Governance

May 26, 2023

Jeff Hauser

Press Release

Ethics in GovernmentExecutive BranchGovernanceGovernment CapacityMedia Accountability

RELEASE: Revolving Door Project Reacts to Biden’s Debt Ceiling Cave & the Media’s Incompetent Coverage

In response to the emergence of the structure of a potential deal between President Biden and Speaker McCarthy, Revolving Door Project Executive Director Jeff Hauser issued the following statement: 

“There are three aspects to the substance and coverage of this debate that have been infuriating.”

May 24, 2023 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter

Toni Aguilar Rosenthal

Newsletter

Congressional OversightEthics in GovernmentGovernance

Who’s Going To Keep Corporations Honest?

The Washington Post last week ran a delightful little synopsis of Senator Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) true passion: congressional oversight. Bernie is revered for his willingness to hold corporations and their CEOs accountable for their villainy, and how he does so with extraordinary dexterity. Be it by ruthlessly interrogating Big Pharma executives for their murderous price gouging of lifesaving treatments or humiliating Howard Schultz for being a whiny billionaire union-buster, Bernie Sanders makes congressional oversight hearings fun. The fun he makes for himself and for the public he strives to give real voice to through speaking truth to power is not just gratifying; it also helps sharpen congressional oversight into a tool to actually achieve something.

May 10, 2023 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter

Hannah Story Brown

Newsletter

Executive BranchGovernanceGovernment Capacity

The GOP Budget Plan Would Ruin Millions of Lives

There are a lot of things you could say about the GOP’s proposed plan to reduce the deficit. But if we want to be more expansive than just calling it “batshit crazy” and washing our hands of the whole clown show, as we think Biden can and should, then we could point out that the GOP plan is an expression of profound hostility to the idea of a federal government that serves anyone besides war profiteers.

April 18, 2023 | The New Republic

Hannah Story Brown

Op-Ed

2020 Election/TransitionClimateDepartment of JusticeEthics in GovernmentGovernanceRevolving Door

The Ghost of a Trump Appointee Is Haunting Merrick Garland’s Justice Department

Tracing Clark’s lingering impact on ongoing litigation makes clear that the legacy of Trump’s Justice Department still haunts our governance and that failing to treat his cronies like the menace they are is worsening outcomes across the country. In some cases, Attorney General Merrick Garland is still carrying forward with the arguments Clark helped shape. In others, the Justice Department and its client agencies are at a critical juncture of having to decide whether to break from past positions or maintain continuity with positions they adopted during the Trump administration.

April 14, 2023

Emma Marsano

Blog Post

ClimateCriminal JusticeDepartment of JusticeGovernance

DOJ IN THE NEWS: Mid-April Trends

This is the latest installment of a new biweekly blog series from RDP. Every two weeks, we call out ongoing trends in media coverage of the Justice Department’s focus and priorities, giving context from our past DOJ oversight work as needed, with an eye to the impact of DOJ capacity and resources, as well as alignment with the Biden administration’s professed goals.

April 06, 2023

Toni Aguilar Rosenthal

Blog Post

Ethics in GovernmentFederal ReserveFinancial RegulationGovernance

We Have Always Been Right About Jerome Powell

Despite years of our best advice, and indeed the better judgments of Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other progressives in Congress, government watchdogs like Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) and others, nearly one year ago President Joe Biden disappointed his responsibility to the public and to his own economic agenda by renominating Donald Trump’s hand picked head of the Fed: Jerome Powell. Biden bafflingly stuck by Powell despite his years of betraying labor unions, environmental groups and frontline communities, and the middle class. As a result, broad coalitions of folks concerned about the climate crisis, about the long term safety and stability of our financial system, about attacks on labor and the working class, about housing insecurity and the long term impacts of the pandemic, mobilized against Powell’s renomination because his storied track record of, well, making each of these things (and more!) worse.

April 05, 2023 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter

Dylan Gyauch-Lewis Hannah Story Brown

Newsletter

Department of JusticeDepartment of TransportationFinancial RegulationGovernanceIndependent AgenciesRevolving Door

Several Flavors of Regulatory Failures

Until the Biden administration learns that they need to draw a sharp contrast with their predecessors and, generally, do a full 180, they will keep getting egg on their faces. And when the blame genuinely belongs to both the Trump and Biden administrations, warranted criticism of disastrous Republican deregulation is undermined.

April 03, 2023 | The American Prospect

Hannah Story Brown

Op-Ed

ClimateCorporate CrackdownDepartment of JusticeGovernance

The Chickenshit Club, Climate Edition

If we at the Revolving Door Project could exhort the Biden administration to do anything, it would be this: Choose the right enemies—rich, powerful corporations that harm the public, most often with impunity. Sometimes you will lose, but that doesn’t mean you should forfeit the fight. And getting caught trying can inspire the public to rally around a political party and its leaders.

March 24, 2023

Emma Marsano

Blog Post

Anti-MonopolyCriminal JusticeDepartment of JusticeGovernance

DOJ IN THE NEWS: Mid-March Trends

This is the latest installment of a new biweekly blog series from RDP. Every two weeks, we call out ongoing trends in media coverage of the Justice Department’s focus and priorities, giving context from our past DOJ oversight work as needed, with an eye to the impact of DOJ capacity and resources, as well as alignment with the Biden administration’s professed goals.

March 10, 2023

Emma Marsano

Blog Post

Anti-MonopolyBureau of PrisonsCriminal JusticeDepartment of JusticeGovernance

DOJ IN THE NEWS: Early March Trends

This is the latest installment of a new biweekly blog series from RDP. Every two weeks, we call out ongoing trends in media coverage of the Justice Department’s focus and priorities, giving context from our past DOJ oversight work as needed, with an eye to the impact of DOJ capacity and resources, as well as alignment with the Biden administration’s professed goals.

March 08, 2023

Hannah Story Brown

Blog Post

ClimateDe-TrumpificationDepartment of JusticeGovernance

A Test For DOJ De-Trumpification: State-Level Climate Liability Cases

Over halfway through Biden’s term, Attorney General Merrick Garland is maintaining the Trump Justice Department’s position on an alarming number of legal cases. Our litigation tracker documents approximately 40 such cases across education, immigration, the environment, criminal justice, transparency, agriculture and other issues. It is by no means a comprehensive list.

March 08, 2023

Emma Marsano

Blog Post

GovernanceOIRA

Addressing OIRA’s Scope Creep:
President Biden Must, at a Minimum, Raise the Threshold for “Economic Significance”

What if a tiny government agency staffed by career economists wielding cost-benefit analysis as their primary tool were in charge of reviewing and modifying substantive regulations from most major federal agencies, despite their lack of subject-matter expertise on topics as varied as climate change, workplace health hazards, and automobile safety standards? 

March 01, 2023 | The American Prospect

Hannah Story Brown

Op-Ed

ClimateConsumer ProtectionCorporate CrackdownExecutive BranchGovernanceGovernment Capacity

Calling Deficit Squawks’ Bluff on Environmental Enforcement

A 38-car train wreck. Toxic chemicals seeping into water and soil, and a black plume rising in the sky. Sick people, sick pets. As the Prospect’s Jarod Facundo wrote last week, the national spotlight remains fixed on the ecological consequences of the February 3 derailment of a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio.

In the context of this ecological disaster, arguing for a reduced budget for federal investigators, air and water quality testing, and programs that hold polluting corporations accountable for proper cleanup and restitution is sheer madness. But that’s exactly what the current right-wing push for massive government spending cuts in the name of deficit reduction would entail.