Here’s a selection of articles the Federal Relations team is enjoying this week.
Border Wars – Though, state institutions were founded to serve the people of their states, but in a bid to maximize tuition revenue as state support for higher education drops, they are enrolling record numbers of students from elsewhere. Read more in The Washington Post.
Computer Literate – The President has announced that he is seeking $4 billion to help states expand in an area he views as critical to young people’s success in a changing job market. Read more in The New York Times.
Hit It With Your Best Shot – In the State of the Union, Vice President Biden was charged with a moon shot-like goal of curing cancer. The Vice President explains what that will mean in Medium.
Placebo Effect – Is this cancer taskforce set up for success or is it one more presidential taskforce from an Administration that already has many of them (as have many other administrations). Read more in The Hill.
Boot Straps – Rep. Kyrsten Sinema’s journey from sleeping in a vacant service station to holding a Ph.D., law license and office on Capitol Hill has become a staple of the fast-rising Arizona Democrat’s biography. And she’s telling it to anyone who will listen as she works to fortify her hold on a key swing House district that could pave her way to the Senate. Read more in The Arizona Republic.
1,000,000 Mile Club – Congress is doing less work than in previous decades, and now we can break it down with statistics. Moreover, Their absence from the capital reinforces the effects of a deepening partisan divide in recent years that has led to high-profile deadlocks over legislation previously seen as routine, according to some former lawmakers and political analysts. Under pressure to spend more time in their home constituencies, often fund-raising for campaigns, members have less time to attend debates and mingle with other lawmakers….In 2015, the first year of a two-year Congress, the House of Representatives put in 130 working days, the Reuters review found. Compared with the first years of recent Congresses, that number has declined steadily since 2007, when the House worked 153 days — the high since 1998. Read more in Reuters.