Flowers to Super Computers, Fields to Nanotechnology depend upon the foundations of the natural world
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| INFRASTRUCTURE |
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A new idea for American infrastructure
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For
more than a year, United by Interest — a majority-minority-owned bipartisan
lobbying firm — has been working on a plan to unite the bases of both parties
to rally behind an infrastructure bill that would invest in America’s poorest
communities.
The
bill — called the Generating American Infrastructure and Income Now (GAIIN)
Act — is expected to be introduced in the House this Tuesday. It brings
together a rare coalition, uniting members of the Freedom Caucus and the
Congressional Black Caucus:
The
details: According to sources involved in
the bill's drafting, the legislation would require the Department of
Agriculture to sell its distressed debt assets, estimated to be worth more
than $50 billion.
Rep.
Kelly, the bill's lead sponsor, told Axios:
"Even in this time of historically strong economic growth, some of our
country’s poorest communities are still waiting for significant
infrastructure improvements."
The
politics: Sam Geduldig and Michael Williams,
of United by Interest, say the bill appeals to conservatives because it shows
a "possible path to paying for infrastructure projects, without having
to raise the gas tax." And it also appeals to liberals because "the
infrastructure projects the bill would pay for would be in communities below
the poverty line, which largely happen to be African American, Hispanic and
rural white communities." [Axios
Sneak Peek, June 10, 2018]
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| WORK |
RIGHT-SIZING THE GIG ECONOMY: The
number of full-time independent contractors — 10.6 million workers, or 6.9
percent of the workforce — has declined since 2005, when it stood at 7.4
percent, according to a new BLS study . The
results echoed earlier findings, but nonetheless came as a surprise to
politicians on both sides of the aisle who frequently tout the purported growth
of the gig economy. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta predicted in February that
the BLS would find a "substantial increase" in the number of Americans
participating in the gig economy; it did not. And earlier this year, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.)
and 15 liberal senators secured additional funding for the survey, citing an
"explosion in new technology and on-demand platforms." Warner
appeared to backpedal somewhat on the report's importance after its release,
noting that it did not show how many Americans work temporary jobs to
supplement their income. (The survey excluded most individuals who work part
time via apps or websites, such as Uber drivers. That group, which almost
certainly has grown, will be quantified in a September release.)
"This should throw some cold water on
those hyping the explosion of freelancing and the rapidly changing nature of
work," Lawrence Mishel wrote for the
left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. "Roughly 93 percent of employment
still takes the form of W-2 payroll employment—freelancing and gig work are not
taking over." Still, the report included some notable findings, including
a growing overrepresentation of non-white workers in temp jobs even as
temporary or "contingent" workers decreased as a share of the
workforce to 6.9 percent, down from 7.4 percent in 2005. During that same
period, the non-white share of temp agency workers increased by 10 percent.
More here. [POLITICO's Morning Shift, June 8, 2018]
SENATORS MAKE ELECTION SECURITY PLAY IN DEFENSE BILL — A
bipartisan group of senators is trying to attach revised election security
legislation to the chamber's annual defense policy bill as an amendment. The
legislation, known as the Secure Elections Act, S. 2593, was proposed in March. With backing from a wide-ranging roster of
senior lawmakers, it was viewed as the bill with the best chance of passing
Congress in response to repeated calls from election integrity advocates and
state officials to shore up the country's voting systems after Russian hacks
and disinformation campaigns roiled the 2016 presidential race.
However, momentum slowed as Sen. James Lankford, one
of the original co-authors of the bill, incorporated additional feedback from
state election officials and the Senate Rules Committee saw a leadership
change. Sen. Roy Blunt, a former Missouri secretary of state who got the
gavel, told POLITICO last month the committee would examine how
to better safeguard the country's election infrastructure once it's
"staffed up."
The revised bill eliminates an election security grant
program intended to disburse money to states, since lawmakers
approved a $1.3 trillion spending deal that included $380 million for the
Election Assistance Commission to help states bolster their digital defenses
prior to the midterm elections. The new version also expands EAC's Technical
Guidelines Development Committee and morphs it into the "Technical Advisory
Board" — a concession to state officials who feared an advisory panel
proposed in the original bill would lead to Washington mandates.
Instead,
the existing group would be expanded to include cybersecurity experts from the
Homeland Security Department, the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing
and Analysis Center, the National Association of State Chief Information
Officers and a state election information technology director selected by the
National Association of Secretaries of State. The amendment also creates a
floor that requires post-election audits of federal elections starting in 2020
— with a potential for a waiver until 2022 — but doesn't dictate how the states
must conduct the audits, another concern from local officials.
"The
security of our election systems is a major national security
issue, and it is appropriate for this legislation to be included in the
National Defense Authorization Act," Lankford told MC in a statement.
"This legislation will help our states prepare our election infrastructure
for the possibility of interference from not just Russia, but possibly another
adversary like Iran or North Korea or a hacktivist group. I'm grateful that our
national security agencies have worked with states to make improvements, but
this legislation is needed to help us better prepare for all election-related
threats."
By attempting to hitch election security to
the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, (H.R. 5515), lawmakers are hoping to capitalize on the bipartisan
support that has helped the policy roadmap get passed for 57 consecutive years.
However, it's unclear if any amendments will receive a vote or make it onto the
massive bill, even as the chamber on Thursday inched toward formal debate. [POLITICO's Morning
Cybersecurity, June 8, 2018]
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MIKE
POMPEO
Secretary of State |
LET'S TALK
DIGITAL: Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development officials said this week they're pleased that American policymakers
are willing to talk about digital taxes with them. But as Pro Tax's Aaron
Lorenzo reported, that doesn't mean the Trump administration likes the European Union's
proposed 3 percent revenue tax on big tech companies like Google and Facebook.
Kevin Hassett, the chairman of Trump's Council of Economic Advisers, labeled
that idea too much and too soon on Wednesday: "I think we have to move
very slowly in this space."
WAYFAIR UPDATE: Hassett
added that the outcome of Supreme Court's online sales tax case could influence
how the U.S. approaches discussions about digital taxes with the European
Union. And now that the online sales tax primary in South Dakota is behind us,
it's all eyes on when the court will roll out its ruling on South Dakota's law
forcing certain out-of-state vendors to collect sales taxes.
Not so fast? The
prevailing wisdom heading into April's arguments was that the court was likely
to uphold the South Dakota law — though there was more question about that idea
after the nine justices questioned both sides' attorneys. Now, Carl Szabo of
NetChoice, a group that has long opposed efforts to expand states' sales taxing
powers, has written a piece arguing that opponents of the current Quill precedent remain overconfident about where they stand
— and especially the idea that Justices Anthony Kennedy, who wrote an opinion
several years back essentially asking to relitigate the issue, and Clarence
Thomas, no fan of the dormant commerce clause, will be on their side.
"When looking to what this means for Wayfair — while
Justices Thomas and Kennedy may not be a fan of dormant commerce clause or may
consider engaging the court in what is really a legislative matter, their first
priority today, just as it was in 1992, is to stare decisis," Szabo wrote.
(The dissenting view: Kennedy has made it clear in recent years that he
questions whether the Quill precedent still makes sense. And
while justices respect precedent, they do still overturn it from time to time.)
Related note: Max
Behlke of the National Conference of State Legislatures told Morning Tax that
seven states — Alabama, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky and
Oklahoma — passed some sort of remote sales tax legislation this year as they
await the Supreme Court decision, and as some of them sought to conform their
state tax system to the new federal code. Louisiana, which is still hashing out
its tax policy, still could conceivably become an eighth state. (The laws do vary
somewhat in structure.) [POLITICO's Morning Tax, June 7, 2018]
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| HIDDEN IN THE ATTIC |
SORROW,
SUFFERING, AND COMMEMORATION IN THE MOHAWK VALLEY
While the Revolutionary War
is often remembered by the battles fought in and around burgeoning population
centers between American and British regular armies, the fight for the young
nation was contested just as fiercely in the sparsely settled backcountry
forests and valleys of the American countryside. The Mohawk Valley in central
New York is one such example.
In 1777, the Mohawk Valley
set the stage for not only a civil war between Loyalist and Patriot militias,
but also a multi-national war between the Indian nations, whose military
support was desired by both the British and the Americans. Central New York was
the homeland of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, whose members
fought for the British and the Americans alike.
At the Battle of Oriskany on August 6, 1777, the
Tryon County militia led by General Nicholas Herkimer and Oneida warriors
marched northwest to resist the British siege of Fort Stanwix. Within a few
miles of the fort, a British force comprised of primarily Native American
warriors from the Senecas and Mohawks — who, like the Oneidas, were members of
the Iroquois Confederacy — ambushed the Tryon County militia. After a
torrential thunderstorm, Herkimer was forced to withdraw, having suffered more
than 500 casualties. Many prominent chiefs and warriors fighting for the
Loyalists, however, also fell that fateful day. As a result, the Iroquois
reexamined their role in the siege. Known as “a place of great sadness,” the
Oriskany Battlefield is today recognized by the Iroquois as a place of
remembrance, and of reflection.
A plaque at Oriskany
Battlefield State Park reads: “In the Valley homes, [there] was great
mourning. For such a small population, the losses were almost overwhelming. In
some families, the male members were wiped out. It was many a long, weary year
before the sorrow and suffering caused by the sacrifices at Oriskany had been
forgotten in the Valley of the Mohawk.” [New York State in the Revolutionary War, http:
civilwar.org]
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| WOMEN |
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| U.S. MILITARY |
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| EDUCATION |
PRIVATE COLLEGES BACK EXPANDED STUDENT OUTCOMES DATA: The
main association that represents the nation's private nonprofit colleges is
coming out in favor of bipartisan legislation that would significantly expand
federal data on how students fare after attending individual colleges and
universities. The National Association of Independent Colleges and
Universities, which has long opposed efforts to broaden federal collection of
student outcomes data on privacy grounds, said on Thursday that it now backs
the latest version of the bipartisan Student Right to Know Before You Go
Act, S. 2169 (115) and H.R. 4479 (115).
— David L. Warren, the group's president, said the
bill "has the potential to solve the privacy issues that have been central
to our concerns with previous proposals." He said in a statement that that
the legislation "has the potential to make the assessments policymakers
desire, but would do so without creating a permanent federal data repository on
each individual U.S. student."
— The legislation — sponsored by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.),Mark Warner (D-Va.)
and Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.)
— would allow the federal government to publish new data about how
much college graduates take on in debt and how much they earn, broken down by
college and individual program. It would also allow for more comprehensive
graduation rates than the federal government's current metrics, which capture
only full-time students attending college for the first time.
— The latest version of the bill would not repeal the
federal ban on a student-unit database, of which NAICU was a key
proponent. The bill would instead allow the federal government to
calculate data points using a privacy-protecting technology called multiparty
computation. Rather than creating a new database, the legislation would allow
colleges to share encrypted and de-identifiable student information with the
government.
— Sarah Flanagan, NAICU's vice president for government
relations and policy development, says the group hasn't shifted
its position on the importance of student privacy but is hoping this bill can
be "a path forward on this issue." The lawmakers here are "not
calling for the creation of a federal student data system that's a registry for
every student in the country," she told Morning Education. "The
colleges under this construct would not turn over student files to the federal
government."
— Student data collection has divided the associations that
represent various parts of American higher education in Washington. Groups
supporting public universities, community colleges and for-profit schools, and
financial aid officers have all called for repealing the federal ban on a
central database on student-level data, as have business lobbying groups like
Business Roundtable. NAICU has been joined in its concerns about the privacy
implications of repealing a ban by the American Civil Liberties Union. ACLU
last year said that the latest version of the Wyden-Rubio bill, which doesn't
repeal the ban, is the "right place to start," praising its use of
data protection technologies.
— Amy Laitinen, director for higher education at New
America, who has long pushed for expanding student outcomes data, praised
NAICU's announcement as a "significant" development. "At this
point, there is nobody left opposing student-level data," she said.
"I'm glad they are finally acknowledging that students and families and
taxpayers deserve this data."
— How to measure and track how students perform at colleges and
universities is among the more contentious issues being
debated in Congress as part of discussions around the Higher Education Act.
Several House Republicans fought unsuccessfully to include the College
Transparency Act, which would expand data collection by repealing the
student-unit record ban, as part of the GOP higher education overhaul bill
known as the PROSPER Act, hr4508. In the Senate, the College Transparency Act
has bipartisan support including from several lawmakers on the education
committee. [POLITICO's Morning Education, June
8, 2018]
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| WHIMSEY |
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| TECHNOLOGY |
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| IMMIGRATION |
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| CYBERSECURITY |
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Most worry
electronic voting machines might be hacked
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Data: Survey
Monkey poll conducted May 23-26,
2018. Poll
methodology; Chart:
Andrew Witherspoon/Axios
Two-thirds of
Americans (67%) worry electronic voting machines might be "hacked or
manipulated," according to a new Axios / SurveyMonkey poll. That's about a third more than the 48% who are
concerned paper ballots might be manipulated.
Why it
matters: Election security is often billed as a
partisan issue, with some states taking considerably more action than other.
But the poll shows bipartisan concern nationwide.
Be
smart: Part of the risk in ignoring voting
machine security is that, even when nothing happens, people will succumb to
conspiracy theories. In 2016, a certain breed of Democrats chose to believe
that the election results were illegitimate rather than believe their side
lost. In the 2018 election, both sides are now primed to believe that's an
option.
Be even
smarter: Hacking an election machine is easy.
Hacking an election is harder. And the bigger the election, the harder it is
to hack. It's much easier to change votes on a single machine to sway the
race for county coroner than entire states' worth of machines to sway a
senate race. [Axios
Codebook, June 5, 2018]
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Synack begins
offering free election security tests
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Synack announced
Tuesday it would start accepting signups for a free election security testing
service to help states bolster their ability to detect threats.
Why it
matters: During the last election, 4 out of 5
states employed fewer than 15 full time cybersecurity
staff for elections.
The
details: Synack specializes in croudsourcing
security tests using a pre-vetted set of hackers — a closed-enrollment
variation of the bug bounty program approach.
The
background: Anne-Marie Chun,
who directs Synack's government services, suggested offering a free service
to states in 2016 before the Democratic National Committee hack. Synack
decided to pass that year due to concerns there wouldn't be enough interest.
There's
enough interest: Synack
has been coordinating their offering with a number of different states. So
far all but one of the dozen states it contacted have expressed interest.
"And that was only because that state didn't have modern enough systems
for us to test," said Chun. "They literally drive the votes around
in a car."
Private
vs. public: Homeland Security
offers some security help to states, who may or may not volunteer to take it.
But free services like Synack cut dependence on an overworked DHS and allows
states that distrust federal election support to seek security from the
private sector. [Axios
Codebook, June 5, 2018]
|
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| SCREEN |
"Science is happening so fast and in
agriculture, specifically, because we can apply this science very rapidly to
our production system," Rockey said. "We're seeing that new
technological advances are being applied to agriculture faster than almost
every discipline. Investments in agriculture are really an investment in our
future." [POLITICO's Morning Agriculture, June 5, 2018]
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