• GUNSCongress Renews Ban on Undetectable Firearms

    By Brian Freskos and Alain Stephens

    Congress has reauthorized the Undetectable Firearms Act, a decades-old law aimed at preventing people from sneaking guns through security checkpoints at schools, airports, concerts, and other public spaces. Lawmakers had been racing to extend the prohibition before it expired on March 8.

  • IMMIGRATIONImmigration Roars Back in Headlines. Time Finally Come for Reforms?

    By Liz Mineo

    A recent surge in migrants at the border coupled with the heated politics of a presidential election year have once again pushed the decades-old debate over comprehensive immigration reform to the top of the agenda in Washington. Migration law scholar looks at history, and the prospects for breaking gridlock in election year.

  • IMMIGRATIONDemocratic Governors Ask Congress for Immigration Aid to Reverse Years of “Inaction”

    By Ariana Figueroa

    Nine Democratic governors sent a letter to President Joe Biden and congressional leaders, requesting federal aid and urging changes to immigration law as their states take in an overwhelming number of asylum-seekers. The governors asked that Congress grant Biden’s request to include in a supplemental funding bill $4.4 billion for a federal migration strategy and $1.4 billion in aid to states and local governments dealing with an influx of migrants.

  • CHINA WATCHCongress Bans Pentagon from Using Chinese Port Logistics Platform

    By Jessica Stone

    The U.S. Congress has passed legislation that would ban the Pentagon from using any seaport in the world that relies on a Chinese logistics platform known as LOGINK. LOGINK, by tracking cargo and ship movements, lets Beijing monitor America’s military supply chain, which relies on commercial ports.

  • DECEPTIONSantos, Now Booted from the House, Got Elected as a Master of Duplicity – Here’s How It Worked

    By David E. Clementson

    U.S. Rep. George Santos, a Republican from New York, was expelled on Dec. 1, 2023, from Congress. How could a politician engage in such large-scale deception and get elected? What could stop it from happening again, as politicians seem to be growing more unapologetically deceptive while evading voters’ scrutiny? I am a scholar of political deception. Experiments I conducted have revealed how the trustworthiness of politicians is judged almost entirely from perceptions of their demeanor, not the words they utter.

  • CHINA WATCHAnalysts: Congressional Budget Battle Gives Beijing Opening in the Pacific

    By Jessica Stone

    When Congress passed temporary funding for the U.S. government at the end of September, it left out economic assistance for two small Pacific nations that U.S. defense officials say are critical to Washington’s Indo-Pacific strategy and are targets of China’s aggressive influence campaign.

  • SEDITIONProud Boys Leader Sentenced to 22 Years in Prison for Seditious Conspiracy and Other Charges Related to U.S. Capitol Breach

    The former national chairman of the Proud Boys was sentenced Tuesday to 22 years in jail for seditious conspiracy and other charges related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. His actions and the actions of others disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress that was in the process of ascertaining and counting the electoral votes related to the 2020 presidential election.

  • MICROCHIPSBipartisan Texan Push in Congress to Boost Semiconductors, a Crucial Industry in the State

    By Matthew Choi

    Republicans like Sen. Ted Cruz and Democrats like Rep. Colin Allred — opponents in the 2024 election — propose streamlining environmental reviews to promote investment and expansion by chipmakers.

  • HEALTH SECURITYTwo Bills Aim to Bolster Bio and Health Security

    Two proposed bills aim to bolster the health security of Americans. The first bill aims to reduce the risks posed by gene synthesis while at the same time ensuring that responsible companies are not disadvantaged by doing the right thing. The second addresses to potential threats to public health posed by AI.

  • HEALTH SECURITYProtecting Health Security from Potential Threats Arising from Advances in Biotechnology

    The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security said it was applauding congressional leaders in health security for their introduction of two pieces of legislation to strengthen security around emerging threats from advances in biotechnology.

  • JAN. 6 ATTACK ON THE CAPITOLSignificant Intelligence Failures by FBI, DHS in Lead-Up to January 6th Capitol Attack

    A Senate panel released a new report detailing the results of an investigation examining intelligence failures by the FBI and DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) in the lead-up to the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. The investigation found that intelligence failures and operational missteps by the FBI and DHS I&A contributed to the security planning failures that left frontline officers unprepared for the violent mob that breached the Capitol and disrupted the peaceful transfer of power.

  • JAN. 6 ATTACK ON THE CAPITOLPlanned in Plain Sight

    Beginning in December 2020, the FBI and DHS I&A were receiving increasingly detailed, and worrisome, information – from informers, encrypted chat rooms, and other sources — that Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and other far-right violent extremist groups supporting then-President Donald Trump were planning attacks on the Capitol and other federal buildings in an attempt to prevent the peaceful transition of power to the winner of the November election, Joe Biden. Despite the dire nature of the information, the FBI and I&A failed to issue sufficient warnings to the Capitol police, DC police, and other frontline personnel based on, and reflecting, the available intelligence indicating January 6th might turn violent.

  • ARGUMENT: GUARDING DEMOCRACYHow Jan. 6 Committee Staffers Have Filled in the Blanks

    According to Tucker Carlson, the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was not an attempted putsch but instead “mostly peaceful chaos.” Quinta Jurecic writes that the Fox News host’s revisionist take on Jan. 6 has so far received widespread condemnation, and that among the voices criticizing Carlson’s attempted rewriting of history have been staffers formerly on the Jan. 6 committee.

  • IMMIGRATIONPolitical Division Prolongs the Immigration Crisis: Report

    The U.S. immigration system is slow and stymied by politics, but the border crisis represents an opportunity to address gaps in the American labor market, according to a new report.

  • SECTION 702Lawmakers: “Clean Reauthorization” of Surveillance Authorities a “Nonstarter”

    By Jeff Seldin

    Key U.S. lawmakers are warning the country’s top intelligence officials that they could soon find themselves without a much-talked-about surveillance authority unless their agencies are able to prove they can be trusted.