Originally blogged at Government Affairs Institute With nine days to go, hope of averting the March 1 sequester continues to fade, with each side drawing a line in the sand, and little reason to believe that their differences can be breached any time soon. Last week the President again went on record demanding that anyRead… Read more »
“We the People …” is perhaps the most powerful opening clause ever uttered on this planet. Yet how many of “We,” really take to heart what those three words mean on a personal level? When it comes to the state of civic participation in the United States today, to paraphrase Jimmy Buffett perhaps, “We areRead… Read more »
Last month, I had the pleasure of attending a Tech Town Hall hosted by the Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC) and Microsoft. The event brought together Virginia U.S. Senate candidates George Allen and Tim Kaine, along with a number of business leaders like Jim Sheaffer, President, North American Sector, CSC; Dendy Young, Managing Partner, McLeanRead… Read more »
There is no such thing as a “filibuster-proof majority” In his State of the Union address to Congress last week, President Barack Obama asked the U.S. Senate to amend or abolish its filibuster rules to break the Congressional gridlock. Don’t hold your breath. Neither party wants to change those rules because they always benefit theRead… Read more »
MPAA head lobbyist Chris Dodd threatened Congress and the President last week, suggesting that lawmakers should remember that they’ve been bought, and that if they want to continue to enjoy their piece of the entertainment industry’s largesse, they should mind their leash: “Candidly, those who count on quote ‘Hollywood‘ for support need to understand thatRead… Read more »
The fact that millions of Americans are unemployed or underemployed is not news. Although we seem to be engaged in Einstein’s infamous trap of ‘doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.’ Policy makers are debating how to entice businesses into hiring more people and the unemployed are angry and frustrated overRead… Read more »
These days, it’s pretty common to hear that we’ve lost sight of what the Founding Fathers intended. A frequent criticism is that Congress is guilty of “overreaching” into areas more legitimately the province of states and localities or the federal executive branch. So it’s interesting that some lawmakers are willingly relinquishing one of the powersRead… Read more »
The House and Senate are loggerheads, to say the least, over the 2012 budget. One side wants to cut civilian agency spending and boost Defense. The other wants to do just the opposite. Either way, it will affect IT spending. Read the latest coming from the House Appropriations Committee, and what the likely outcome willRead… Read more »
With 50 bills in Congress having to do with cybersecurity, and none of them showing any imminent signs of movement, the White House at last weighed in with its own legislative proposal. In an online statement, the president’s staff said it was outlining its cyber legislative goals in response to a request from Senate MajorityRead… Read more »
Here’s a snippet from my new post at WhoRunsGov at the Washington Post. Click on the link below to read the entire thing. In the not-so-distant past, a big concern for a PR firm or pollster was “is their client’s message getting across?” In the social media world, the new question is “Are they influential?”Read… Read more »