Congress

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Lapse In Chemical Security Effort Cited As Another Reason To End Shutdown

Douglas P. Guarino | Nextgov | October 8, 2013

The Obama administration is adding the closure of the Homeland Security Department's chemical security program to its list of reasons why Congress should end the partial government shutdown that began last week. Read More »

Larry Lessig: The Corruption of the American Political System

Melanie Chernoff | OpenSource.com | June 13, 2012

Two years ago, I interviewed law professor, author, and Creative Commons co-founder Larry Lessig to discuss his work on institutional corruption and what he describes as the "economy of influence" in American politics. This week he was back in Durham, NC to discuss his new book, Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress—and a Plan to Stop It.

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Lawmakers Call For 'Reboot' Of Meaningful Use Program

Marla Durban Hirsch | FierceEMR | April 16, 2013

Six Republican Senators have formally requested that U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius provide a written plan to address how the agency is implementing the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. Read More »

Lawmakers Re-Introduce GPS Protection Bill Against Government Spying

Cyrus Farivar | Ars Technica | March 21, 2013

Just two days after new legislative reform on e-mail privacy was re-introduced in Congress, another privacy bill was brought back from years past. Read More »

Lessons From The ACA Health Insurance Marketplace Failure

Rob Atkinson | The Innovation Files | November 13, 2013

One can’t pass a single day it seems without seeing in the news coverage of the problems with the Affordable Care Act’s Health Insurance Marketplace (HIM). But what is perhaps most surprising is not that the web site had problems, but that people are surprised that it had problems. [...] Read More »

Los Alamos, Sandia Labs Prepare To Shut Down Amid Budget Impasse

Staff Writer | Nextgov | October 9, 2013

New Mexico's two national laboratories are preparing to freeze their nonessential activities in less than two weeks in the event the federal government shutdown is still in place. Read More »

Malfunctioning Exchanges Show Why Liberals Were Right

Max Ehrenfreund | Washington Monthly | October 20, 2013

The technical problems with the new insurance exchanges established by the Affordable Care Act, which according to Yuval Levin are serious and could potentially have non-technical, very real and lasting consequences, support an argument that liberals have been making for a long time... Read More »

Marco Rubio: No Bailouts For ObamaCare

Marco Rubio | Wall Street Journal | November 18, 2013

With every passing day, ObamaCare's flaws are being exposed in painful ways for the American people. What started as a broken website—and nonexistent Spanish one—is now snowballing into a full-scale disaster that makes it increasingly clear this law can't be fixed. Read More »

Mass Surveillance: The Day We Fight Back

Katherine Noyes | LinuxInsider | February 10, 2014

If you wonder "why things never get any better, why no matter which 'side' you vote for, more fascist policies are enacted -- why these protests like Occupy end up being a waste," said hairyfeet, "it's really simple: There are no sides. The country is run by non-elected groups, NSA, pentagon and especially Wall Street lobbyists, which is why they can treat Wall Street like it's Las Vegas. Read More »

Meet CGI Federal, The Company Behind The Botched Launch Of HealthCare.gov

Lydia DePillis | Washington Post | October 16, 2013

Over the past few weeks, if you've been paying attention at all to the unfolding disaster of people trying and failing to sign up for Obamacare online, one name keeps coming up: CGI Federal, the IT contractor that has orchestrated most of the Healthcare.gov Web site. By most accounts, it's been a complete train wreck, for reasons both technical and bureaucratic. Here's what you need to know about the company at the center of it all. Read More »

Members Of Congress: India's Pharma Industry 'Protectionism' Is Harming US Pharma Industry's Abuse Of Patent System

Tim Cushing | Techdirt | July 2, 2013

We recently discussed the US Chamber of Commerce's incredibly strange statement on the state of India's IP protection (or lack thereof). The CofC first applauded the success of India's Bollywood industry, achieved without strong IP protection, before insisting the only way it would survive was by implementing strong IP protection. Read More »

Merchants Of Meth: How Big Pharma Keeps The Cooks In Business

Jonah Engle | Mother Jones | July 1, 2013

With big profits on the line, the drug industry is pulling out campaign-style dirty tricks to keep selling the meds that cooks turn into crank. Read More »

Monsanto Supersizes Farmers’ Weed Problem, But Science Can Help

Nicole D'Alessandro | EcoWatch | May 2, 2014

When Monsanto came up with its Roundup Ready system of genetically engineered seeds in the 1990s, designed for immunity to the herbicide glyphosate, the Big Ag giant seemed like a superhero to farmers looking for an effective way to fight weeds. Read More »

More Aggressive Oversight Of Agency FOIA Compliance Is Needed, GAO Says

Joseph Marks | Nextgov | September 10, 2013

The government ombudsman for evaluating agencies’ compliance with the Freedom of Information Act should be more aggressive, a congressional auditor said on Tuesday. Read More »

More Hunger For The Poorest Americans

Staff Writer | New York Times | December 24, 2013

This is a harsh season for Americans struggling to afford food. Last month, the long lines at food pantries across the country grew longer with the expiration of the boost to food stamp benefit levels included in the 2009 economic stimulus plan. Those lines are apt to grow even longer thanks to the refusal of House Republicans to renew extended unemployment benefits as part of the recent budget deal. Read More »