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Wikipedia, Reddit, and other popular websites all went black today to protest SOPA and PIPA, two bills currently before Congress. Critics charge that the bills could potentially shut down the Internet as we know it. Associate Director of Technology Studies Ryan Radia explains how the bills would work, and how they would indeed stifle free speech.
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Immigration Policy Analyst Alex Nowrasteh tells Jakadrien Turner’s story and what it means for the immigration reform debate. Turner is a 14-year old girl from Texas who was mistakenly deported to Colombia. Turner is not Hispanic, does not speak Spanish, and has no connections to Colombia whatsoever. It took six months of pleading and legal maneuvering before authorities allowed her to return home. This was not an isolated incident. The way to prevent future cases like this, Nowrasteh argues, is radically simplifying our overly complex immigration and citizenship laws.
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Associate Director of Technology Policy Studies and Iowa native Ryan Radia takes a look at how the different strains of Republican voters are deciding on their party’s presidential nominee. In the years to come, Radia believes that the GOP will need to reinvent itself ideologically if it is to remain politically relevant.
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Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews talks about why 2011 was a record year for both new regulations and their cost. He also talks about his efforts to make the opaque regulatory state more transparent. Besides his annual “Ten Thousand Commandments” report, Wayne has started a new TenThousandCommandments.com website to update regulatory data in real time. There is a also a 10KC Twitter account and a Facebook page to make it as easy as possible to keep an eye on what regulatory agencies are up to.
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Politicians usually love infrastructure projects. But politics has delayed the privately owned Keystone XL pipeline’s construction for three years now. Research Associate David Bier explains the reasons behind the delay, and points out that the pipeline’s real benefit isn’t the jobs it would create; it’s the wealth and value it would create.
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Land-use and Transportation Policy Analyst Marc Scribner looks at House Republicans’ “drilling for roads” proposal and finds it wanting. Under this proposal, the federal government would allow more fossil fuel extraction from federally owned lands, as well as offshore. Some of the revenues would go into the federal Highway Trust Fund. This would politicize transportation even more than it already is, and would lead to adverse consequences.
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