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A Vote Is Like a Rifle...













SHADY SUPER PACS — Campaign Pro's Maggie Severns: "Super PACs are increasingly ignoring their duty to disclose their spending to the Federal Election Commission, according the watchdog group Campaign Legal Center, which is filing three complaints asking the FEC to crack down. The complaints highlight super PACs created during this cycle's primary elections, which spent money but sidestepped rules for reporting how much they spent with the FEC, leaving voters in the dark on who funded the efforts. They are just part of a trend of bad behavior in the super PAC space, Campaign Legal Center says." [POLITICO's Morning Score, August 10, 2018]

DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT — Election integrity advocates on Monday urged the leaders of the Senate Rules Committee not to water down provisions in the Secure Elections Act, S. 2593 (115) , focused on paper backups for voting machines and robust post-election audits. "The effectiveness of the bill, and thus our support, depends upon strong language that prevents unverifiable systems or superficial audits from perpetuating the vulnerabilities of American election systems," wrote the groups, which included the Brennan Center for Justice and Verified Voting.
In their letter to Rules Chairman Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and ranking member Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), the groups said they had recently "learned that the co-sponsors of the SEA are poised to introduce a revised version of the bill" that they worried would water down its paper backup and audit provisions. The Rules Committee will mark up the measure on Aug. 22 . In a statement to MC, Klobuchar urged the groups not to worry. "The bill we are considering before the committee will require post-election audits and ensure that federal funds are only used to purchase voting machines that have backup paper ballots," she said, adding that lawmakers have "worked hard to balance state and federal issues."
Even so, said one election integrity advocate, Klobuchar and her colleagues are likely facing a firestorm of objections to the paper and auditing provisions from state election officials, who jealously guard their roles as supervisors of the election process. "There is no question in my mind that the [Rules] Committee has received and will get more pressure from state officials to weaken SEA," said the advocate, who requested anonymity to discuss an active legislative battle. J. Alex Halderman, a voting security expert at the University of Michigan who has briefed lawmakers and even shown them a "vote-stealing attack" on a voting machine, said the bill's cosponsors "have been under tremendous pressure to make sure that the legislation isn't overly prescriptive."
"There are always state officials who push back on what they perceive to be federal mandates that infringe on their control of elections," said the election integrity advocate. "I would expect many to object to new requirements in this space." Joseph Lorenzo Hall, an election security expert who is chief technologist at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said that if the key provisions were weakened, "that would be a mistake and not the stride towards evidence-based elections that we need right now." Another election security advocate, voicing concern that state and vendor pushback would weaken the bill, told MC, "My fear is that a very watered down bill will get passed, everyone will celebrate that Congress took action but it won't do much to increase overall election security, and then it will be difficult to get momentum on this issue again."
The bill's backers "want to pass effective legislation," said Halderman. But Congress needs to get the details right, he said, or risk incentivizing bad practices. "I personally am very afraid that we might get an audit requirement that doesn't specify that the audit has to be conducted using people looking at the paper ballot," Halderman said. Some states, he added, currently use technology that displays scans of paper ballots, and they audit with those scans rather than the ballots themselves. "I worry that legislation that isn't carefully crafted enough would create an incentive for more states to deploy ineffective audit technologies rather than ensure that states adopt a strong form of cyber defense," said Halderman. "Legislation that omits the key details could be actively harmful in the worst case and would be ineffective at best." [POLITICO's Morning Cybersecurity, August 14, 2018]





DAILY SPECIALS







Women are getting a new birth control option that lasts a year


On Navigating Hostile Environments

"Women journalists are used to facing danger in the field—unfortunately, Columbia Journalism Review reports sexual assault and harassment are rampant in their workplace. No woman should have to endure this. For some protection, we encourage developing relationships with high-ranking women and mentors who you trust for support. Enlisting in hostile environments and self-defense courses can also help. It’s important to call out such behavior and remember there’s a network of women to support you."

Executive Director, International Women's Media Foundation [Women Rule, August 10, 2018]




SPACE FORCE ALL THE WAY: The Pentagon is trying to gauge how feasible it would be to harness the sun with a massive satellite decked out with solar panels and beam it back to Earth — not a particularly new idea on its face, but one that's seen renewed interest among technology advancements. "If you could make this work it would truly be revolutionary," Paul Jaffe, a senior engineer in the Spacecraft Engineering Department at the Naval Research Laboratory, told Pro's Bryan Bender in a recent Q&A. "Right now, on any given spot on Earth you can get solar but it is limited by the day-night cycle and whatever the weather conditions are in that local area. If you could transmit an arbitrary amount of power to wherever you wanted, whenever you wanted it, you can't overstate how game-changing that would be."
Progress has been made, Jaffe said , including small-scale demonstrations by the NRL under space-like conditions. But what Jaffe envisions would not come cheap — a space-based transmitter as large as a kilometer in diameter and an antenna on Earth more that three times that length to receive all that power. "It would definitely not be inexpensive," he says. Still, if it were achievable, the potential would be something stellar, Jaffe told Bryan. "Think about how Saudi Arabia still to an extent has this impact on the petroleum market because it has excess capacity," he said. "If a country or a company manages to perfect this technology and can send energy at will wherever they want that is huge. That is like being the Saudi Arabia of clean energy." [POLITICO's Morning Energy, August 10, 2018]




As Xi and Trump meet, China’s neighbors will be watching

Is the U.S. in a new Cold War with China? How much worse could things get?

Myths about U.S. foreign aid

The United States and Turkey: Friends, enemies, or only interests?



Trump Doubles Tariffs on Turkey as Its Currency Melts Down
Donald Trump announced early Friday morning that he was doubling tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum, raising them to 50 percent and 20 percent, respectively, as international markets were scrambling to deal with that country’s currency meltdown. The lira has taken a hammering over recent days, down 18 percent this week and hitting record lows against the U.S. dollar. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has urgedcalm and has brushed off the plunging value of the lira, telling Turks: “If they have their dollars, we have our people, our God.” Trump’s move is likely to make the situation significantly worse. As Trump tweeted, Erdogan’s son-in-law/finance minister was reportedly delivering a speech to say the economy is doing well, unaware what the U.S. president had just declared. “I have just authorized a doubling of Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum with respect to Turkey as their currency, the Turkish Lira, slides rapidly downward against our very strong Dollar!” Trump wrote. “Aluminum will now be 20% and Steel 50%. Our relations with Turkey are not good at this time!” Trump and Erdogan are in the middle of a feud over jailed American pastor Andrew Brunson. [The Daily Beast: PM Cheat Sheet, August 10, 2018]










FCC TELLS SCOTUS IT'S GOOD — The Department of Justice and FCC last week asked the Supreme Court to take up a challenge to the now-repealed Obama-era net neutrality regulations — but only in order to wipe from the books the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals' 2016 decision upholding the rules . Remember, telecom trade groups appealed the case to the high court while the Republican-led FCC set about rolling back the regulations last year. That repeal kicked off a fresh round of litigation, as the FCC noted in its filing. "The legal questions concerning the proper regulatory treatment of broadband services will be resolved in the pending challenges to the 2018 Order," the government wrote. "The Court therefore should grant the petitions, vacate the judgment below, and remand to the court of appeals with instructions to dismiss the petitions for review as moot."[ POLITICO's Morning Tech, August 6, 2018]

FCC EXTENDS DEADLINE TO CHALLENGE FUNDING MAP — FCC commissioners approved an order from Chairman Ajit Pai to add 90 days to the deadline to file challenges to areas the FCC has deemed ineligible for a $4.53 billion funding program. The order, released publicly Tuesday, sets the new deadline at Nov. 26 for those who want to submit speed data that challenges the accuracy of the FCC's map of areas that lack quality wireless service and are therefore eligible for subsidies. Remember, the Mobility Fund Phase II auction will offer subsidies to support deployment of 4G LTE wireless service in areas that lack it, but the agency has faced bipartisan blowback on the accuracy of its map of eligible areas. The challenge process allows state and local governments and other entities the chance to show some areas deemed ineligible for funding actually do lack service.
— Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel partially dissented from the order. She said the challenge process is unwieldy and argued the commission could be doing more to help, including mobilizing agency field offices across the country and making use of crowdsourced information on wireless broadband. [POLITICO's Morning Tech, August 22, 2018]












FULL STEAMBOAT AHEAD: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke treks to Colorado today to speak at the conservative-heavy "Steamboat Freedom Conference," where he's expected to talk public lands — but his appearance is not likely to be a quiet one. Zinke is slated to deliver the keynote address at the annual conference in Steamboat Springs, Colo., where well-known conservatives like former White House aide Sebastian Gorka and Turning Point USA's Charlie Kirk and Candace Owens will also speak.
In response to his appearance, Steamboat residents and organizations will hold a "Stand for Our Land" rally, featuring an array of outdoor recreation, environmental and indigenous speakers in opposition to Zinke's moves on public lands. Rally organizer Cody Perry told ME the rally popped up as a "inclusive, community response" to Zinke's policies, while he attends "a private, political event." Interior press secretary Heather Swift said the conference isn't a political event, but instead an official conference at a think tank, featuring a policy speech and has been cleared by Interior ethics officials. The rally will take place at 5:30 p.m. today on the Routt County Courthouse lawn.
Zinke's speaking engagements have come under fire in the past. But a government watchdog previously determined an earlier speech did not violate the Hatch Act, which bars federal employees from engaging in partisan activity while on official duty. Celebrating its 10th anniversary, co-founder of the Steamboat Institute Jennifer Schubert-Akin told local media Zinke would be the first sitting member of the Cabinet to attend today's conference. The Steamboat Institute pays the travel expenses for all of the conference's speakers, she said back in May, including Zinke, but she noted he will not be paid a speaking fee. [POLITICO's Morning Energy, August 10, 2018]








WHERE'S PERRY? Perry will head to North Dakota on Monday to tour both the Falkirk mine and Great River Energy's facility, as well as participate in a roundtable with local energy leaders. He'll be hosted by Sen. John Hoeven and Rep. Kevin Cramer. "Among other things, we have two cutting-edge carbon capture and sequestration projects, Project Tundra, which will be used to retrofit existing power plants, and the Allam Cycle, a supercritical CO2 technology for new coal and natural gas plants," Hoeven said in a statement.
— The secretary, who was in Princeton, N.J., touring the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory on Thursday, attended a roundtable prison reform event hosted by Trump in neighboring Bedminster. Perry was one of only two Cabinet officials to attend, according to a pool report, where Perry said no one got him "confused" with being soft on crime while he was governor of Texas. [POLITICO's Morning Energy, August 10, 2018]

MAIL CALL! RAISE YOUR VOICES: A coalition of more than 100 organizations that go by the acronym VOICES — "Victory Over InFRACKStructure, Clean Energy inStead" — sent a letter to senators calling on them to leave Powelson's seat vacant until Congress investigates their claims of the regulatory body's abuse of power and need for reform. [POLITICO's Morning Energy, August 10, 2018]



ACTIVISTS




MAIL CALL! RAISE YOUR VOICES: A coalition of more than 100 organizations that go by the acronym VOICES — "Victory Over InFRACKStructure, Clean Energy inStead" — sent a letter to senators calling on them to leave Powelson's seat vacant until Congress investigates their claims of the regulatory body's abuse of power and need for reform. [POLITICO's Morning Energy, August 10, 2018]




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