Source: European Union
The European Union (EU) is not a federation like the United States. Nor is it simply an organisation for cooperation between governments, like the United Nations. It is, in fact, unique. The countries that make up the EU (its Member States) pool their sovereignty in order to gain a strength and world influence that none of them could have on their own.
Pooling sovereignty means, in practice, that the Member States delegate some of their decision-making powers to shared insti- tutions they have created, so that decisions on specific matters of joint interest can be made democratically at European level.
The EU’s decision-making process, in general, and the co-decision procedure, in particular, involve three main institutions:
— the European Parliament, which represents the EU’s citizens and is directly elected by them;
— the Council of the European Union, which represents the individual Member States;
— the European Commission, which seeks to uphold the interests of the Union as a whole.This ‘institutional triangle’ produces the policies and laws (di- rectives, regulations and decisions) that apply throughout the EU. In principle, it is the Commission that proposes new EU laws but it is the Parliament and the Council that adopt them.
Two other institutions have a vital part to play: the Court of Justice upholds the rule of European law, and the Court of Auditors checks the financing of the Union’s activities. These institutions were set up under the Treaties, which are the foundation of everything the EU does. The Treaties are agreed by the Member States’ presidents and prime ministers and rati- fied by their parliaments. They lay down the rules and proce- dures that the EU institutions must follow. In addition to its institutions, the EU has a number of other bodies that play specialised roles.
+Direct link to document (PDF; 16.2 MB)
Building a digital Europe: Lessons for the delivery of secure pan-European e-Government
Source: RAND Corporation
This paper presents pointers on what is required to deliver a secure e-Government environment for mobile European citizens, based on the lessons learned from existing services and initiatives and identified challenges in the national and pan-European environments. The paper builds on a review of policy documents, scientific literature and an assessment of existing Pan-European eGovernment Services (PEGS; Solvit, ëLimosaí, DG TAXUD, Secure Telematics (sTESTA)) and other multi-stakeholder systems developed in the private sector (Single European Payments Area; SEPA). It also draws on the presentations and discussions of a Working Conference on this theme held in Brussels in mid-November 2007 and the efforts of the SecurEgov (pan-European Secure e-Government Services) study conducted by RAND Europe for DG Information Society and Media between 2006 and 2007. This paper takes a look forward at what possibilities exist for regulatory intervention by the European Commission to meet some of the challenges related to the deployment of secure Pan European e-Government Services (PEGS). PEGS should provide an inclusive, seamless and cross-border service to citizens (and possibly other residents and visitors) in Europe. For the basic assessment, lessons from pan-European government-to-business (G2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) services are also taken into account. Thus, the paper is not meant to be an academic treatise on the various security aspects of PEGS, rather a document intended to be of direct policy benefit for the European Commission and other stakeholders in preparing the ground for the eventual implementation of PEGS.
+ Summary (PDF; 401 KB)
+ Full Document (PDF; 97 KB)
Equity and Congestion Pricing: A Review of the Evidence
Source: RAND Corporation
Transportation policymakers are increasingly considering congestion pricing a promising option for addressing urban traffic-congestion problems. While some congestion pricing projects have been undertaken in the United States, many proposals have been rejected based on worries that congestion pricing is inequitable. This report looks at the evidence that might support or negate this claim. As congestion pricing has been both studied and implemented more widely, a body of evidence based on both real-world implementations and models of proposed and hypothetical congestion pricing systems has been growing. While a number of papers have been published in this area, it has been difficult to reach general conclusions about whether congestion pricing is equitable. This report provides an overview of the literature from both economists and transportation planners to highlight what is known about the equity implications of congestion pricing.
+ Summary (PDF; 125 KB)
+ Full Document (PDF; 410 KB)
Understanding the Effects of Personal and School Religiosity on the Decision to Abort a Premarital Pregnancy (PDF; 746 KB)
Source: Journal of Health & Social Behavior
Although much research has examined the relationship between religion and abortion attitudes, few studies have examined whether religion influences abor- tion behavior. This study looks at whether individual and school religiosity influence reported abortion behavior among women who become pregnant while unmarried. Hierarchical Logistic Models are implemented to analyze two waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Findings show that personal religiosity is unrelated to reported abortion behavior. However, conservative Protestants appear less likely to obtain abortions than mainline Protestants, Catholics, and women of non-Christian faiths. Regardless of personal religious affiliation, having attended a school with a high propor- tion of conservative Protestants appears to discourage abortion as women en- ter their twenties. Conversely, women from private religious high schools ap- pear more likely to report obtaining an abortion than women from public schools.
Interracial Friendships in the Transition to College: Do Birds of a Feather Flock Together Once
They Leave the Nest? (PDF; 873 KB)
Source: Sociology of Education
Because of segregation in neighborhoods and schools, college may provide the first opportunity for many young adults to interact closely with members of different racial and ethnic groups. Little research has examined how interracial friendships form during this period. This article investigates changes in the racial composition of friendship networks in the transition from high school to college and how aspects of the college environment are related to such changes. Interracial friendships increase for whites, decrease for blacks, and show little change for Latinos and Asians. The habits of friendship formation that are acquired during adolescence and features of residential and extracurricular college contexts influence the formation of interracial friendships. The race of one’s roommate, the degree of interracial contact in residence halls, and participation in various types of extracurricular activities are most strongly related to the formation of interracial friendships.
Anti-Semitic Incidents Decline for Fourth Straight Year in U.S., According to Annual ADL Audit
Source: Anti-Defamation League (ADL)
The number of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States declined for the fourth consecutive year, according to newly issued statistics from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The League’s annual Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents, issued today, counted a total of 1,352 incidents of vandalism, harassment and physical assaults against Jewish individuals, property and community institutions in 2008, representing a 7 percent decline from the 1,460 incidents reported in 2007.
The Audit identified 37 physical assaults on Jewish individuals, 702 incidences of anti-Semitic vandalism, and 613 cases of harassment in 2008. They included acts against high-profile Jewish community institutions and communal properties, such as the repeated vandalism of the San Francisco Holocaust Memorial, and the desecration of dozens of graves at a Jewish cemetery in Chicago with swastikas and hate group symbols.
Of the total 1,352 incidents, 42 percent occurred at homes, private buildings or businesses, and 23 percent took place in educational establishments, including public and private schools and universities, according to the Audit.
NIST Delivers Updated Draft Standards for Electronic Voting Machines
Source: National Institute of Standards and Technology
The Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) today delivered to the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) a draft revision to the 2005 federal Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG) Version 1.0, specifying how electronic voting machines are built and tested. The EAC has made the draft revision available for public comment today, with a final version expected by the end of 2009.
“The guidelines announced today are designed to further improve the quality and efficiency of the testing conducted on voting systems,” said John Wack, NIST voting team manager. “This enables improvements to be made sooner rather than later when the next full set of standards is finalized.”
The draft revision, titled “Voluntary Voting System Guidelines, Version 1.1,” provides improved requirements for electronic voting machine accuracy, reliability, usability, accessibility and security. The strengthened requirements have been taken from the August 2007 VVSG recommendations delivered to the EAC by NIST and the Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC). Because the EAC wants the draft revision to be achievable by voting system manufacturers in the near term, the revision requires no changes to voting system hardware and no significant changes to system software.
NIST has developed associated tests to go along with the revised standards, which will be available to the public and to federally accredited testing labs.
Obama Administration Auto Restructuring Initiative: General Motors Restructuring
Source: White House Press Office
On March 30, 2009, President Obama laid out a framework for General Motors to achieve viability that required the Company to rework its business plan, accelerate its operational restructuring and make far greater reductions in its outstanding liabilities.After two months of significant management engagement, General Motors has developed such a plan and has already begun to make progress toward its achievement. The Company has also secured commitments of meaningful sacrifice from all of its major stakeholder groups , sacrifices sufficient for this plan to proceed forward. As a result, the President has deemed GM’s plan viable and will be making available about $30 billion of additional federal assistance to support GM’s restructuring plan . To effectuate its plan, General Motors will use Section 363 of the bankruptcy code to clear away the remaining impediments to its successful re-launch.
For the better part of a century, The General Motors Corporation has been one of the most recognizable and largest businesses in the world. Today will rank as another historic day for the company —the end of an old General Motors, and the beginning of a new one.
There’s More to Policy Than Alignment
Source: Canadian Policy Research Networks
The demands on governments to meet citizen expectations for timely and effective policies, programs and services are enormous and difficult to satisfy. There are many competing priorities – managing the economy, sustaining a strong, viable social safety net, and dealing with climate change – that are complex issues to manage. The urgency and depth of the current economic downturn has added pressures to policy-making capacity. Addressing these challenges requires well considered, forward looking and creative policy approaches. How well equipped is the public sector to respond and to provide political leaders and public sector decision-makers with quality advice that will be effective in addressing Canada’s public policy challenges?
In There’s More to Policy Than Alignment, Evert Lindquist explores the challenge of policy capacity in government and the needs of decision-makers and the public. Lindquist seeks to lay a foundation for a discussion and debate on whether Canada is realizing its potential for building policy capability and tapping into potentially policy-relevant research.
+ Full Document (PDF; 490 KB)
Medicare Part D Payments for Beneficiaries in Part A Skilled Nursing Facility Stays in 2006 (PDF; 441 KB)
Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General
Medicare Part D paid for 1.2 million drugs, amounting to $75 million, for beneficiaries in Part A SNF stays in 2006. The majority of these payments were most likely inappropriate.
Medicare Part D covers most prescription drugs; however, it excludes drugs that are covered under Medicare Parts A or B. Specifically, Part D excludes drugs for beneficiaries in Part A SNF stays if the drugs were for use in the facility or to facilitate the beneficiaries’ discharge. These drugs are covered under Part A, except for a few drugs that are covered under Part B. CMS has identified duplicate payments by Medicare Parts A and D as a potential vulnerability.
Sixty percent of the drugs Part D paid for while beneficiaries were in Part A SNF stays in 2006 were dispensed by long-term care pharmacies. These pharmacies dispense drugs for use in long-term care settings, including SNFs. Because these drugs were most likely dispensed for use in the facility during a Part A SNF stay, Part D payments for them, which amounted to $41.3 million, were most likely inappropriate. The remaining 40 percent of drugs paid for by Part D for beneficiaries in Part A SNF stays were dispensed by retail and other types of pharmacies. If these drugs were for use in the facility or were to facilitate the beneficiaries’ discharge, then Part D payments were also inappropriate. Nearly every SNF and half of all pharmacies had beneficiaries who had a drug paid for by Part D during their Part A SNF stay. At the same time, a small number of SNFs and pharmacies were responsible for a large percentage of these Part D payments.
Based on these findings, we recommend that CMS ensure that Part D payments for drugs for beneficiaries in Part A SNF stays are appropriate. More specifically, CMS should provide additional guidance about when Parts A and D can pay for drugs for beneficiaries preparing for discharge; educate SNFs, pharmacies, and Part D sponsors that drugs covered under Parts A or B for beneficiaries in SNF stays are not eligible for coverage under Part D; implement retrospective reviews to prevent inappropriate Part D payments for drugs for this population; and follow up with the SNFs and pharmacies that were responsible for a large percentage of Part D payments for beneficiaries in Part A SNF stays. CMS concurred with the three recommendations we had in our draft report. However, it raised several concerns and in response we clarified the language in the report and added a recommendation that CMS provide additional guidance that clarifies the circumstances under which Parts A and D can pay for drugs for beneficiaries preparing for discharge.
KnowPrivacy: The Current State of Web Privacy, Data Collection, and Information Sharing
Source: UC Berkeley School of Information
The Project
Approach: A comparison of users’ expectations of privacy online and the data collection practices of website operators.Goal: To identify specific practices that may be harmful or deceptive and attract the attention of government regulators.
Result: Recommendations for policymakers to protect consumers and for website operators to avoid stricter regulation.
Key Findings
User Expectations and Knowledge
- Users are concerned about data collection online and want greater control over their personal information.
- Users lack awareness of some data collection practices.
- Users don’t know who to complain to.
Website Practices
- Websites collect and analyze data about users, but only offer partial access and control to the users.
- Website policies are unclear about several important issues, such as retention and data enhancement.
- Websites claim they do not share user data with third parties, but they do share with affiliates that users may have no relationship with.
- Web bug trackers are ubiquitous. Analytics and ad serving companies can track user behavior across large portions of the web.
DRAFT Recommended Security Controls for Federal Information Systems and Organizations
Source: National Institute of Standards and Technology
NIST announces the release of the final public draft of Special Publication 800-53, Revision 3, Recommended Security Controls for Federal Information Systems and Organizations. The final public draft of Special Publication 800-53, Revision 3, is historic in nature. For the first time, and as part of the ongoing initiative to develop a unified information security framework for the federal government and its contractors, NIST has included security controls in its catalog for both national security and non national security systems. The updated security control catalog incorporates best practices in information security from the United States Department of Defense, Intelligence Community, and Civil agencies, to produce the most broad-based and comprehensive set of safeguards and countermeasures ever developed for information systems.
The standardized set of management, operational, and technical controls provide a common specification language for information security for federal information systems processing, storing, and transmitting both national security and non national security information. The revised security control catalog also includes state-of-the-practice safeguards and countermeasures needed by organizations to address advanced cyber threats capable of exploiting vulnerabilities in federal information systems. The important changes in Special Publication 800-53, Revision 3 are part of a larger strategic initiative to focus on enterprise-wide, near real-time risk management; that is, managing risks from information systems in dynamic environments of operation that can adversely affect organizational operations and assets, individuals, other organizations, and the Nation. The final publication of Special Publication 800-53, Revision 3 is targeted for July 31, 2009. Comments will be accepted until July 1, 2009 and should be sent to sec-cert@nist.gov. NIST will post the markup version of Special Publication 800-53, Revision 3, not later than June 5, 2009.
+ Full Document (PDF; 2.2 MB)
Prevention of Depression in At-Risk Adolescents
Source: Journal of the American Medical Association
The CB (cognitive behavioral) prevention program had a significant prevention effect through the 9-month follow-up period based on both clinical diagnoses and self-reported depressive symptoms, but this effect was not evident for adolescents with a currently depressed parent.
New From the GAO
June 3rd, 2009New GAO Reports and Testimonies (PDFs)
Source: Government Accountability Office
3 June 2009
+ Reports
1. Rebuilding Iraq: Improved Management Controls and Iraqi Commitment Needed for Key State and USAID Capacity Building Programs
2. Indian Health Service: Millions of Dollars in Property and Equipment Continue to Be Lost or Stolen
3. Alaska Native Villages: Limited Progress Has Been Made on Relocating Villages Threatened by Flooding and Erosion
4. Regulation SHO: Recent Actions Appear to Have Initially Reduced Failures to Deliver, but More Industry Guidance Is Needed
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+ Testimonies
1. Influenza Pandemic: Continued Focus on the Nation’s Planning and Preparedness Efforts Remains Essential, by Bernice Steinhardt, director, strategic issues, before the Ad Hoc Subcommittee on State, Local, and Private Sector Preparedness and Integration, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
2. Public Transportation: New Starts Program Challenges and Preliminary Observations on Expediting Project Development, by A. Nicole Clowers, acting director, physical infrastructure issues, before the Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development, Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
Diplomas and Dropouts Report Exposes Dramatic Variation in Completion Rates at Colleges and Universities across the Country (PDF; 66 KB)
Source: American Enterprise Institute
In his first speech to Congress, President Obama promised that “by 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.” Diplomas and Dropouts: Which Colleges Actually Graduate Their Students (and Which Don’t), released today by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), exposes the dramatic variation in completion rates across nearly 1,400 colleges and universities.
Less than 55 percent of first-time students at the average four-year college graduate within six years, and at many institutions, students have less than a one in three chance of earning a degree—even as they spend thousands of dollars on tuition and accumulate thousands of dollars of debt. The authors find that completion rates vary dramatically across institutions with similar admissions standards.
“Such differences suggest that while student motivation, finances, and ability matter greatly when it comes to college completion, the practices of higher education institutions matter, too,” Frederick M. Hess, lead author of Diplomas and Dropouts, said.
+ Full Report (PDF; 769 KB)
