Category: What We’re Reading

Here’s a selection of articles the Federal Relations team is enjoying this week.

Growing Rift – As Trump fills his Cabinet, the choices (and rumored nominees) are rekindling animosity between his anti-establishment supporters and more traditional Republican. Read more in The New York Times.  

Keeping Carrier – To hear Donald Trump tell it, the story of how Carrier decided not to move jobs to Mexico started when the president-elect was watching the evening news about a week ago. Read more in WaPo.

Ch-ch-changes – During the campaign, President-elect Trump vowed to do a lot of things and get rid of a lot of things. Some have already been walked back…some not. The New York Times has a list of those things Trump wants to get rid of.

Unproductive OSTP – The White House Office of Science and Technology office hasn’t been very productive under President Barack Obama, says the chairman of a key congressional research spending panel. And Representative John Culberson (R–TX) says he’d like to see it downsized. Read more in Science. 

Whither DeVos? – If you ask what the recent appointment of Betsy DeVos as U.S. Secretary of Education means for higher education, a common refrain — even among education policy and advocacy leaders — is that it’s too early to say. Read more in Diverse Education.

Missed By How Much – There’s been so much talk since Nov. 8 about what the polls got wrong. The national polls are ultimately going to be off by only about 2 percentage points, which is not out of the ordinary historically speaking. State polls however, missed by wider margins. In 41 of the 50 states, the average of the polls underestimated Donald Trump’s margin of victory. But they weren’t wrong by the same magnitude or in the same direction in every state. The 538 has the margin of miss. 

CZI – Seven months ago, Jim Shelton was hired by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to head up its education portfolio. CZI is the unusual new company created by Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, and his wife, Priscilla Chan, to “improve the world for the next generation.” To fund CZI they pledged Facebook stock worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $45 billion. Health and medical projects will no doubt get the biggest share of that money. But Shelton is the guy who will write the checks for all of CZI’s investments and philanthropic donations related to education. That means he’ll have a lot of sway in an organization that is going to become hugely influential. Read more in The Chronicle.

Research Support? – Representative Tom Price (R–GA), the orthopedic surgeon and six-term congressman who President-elect Donald Trump yesterday picked to be his secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is a conservative spending hawk and fierce opponent of the ACA and abortion. But he has also spoken generally in favor of increasing funding for federal research agencies, including the NIH, which he would oversee if confirmed to the job by the Senate. Science looks into how Price might approach research funding. 

Police in Prince Edward Island are now playing Nickelback as punishment to drunk drivers as they take you to jail. 

Here’s a selection of articles the Federal Relations team is enjoying this week.

Medicaid Worries – In places like rural Kentucky, the ACA was a life changing law for Medicaid patients. Eliminating the expansion will have serious impacts. Read more at NPR.  

Trump & TV – Representatives from the broadcast and cable-TV news networks met with President-elect Donald Trump Monday. The unprecedented gathering follows Trump’s public disdain for most of the media which was evident throughout the election. Beyond what he often considered unfair coverage, the pre-election polling and Election Day exit polls appeared to predict a Hillary Clinton win. It did not go well according to inside sources. Read more in the New York Post. 

Whither OSTP? – For 40 years, the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has closely counseled the President on matters of science and technology—everything from disease outbreaks to climate change to nanotechnology. However, the role of OSTP in the Trump administration is unclear. Read more in The Atlantic. 

Autism & Higher Ed – The first generation of students with an autism diagnosis is fanning out to schools across the country. They face a complex array of academic and social challenges. Read more in The New York Times. 

Here’s a selection of articles the Federal Relations team is enjoying this week.

Yeah, What He Said – Thus far in the Trump Transition, Trump has walked back the wall as well as a total repudiation of Obamacare, now for replacing it. Why the dialing back? Apparently Trump tends to agree with the last person he just talked to…which was sorta awkward for Republicans after his meeting with President Obama. Read more in Vox and in The Washington Post.

First 100 Days – NPR walks through Trump’s pledges and some of the challenges (and facts) behind making these a reality. Read about it at NPR. 

Organized Chaos? – The recent turn over in the Trump Transition team has left a lot to be desired by foreign nations as well as some big liaising yet to happen. Some things the Donald Trump administration-in-waiting has not done yet: reached out to its Obama administration counterparts at the Department of Defense and Department of State (that might happen Friday?) — or the Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of the Treasury…  Read more in The New York Times and the Washington Post.

Skeletons in Closets – While no one has been officially named to a cabinet position, many of those names being floated around will likely have some significant challenges to winning the confirmation votes. Read more in The Hill. 

All Sorts of Hurt – Democrats got walloped at the very top of the ticket, but what’s happening at the very bottom of the ballot could hurt them for years to come. Read more at The Atlantic. 

Rough Road –  The blow-up that caused the postponement of House Democratic leadership elections from this Thursday to Nov. 30 – a decision made at the end of a tumultuous, two-hour meeting – is really about young lawmakers who are frustrated by a seniority system that limits their influence, African Americans who don’t feel like they have enough sway over Pelosi’s strategy and members from the heartland who feel that the dominance of coastal elites in the caucus has made it harder for them to connect with their constituents. The top three Democrats in House Leadership are 76 (Pelosi), 77 (Steny Hoyer) and 76 (Jim Clyburn). The top three Republican leaders, in contrast, are 46 (Paul Ryan), 51 (Kevin McCarthy) and 51 (Steve Scalise). Pelosi and Hoyer have together led the House Democrats for 14 years now…And not many of them were the Dems in control of the House. While Pelosi is still heavily favored, a small group of frustrated House Democrats are trying to draft Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) to challenge Pelosi. Read more in The Washington Post and The Hill. 

Presser – While we know who the senior White House leadership will be, we are still waiting to learn who the Press Secretary, and the official mouthpiece of the Trump Administration, will be. The choices are very interesting. Read more in The Washington Post. 

Burning Repeal – Congressional Republicans face internal divisions over how far to go in repealing and replacing ObamaCare, one of their top political priorities of the past six years, without disrupting the lives of millions of Americans. Read more in The Hill. 

Trump & Science – What will the Trump relationship with the scientific community be? It’s unknown but there’s some speculation. Read more at Vox. 

Women Vote – Women generally trend Democratic, but white women—and there are still a lot of them in the U.S.—do not. They vote Republican, and did for Trump. Why?  Well, it’s complicated. Read more in The Atlantic. 

Watch the live CSPAN feed of the Trump Tower lobby (and it’s visitors).

Here’s a selection of articles the Federal Relations Office is enjoying this week. Election Day is November 8th!!!

Marketplace Crunch – One of the most popular pieces of ObamaCare could be hurting the administration’s push to attract more young people into the wobbly marketplace. Because of the healthcare law, the White House says nearly 3 million young people under the age of 26 have been able to stay on their parents’ insurance plans and don’t have to shop for coverage on HealthCare.gov. That’s double the number of young people between the ages of 18 and 25 who are currently covered through the exchanges. An increase in enrollment is much needed by this group. The administration is staging campus enrollment drives and pouring money into Facebook and Instagram ads this year in an attempt to boost ObamaCare enrollment among young adults. Read more in The Hill. 

Cool Your Jets – Congressman Darryl Issa (R-CA) says Republicans need to knock off the impeach Clinton talk. Read more in Roll Call.

Why Tuesdays – Americans vote on Tuesdays. It’s inconvenient – people have to work, polls are crowded in the few hours they’re open before and after work. How did elections get this way? Read more at NPR.

Who’s In? – The vote is a mere weekend away, but the race for House Leadership is already on. Who is running for such vaunted positions such as Republican Conference Vice Chair or Democratic Policy and Communications Committee Chair? What gavels will be moving with the House Republican Caucus’s self-imposed term limits on chairmanships? Roll Call has the scoop. 

Civil War – The future of the Republican Party doesn’t look pretty after this election as deep schisms have revealed themselves down to the Republican base. How does the GOP move forward and what does forward look like?  Read more in Politico. 

Moral Minority – For the last several election cycles, Southern evangelicals, specifically Southern Baptists, have been staunch voting block for the Republican party, but things could change with new church leadership . Read more in The Atlantic. 

Down Ballot Boom – With one week to go before Election Day, Republicans are using the FBI’s decision to review emails found via an investigation of former Congressman Anthony Weiner’s computer as a last-second boost in the race for the House and Senate. Read more at The Hill. 

It Could Happen – Yes, Trump has a path to victory with electoral votes. It depends on how close the popular vote is in certain states to how they break in the electoral college. Read more in 538.

FBI & Emails – The FBI got permission on Sunday to look through 650,000 emails discovered on a laptop used by (current target of an underage-sexting investigation) Anthony Weiner and his estranged wife/Hillary Clinton confidante Huma Abedin, to see if any of those emails might be relevant to its investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server. Read more in Slate. 

I Voted – Susan B. Anthony fought for equality for women for over 60 years and laid the foundation for the legal right to vote that American women enjoy today. Now, over 100 years after her death, admirers of the suffrage icon came to her grave with a different kind of tribute—dozens of “I Voted” stickers. Read more at Smithsonian Magazine. 

Brex-not-so-much – The UK Court has ruled that the British plan to leave the European Union has to be approved by Parliament. One problem, most MPs were against leaving. Read more in The New York Times.

Coffee, Tea, Me? – One silver lining in Brexit…it has raised the profile of the British so that they are now exporting tea to China. Read more in Marketplace. 

Here’s a selection of articles the Federal Relations team is enjoying this week.

October Surprise -Clinton’s FBI investigation is being reopened. Read more in The Hill. 

Double Down –  Professor Allan Lichtman has correctly predicted three decades of presidential candidates. He says Trump is going to win. Read more in the Washington Post. 

Challenges – It is harder than ever for young scientists  to compete for grants as federal dollars are stagnant and young faculty are under historically high pressure to publish, secure funding and earn permanent positions — leaving precious little time for actual research. Read more in Science. 

Down Ballot Money – Republican Party’s biggest donors has begun to flow down to Senate and House races in the final days of the 2016 campaign. Read more in The New York Times. 

Money as Motivator – Incentivizing students to get good grades is something parents have done for years, but what happens when the schools themselves to it? Not as much of a success. Read more in The Science of Us.

That Extra 10 – Student debt may be exacerbating inequality. A college graduate with an extra $10,000 in student loans will achieve the nation’s median net worth 26% slower than a college graduate without that debt. Read more at Market Watch. 

Scapegoat – Patient 0 became Patient Zero and that became Gaetan Dugas. The only problem is, that the story isn’t true. He isn’t Patient Zero. Read more in The Science of Us. 

For Profit$$$ – Many ambitious yet disadvantaged students still end up in schools where they’re most likely to drop out and accrue lots of debt. Read the in-depth piece in the Atlantic.