During the recent government shutdown, the national conversation about flying safety focused solely on FAA air traffic controllers and TSA screeners. Few people seemed aware that thousands of other federal watchdogs spent six weeks on their couches.
federal government
Posted inEducation in America
The Trump Administration Plot to Destroy Public Education
Officials claim that dismantling the Department of Education will improve efficiency. It isn’t true.
Posted inEducation in America
Fearing for the Future of Special Education
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act turns 50 with educators and activists fighting to preserve the landmark achievement.
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Another Mass Staffing Purge at the VA
Up to 37,000 positions may be dropped, with the VA transformed into a facilitator for outsourcing, sources tell the Prospect.
Posted inTAP
Constitutional Softball: Congress Gives Up Its Power of the Purse
After the shutdown deal, Trump has gone right back to withholding funds and dismantling appropriated entities.
Posted inBooks
‘Cadillac Desert’ Reconsidered
Marc Reisner’s 1986 book demonstrates how a hypertrophic judiciary combines with America’s deadlocked legislature to make vast swaths of Western water policy dependent on 19th-century legal norms.
Posted inEnergy and the Environment
Trump’s Katrina Is Coming
The president’s FEMA sabotage has all but guaranteed us more acute disasters in the future.
Posted inEconomic Policy
Credit Unions Go Large and Go Rogue
Intended to bolster local access to lending, large credit unions today are swallowing up community banks. A Trump purge has reduced their oversight to one regulator.
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
The Shutdown Is Over. SNAP’s Struggles Aren’t.
Turning off the logistically complicated SNAP system—which relies on the federal government, states, and private companies to function in concert—and then trying to turn it back on quickly is no easy task.
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Ripping Up SNAP and America’s Social Contract
Like their colleagues across the country, Mississippi River corridor mayors are on the front lines speeding food to desperate residents. Six out of the ten Mississippi River states have more than 10 percent of their populations who currently depend on SNAP benefits.