On Modernizing Government

Earlier this year, the White House held a Forum on Modernizing Government, which brought together business, government, and labor leaders to talk about ways government can become more efficient and effective through technology and improved practices.

The Office of Management and Budget recently released the follow-up to that forum, found in PDF here. The introduction reads:

The private sector leaders who participated in the Forum shared business best practices—ideas on leveraging technology to streamline Federal operations, improve customer service, and maximize technology return on investment. The discussions focused on how these lessons from these leaders who have driven progress and productivity in the private sector can best be applied to the operations of the Federal government.

The report is relatively short, but provides an interesting look into how the federal government is trying to evolve. Additional resources on government performance issues can be found via the Office of Management and Budget; the Government Accountability Office also performs significant analysis on the topic.

START Agreement Reached

The United States and Russia made big news on Friday when American President Obama and Russian President Medvedev announced an agreement on the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START. The bilateral arms reduction treaty is a follow-up to the START I agreement, which was signed between the US and the USSR in July 1991, just months before the latter country fell. That agreement expired in December 2009.

Information about the announcement can be found on the White House blog. According to the post, the new treaty will limit arsenals to:

• 1,550 deployed warheads, which is about 30% lower than the upper warhead limit of the Moscow Treaty;
• 800 deployed and non-deployed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launchers, submarine launched ballistic missile (SLBM) launchers, and heavy bombers equipped for nuclear weapons; and
• 700 for deployed ICBMs, SLBMs, and heavy bombers equipped for nuclear weapons.

There are several excellent government sources that provide information on international strategic arms control. As they often do, the Congressional Research Service provides a good introductory overview, found here. The State Department provides relevant arms data under the treaty.

For a bit of historical analysis, the Congressional Budget Office issued an in-depth analysis of the original START agreement in October 1991, just a few months after the agreement was signed. A PDF of that report can be found here; a hard copy can also be found in Fenwick Library Government Documents.

The U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and other committees will likely hold hearings on the new treaty in the near future. Many hearings have been held over the years; Fenwick Library possesses many of these hearings on microfiche, for example here, here, here and here. Additional hearings on strategic arms control can be found via GPO Access (1995 and later) or LexisNexis (Mason only).

Full text of the original treaty can be found on the State Department's website. The State Department's Bureau of Verification, Compliance, and Implementation also provides a legal analysis of the treaty.

Education Policy Blueprint

The No Child Left Behind Act has been a controversial portion of education law in the U.S. (for a thorough overview of the act, see this Congressional Research Service PDF). The Obama Administration has proposed making some changes in response to the criticisms the legislation has received.

Those proposals are contained in a "blueprint" document that can be found here. From the introduction:

This blueprint builds on the significant reforms already made in response to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 around four areas: (1) Improving teacher and principal effectiveness to ensure that every classroom has a great teacher and every school has a great leader; (2) Providing information to families to help them evaluate and improve their children’s schools, and to educators to help them improve their students’ learning; (3) Implementing college- and career-ready standards and developing improved assessments aligned with those standards; and (4) Improving student learning and achievement in America’s lowest-performing schools by providing intensive support and effective interventions.

Students looking for further research can search the Mason Libraries catalog, or see an extensive list of resources provided by the PBS program Frontline here.

National Broadband Plan

Over the past few years, many have argued the importance of improved high-speed Internet access via broadband technology. The term "digital divide" has come to refer to the separation between those who have high-speed Internet access (such as those in urban areas) and those that don't (such as those in rural areas). This has prompted questions as to whether government should intervene in the broadband market to rectify access disparities. The Congressional Research Service summarizes the debate in this report on the issue (PDF):

Broadband technologies are currently being deployed primarily by the private sector throughout the United States. While the numbers of new broadband subscribers continue to grow, studies and data suggest that the rate of broadband deployment in urban and high income areas are outpacing deployment in rural and low-income areas. Some policymakers, believing that disparities in broadband access across American society could have adverse economic and social consequences on those left behind, assert that the federal government should play a more active role to avoid a “digital divide” in broadband access.

Further, many advanced European and East Asian countries, most notably South Korea, have invested heavily in their national broadband infrastructures, raising additional questions about American competitiveness.

In response to these issues, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) yesterday released the National Broadband Plan. At nearly 400 pages, the full plan addresses a wide array of relevant issues related to Internet policy, including economic growth, national security, disaster preparedness, environmental impacts, and civic engagement. The FCC outlined the basic principles of the plan in the executive summary:

1. Design policies to ensure robust competition and, as a result maximize consumer welfare, innovation and investment.
2. Ensure efficient allocation and management of assets government controls or influences, such as spectrum, poles, and rights-of-way, to encourage network upgrades and competitive entry.
3. Reform current universal service mechanisms to support deployment of broadband and voice in high-cost areas; and ensure that low-income Americans can afford broadband; and in addition, support efforts to boost adoption and utilization.
4. Reform laws, policies, standards and incentives to maximize the benefits of broadband in sectors government influences significantly, such as public education, health care and government operations.

The report is likely to generate significant debate in the coming weeks and months. The plan can be downloaded in full or by specific chapter via the FCC's website here. It's an excellent resource for students studying the social, economic, and political implications of information technology and digital policy.

Solar Technology Review from National Laboratory

Many see energy technology as an important component of the future world economy. In the US, much of the public sector work on energy technology research is driven by the Department of Energy through the national laboratories, which employee over 30,000 scientists and engineers.

Many of these labs regularly issue useful reports for students interested in energy research or policy. One example is the 2008 Solar Technologies Market Report (PDF), issued by the National Renewable Energy Lab. The report is a great one-stop resource for information on this topic. From the executive summary:

The focus of this report is the U.S. solar electricity market, including photovoltaic (PV) and concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies. The report is organized into five chapters. Chapter 1 provides an overview of global and U.S. installation trends. Chapter 2 presents production and shipment data, material and supply chain issues, and solar industry employment trends. Chapter 3 presents cost, price, and performance trends. Chapter 4 discusses policy and market drivers such as recently passed federal legislation, state and local policies, and developments in project financing. Chapter 5 provides data on private investment trends and near-term market forecasts.

Other recent NREL publications can be found here; a full list of all national laboratories and research centers can be found on the Department of Energy's website, here.

One More Health Care Bill Analysis

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), in conjunction with the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, has again issued an analysis of the health care bill, this time focusing on the proposal that passed the Senate, known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

The official CBO blog has an overview of the analysis here; the full analysis is available here (PDF). From the overview:

CBO and JCT now estimate that, on balance, the direct (mandatory) spending and revenue effects of enacting H.R. 3590 as passed by the Senate would yield a net reduction in federal deficits of $118 billion over the 2010–2019 period. (Direct spending—as distinguished from discretionary spending—is spending that stems from legislation other than appropriation acts.) In our earlier estimate, the budgetary impact was a net reduction in deficits of $132 billion.

Mexican Border Violence

Drug-related border issues between the United States and Mexico have long been documented. There has been a recent uptick in violence across the border in Mexico in recent months, and it's increasing concerns that the violence could spill into the US. The Congressional Research Service recently looked into the issue, issuing a report that can be found here (PDF).

In an examination of data that could provide insight into whether there has been a significant spillover in drug trafficking-related violence from Mexico into the United States, CRS analyzed violent crime data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Report program. The data, however, do not allow analysts to determine what proportion of the violent crime rate is related to drug trafficking or, even more specifically, what proportion of drug trafficking-related violent crimes can be attributed to spillover violence. In conclusion, because the trends in the overall violent crime rate may not be indicative of trends in drug trafficking-related violent crimes, CRS is unable to draw definitive claims about trends in drug trafficking-related violence spilling over from Mexico into the United States.

2009-2010 Congressional Directory

The Government Printing Office has just added the 2009-2010 Congressional Directory (111th Congress) to its websites, available on FDSys and GPO Access .

The Congressional Directory is one of those little books that every lobbyist and Hill activist keeps handy. It's the official directory for the U.S. Congress, made available in the first session of every Congress. It provides short bios of every elected official, office contact information for both DC and district offices, committee assignments, and key staff listings. For example, here is the listing for Fairfax's own Rep. Gerry Connolly:

ELEVENTH DISTRICT

GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Democrat, of Fairfax, VA; born in Boston, MA, March 30, 1950; education: graduated B.A., Maryknoll College; M.A., public administration, Harvard University, 1979; professional: member, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, 1995-2003, chairman, 2003-07; religion: Roman Catholic; married: Cathy; children: Caitlin; committees: Budget; Foreign Affairs; Oversight and Government Reform; elected to the 111th Congress on November 4, 2008.

Office Listings
http://www.geraldconnolly.house.gov

327 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515.
(202) 225-1492 FAX: 225-3071
Chief of Staff.--James Walkinshaw.
Legislative Director.--Dominic Bonaiuto.
Communications Director.--George Burke.

4115 Annandale Road, Annandale, VA 22003
...............(703) 256-3071
District Director.--Sharon Stark.

4308 Ridgewood Center Drive, Woodbridge, VA 22192
...............(703) 670-4989
Prince William Director.--Colin Davenport.

Counties: Fairfax (part), Prince William (part). Cities: Alexandria, Annandale, Burke, Centreville, Clifton, Fairfax, Fairfax Station, Herndon, Lorton, Manassas, Oakton, Occoquan, Springfield, Vienna, and Woodbridge. Population (2000), 643,509.

ZIP Codes: 20069-70, 20109-10, 20112, 20119-22, 20124, 20136-37, 20155-56, 20168-69, 20171, 20181-82, 22003, 22009, 22015, 22027, 22030-33, 22035, 22038-39, 22044, 22060, 22079, 22081-82, 22102, 22116, 22118-21, 22124-25, 22150-53, 22156, 22158-61, 22180-83, 22185, 22191-95, 22199, 22308-09, 22312

It also includes extensive Executive and Judicial branch contact information, as well as contacts for media, embassies, state governors, and DC city government.

In addition to find the Directory on FDsys and GPO Access, you can purchase it from the U.S. Government Online Bookstore. It also will be distributed through the Federal Depository Library Program in hardcover format (meaning Mason Libraries will get a copy). The classification info will be: Y 4.P 93/1:1/111; if you need it but aren't sure where to find it, ask a librarian.

The Global Automotive Industry in the Recession

Much has been made of the decline of Detroit's "Big 3" car companies. However, the current global recession has also hurt the automotive industry in several other advanced economies as well. The OECD recently published a report looking at these challenges, found here (PDF). From the report's abstract:

This paper considers the role of the automobile industry in the current cycle. It shows that the industry is economically important and its cycle is intertwined with business cycles. After casting some light on the sources of the collapse in car sales at the start of the crisis, the policy measures, in particular car scrapping programmes, put in place to support the automobile industry are discussed. The paper also derives short and medium term projections of car sales. While a rebound in car sales is likely in North America, Japan and the United Kingdom, car sales in Germany have been pushed significantly above trend and may weaken going forward. Over the medium term, in mature markets such as Europe and North America, trend sales are likely to remain stagnant. By contrast, rapid increases are foreseen in China and to a lesser extent in India.

The report is a useful resource for students studying the consequences of the current international recession, or simply how economic cycles generally harm important industries.