16 May
2016
Infrastructure Dominates The Week – TenCount 5.16.16
- The presidential primaries roll on Tuesday, with Kentucky holding its Democratic primary and Oregon conducting both its Republican and Democratic primaries. Look for two Bernie Sanders wins that nonetheless barely dent Hillary Clinton’s delegate lead. On Saturday, meanwhile, President Obama begins a weeklong visit to Vietnam and Japan.
- President Obama has led a nation at war longer than any other American president – longer than Roosevelt, Johnson, Nixon or Lincoln. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee examines part of that record on Tuesday at a hearing titled “War In Syria: Next Steps to Mitigate the Crisis.”
- The use of mandatory-arbitration clauses in contracts in everything from financial services to education has drawn the attention both of regulators and of their overseers. On Wednesday the House Financial Services Committee zeroes in on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and its proposed rulemaking prohibiting mandatory arbitration, asking “Is it in the Public Interest and for the Protection of Consumers?”
- A controversial part of the government’s mortgage settlements with banks directed settlement funds to consumer-protection groups that Congress had already funded, raising the ire of some Congressional appropriators. On Thursday the Oversight and Investigations subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee will attempt to settle the question: “Did Bank Settlement Agreements Subvert Congressional Appropriation Powers?”
- Remember the Peace Dividend? The theory was that the drop in military spending resulting from the end of the Cold War would finance a flood of infrastructure spending. Twenty-five years later, America’s infrastructure is even more decrepit. To the rescue: Infrastructure Week, beginning Monday, with a U.S. Chamber of Commerce kick-off event highlighting the importance of investment in transportation infrastructure.
- Two other groups also focus on infrastructure spending this week. On Monday afternoon, the Bipartisan Policy Center hosts a discussion on “A New Model To Modernize U.S. Infrastructure,” while Thursday brings a Hill briefing and press conference with the results of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ recently-unveiled economics study, “Failure to Act: Closing the Infrastructure Investment Gap for America’s Economic Future.”
- Congress, too, gets into Infrastructure Week with the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee conducting a hearing Wednesday to assess the security of critical infrastructure, focusing on threats, vulnerabilities and solutions. And the National Assessment Governing Board and the National Center for Education Statistics on Tuesday will release “The Nation’s Report Card: Technology and Engineering Literacy,” the first-ever nationally representative assessment of engineering and technology literacy.
- In the second in a series of hearings to assess America’s insatiable appetite for drugs, the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee on Tuesday takes a look at the federal response, with witnesses from the Office of Drug Control Policy, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Government Accountability Office.
- That online threats never cease is the subject of two events this week. On Tuesday the Center for Strategic and International Studies hosts a discussion on its latest report, “Managing Risk for the Internet of Things.” And on Wednesday the Senate Crime and Terrorism Subcommittee conducts a hearing on “Ransomware: Understanding the Threat and Exploring Solutions.”