Cameron Kerry for the Brookings Institution: As the data universe keeps expanding, more and more of it falls outside the various specific laws on the books. This includes most of the data we generate through such widespread uses such as web searches, social media, e-commerce, and smartphone apps. The changes come faster than legislation or regulatory rules can adapt, and they erase the sectoral boundaries that have defined our privacy laws. Take my smart watch, for one example: data it generates about my heart rate and activity is covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) if it is shared with my doctor, but not when it goes to fitness apps like Strava (where I can compare my performance with my peers). Either way, it is the same data, just as sensitive to me and just as much of a risk in the wrong hands.
It makes little sense that protection of data should depend entirely on who happens to hold it. This arbitrariness will spread as more and more connected devices are embedded in everything from clothing to cars to home appliances to street furniture. Add to that striking changes in patterns of business integration and innovation — traditional telephone providers like Verizon and AT&T are entering entertainment, while startups launch into the provinces of financial institutions like currency trading and credit and all kinds of enterprises compete for space in the autonomous vehicle ecosystem — and the sectoral boundaries that have defined U.S. privacy protection cease to make any sense.
Putting so much data into so many hands also is changing the nature of information that is protected as private. To most people, “personal information” means information like social security numbers, account numbers, and other data that is unique to them. U.S. privacy laws reflect this conception by aiming at “personally identifiable information,” but data scientists have repeatedly demonstrated that this focus can be too narrow. The aggregation and correlation of data from various sources make it increasingly possible to link supposedly anonymous information to specific individuals and to infer characteristics and information about them. The result is that today, a widening range of data has the potential to be personal information, i.e. to identify us uniquely. Few laws or regulations address this new reality.
Tax ‘reform’ that made the code more complex and unfair
Chris Edwards for the Cato Institute: The federal government dispenses unequal treatment to Americans through subsidies, regulations, and narrow tax breaks. The unequal treatment generates lobbying and corruption as the government-determined winners dig in to defend their spoils and the losers agitate for a share.
Washington is a universe of thousands of separate special-interest galaxies, each with spiraling masses of lobbyists orbiting politicians and bureaucrats whose power is a gravitational force. Scientists say that the universe is mainly filled with dark energy, and the same is true of the nation’s capital.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 created a new special-interest galaxy called “Opportunity Zones.” O Zones are tax structures that infuse governors and U.S. Treasury officials with the power to divide every state in the nation into winner and loser areas. Projects in the winner areas receive capital gains tax breaks, while projects in the loser areas get the shaft.
The story behind August recess
Marian Currinder for the R Street Institute: The August recess has been a congressional tradition since 1791 but became a statutory requirement with the passage of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970. Given the Capitol’s lack of modern ventilation systems, the break was initially a way for members to escape Washington’s oppressive heat and humidity. And up until the 20th century, many members held other jobs and wanted time at home to focus on those professions. Serving in Congress was not a full-time career, and no ethics law barred members from holding multiple jobs.
As the institution grew and member responsibilities expanded, Congress spent more time in session. By the 1960s, newer members with younger families began pressing for a more predictable legislative calendar. According to Senate Historian Don Ritchie, these members “were looking for regularity and wanted to be able to promise their families in January that they could have an August vacation.” The 1960s were also a time of intense legislating, with lawmakers taking up major issues like the Vietnam War, President Johnson’s Great Society programs, and civil rights. The workload kept them in session through several summers during that decade.
The Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970 presented members with an opportunity to make a longstanding tradition legal. The first official August recess began on August 6, 1971. Congress traditionally returns to Washington after Labor Day weekend.
Business obviously continues while Congress is in recess — the action just doesn’t take place on the floor. And should circumstances warrant, Congress can be called back into session during a recess. Pushing the recess start date back or canceling recess altogether are also (less popular) options. In theory, a looming deadline should force action and incentivize members to get their work done before leaving town. In practice, this happens less and less. The broken appropriations process exemplifies this failure.
Compiled by Joseph Lawler from reports published by various think tanks.
