Among the more bizarre comments we’ve seen in a while are the first few on H.R. 1467, The Safe and Secure America Act of 2009. The bill would extend provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act and the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 for 10 years. Serious stuff.
But that doesn’t mean that serious [...]
The House today passed H.R. 549, The National Bombing Prevention Act, which would establish the Office for Bombing Prevention in the Department of Homeland Security.
You mean – they didn’t already have one? I hope that there are sub-bureaus for suicide-bombing prevention, truck-bombing prevention, car-bombing prevention, shoe-bombing prevention, etc.
Actually, that wry comment raises an important [...]
Well, this isn’t hot off the presses, but it’s a fascinating paper that I just had the chance to read.
Mark Stewart, a civil engineer at the University of Newcastle and John Mueller, a political science professor at Ohio State University, have done an analysis of the dollars spent per life saved by a [...]
The mighty power of the WashingtonWatch.com blog demonstrates itself again! I posted here at 5:37 p.m. on August 5th about searching laptops at the borders and the bill to require reasonable suspicion for doing so.
Undoubtedly in direct response to my raising the issue, the Department of Homeland Security’s Deputy Commissioner for U.S. Customs and [...]
Though I don’t know yet where visitors are coming from, a lot of traffic has come today to a new bill that would lay down rules for searches of laptops and electronic devices at the U.S. borders. And judging by the current vote, a lot of them like it. Here’s some background (with [...]
The Congressional Budget Office came out with a cost estimate today for S. 3297, the Advancing America’s Priorities Act, which has also been called the “Coburn Omnibus.” It combines 36 pieces of federal legislation into one.
Yesterday, adding up all the pieces of the Coburn Omnibus, we came up with about $65 per U.S. family. [...]
Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma didn’t come to Washington, D.C. to grow the government.
A long time critic of federal spending and power, he has made prolific use of “holds” to prevent legislation he doesn’t like from moving forward.
Now Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has reached his wit’s end. [...]