27, 2021 | Luke Hogg

Innovative and disruptive technologies are often confusing by their very nature. Without some prior frame of reference, understanding whether and how to regulate these technologies can be even more challenging. Nowhere is this phenomenon more clear than with cryptocurrency and other digitally native financial assets. A new high level policy proposal from one of the

October 14, 2021 | Luke Hogg

But is it doubling down on the House’s flawed approach? Following the House Judiciary Committee’s introduction of its package of bills to address alleged anticompetitive practices in the tech industry back in June, Senate Judiciary Committee members Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) have announced the first in a series of long awaited companion

September 29, 2021 | Dan Lips

The Hassan-Ernst bill would rescind $1.5 billion from a fund Congress terminated decades ago While Congress is focused on the debt limit and trillion-dollar spending packages, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) continues to highlight opportunities for lawmakers and federal agencies to save “tens of billions” implementing the nonpartisan watchdog’s recommendations for reforming the government. And

September 22, 2021 | Zach Graves

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

September 2, 2021 | Dan Lips

Lincoln Network’s Project Nickel will change that by showing per-student spending by school With students across the country heading back to school, it’s a good time to take a look at what the American public thinks about the state of K-12 education. A new survey released by Ed Choice and Braun Research finds that parents

September 1, 2021 | Zach Graves

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

On Bitcoin and Border Security

August 26, 2021 | Dan Lips

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

August 3, 2021 | Dan Lips

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.

The Case for a Longevity Moonshot

July 27, 2021 | Bonnie Kavoussi

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.

July 21, 2021 | Zach Graves

Lincoln Network is excited to announce a major new multi-year grant to expand its policy and programming provided by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. As we begin 2021, conflict over the future of technology has reached a fevered pitch. Today, millions of Americans are coming to understand what Lincoln Network has said

Policy Update for April-June 2021

July 6, 2021 | Zach Graves

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.

June 28, 2021 | Dan Lips

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,

June 24, 2021 | Zach Graves

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

June 22, 2021 | Zach Graves

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

June 16, 2021 | Zach Graves

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,

Building state capacity at FTC and DOJ

June 16, 2021 | Zach Graves

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

June 14, 2021 | Dan Lips

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

The Realignment Conference

June 14, 2021 | Marshall Kosloff

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

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

May 26, 2021 | Lincoln Network

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 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 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

Policy Update for January-March 2021

April 6, 2021 | Zach Graves

The following post was originally set as an email newsletter to our friends and supporters. Re: Lincoln Policy Team Activities for Q1 Dear friend of Lincoln: This year has ushered in a new administration, a new Congress, new policy and technology debates, and a new post-pandemic normal. At Lincoln Network, we have embraced the theme of “new” for

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 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 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 | 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

February 16, 2021 | Joe Kane

Behind all those Super Bowl commercials about “5G” has been a years-long push to get the wireless frequencies needed for the next generation of wireless service ready for widespread use. One of the biggest recent steps in that direction is the Federal Communications Commission’s auction of licenses to operate in the lower portion of the

February 4, 2021 | Dan Lips

On Tuesday, Ohio Senators Rob Portman and Sherrod Brown led thirteen of their colleagues in sending a bipartisan letter to National Economic Council Director Brian Deese. The lawmakers urged the Biden administration to help auto manufacturers address the current semiconductor shortage which has forced companies to curb production despite growing demand. The Senators urged the

January 28, 2021 | Alexiaa Jordan

Over the past four years, the semiconductor industry has focused on U.S. trade policy with China. Congress and the Trump Administration strengthened federal laws to restrict foreign investment, control technology transfer, and established new federal research incentives. This pattern looks to be continuing as President Biden’s nominee to lead the Department of Commerce committed to

January 27, 2021 | Garrett Johnson

Lincoln is excited to announce a new program at the intersection of technology, criminal justice, and civil liberties. This new program will be led by Arthur Rizer, who is joining Lincoln Network’s policy team as Vice President for Technology, Criminal Justice, and Civil Liberties. Arthur brings considerable experience in this policy area, having been a

January 26, 2021 | Dan Lips

President Biden’s nominee for Commerce Secretary testified to Congress today that the new administration will be firm in responding to China’s unfair trade practices. Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo told the Senate said the administration will “take aggressive trade enforcement actions to combat unfair trade practices from China and other nations that undercut American manufacturing.”

January 1, 2021 | Zach Graves

The following post was originally set as an email newsletter to our friends and supporters. Re: Lincoln Policy Team Activities for November-December 2020 Dear friend of Lincoln: 2020 is coming to a close, but it has left us all with many questions and urgent policy decisions that need to be made to secure the future. At