360° PERSPECTIVES ON IMPORTANT POLICY TOPICS.

Independently researched policy briefs based only on the facts, so you can draw your own conclusions.

Border Security: Are new policies working?

Are recent policy changes designed to reduce asylum claims and unauthorized entries at America’s southern border? Border crossings were at unprecedentedly high levels in 2022, 2023, and early 2024. In recent months, the U.S. government implemented new policies to reduce asylum claims and illegal entries. Are these new policies working?

Border Security: Are new policies working?

Are recent policy changes designed to reduce asylum claims and unauthorized entries at America’s southern border? Border crossings were at unprecedentedly high levels in 2022, 2023, and early 2024. In recent months, the U.S. government implemented new policies to reduce asylum claims and illegal entries. Are these new policies working?

Electric Vehicle Infrastructure: How Many Charging Stations Does America Need?

One of the major impediments to getting more electric vehicles (EVs) on the road is the need for wide-scale charging infrastructure. Charging stations are needed so that people can use EVs for longer periods of driving and to allow urban residents (who may lack garages and parking spaces where they can install a charging port) to charge their EVs for everyday use. While the number of charging stations is steadily increasing, it lags far behind the number required to support widespread EV adoption and government mandates. In this brief, our analysts calculate the number of charging stations needed and where they must be located.

Police Misconduct

The administration of justice in the United States is primarily handled at the state and local levels. State and local governments employ two‐thirds of all criminal justice workers and pay a much larger share of criminal justice costs than the federal government. Elected officials, like mayors, can choose who leads a police department and influence how law enforcement responds to crime within a particular jurisdiction. While America’s police hold the power to enforce our laws, how they do, the official rules within a police department, and how members of law enforcement conduct themselves is also influenced by the communities they serve and the current social and political landscape. In recent years, there have been several highly publicized incidents involving the deaths of individuals while in police custody and well-documented complaints about the unwarranted use of force by police officers. These incidents raise a fundamental question: how much police misconduct occurs? How many officers are committing misconduct?

Crime Rates

As of mid-2024, many Americans list rising crime rates as one of their top concerns. At the same time, national crime statistics show that rates of violent crime and property crime have been declining for decades. What is driving worries about crime?

Minimum Wage

From the moment the minimum wage was established in 1938, Americans have debated the concept. Should there be a minimum wage – and why or why not? If we have one, what factors should determine its level?

Labor Unions

Labor unions bargain with employers to improve employee pay, benefits, and working conditions as well as conduct legislative lobbying. However, unions are often criticized for blocking corporate innovation and forcing workers to pay membership dues regardless of whether they agree with the union’s bargaining strategy, and, in some cases, what a union’s legislative lobbying may entail. Why do unions exist, and what difference do they make for workers and employers?

Offshoring

Suppose you are reading this brief on an iPad. Apple is an American company, so your tablet must have been produced in the United States. Maybe not. Today, many corporations are headquartered in one country but manufacture in others and buy supplies from many more. This practice is called offshoring. Offshoring allows companies to lower their costs. However, offshoring also moves jobs from the United States to other countries. Is offshoring a good thing or a bad thing for Americans?

Unemployment

For most people, being unemployed is a simple question: Do you have a job or not? Even so, measuring the unemployment rate for the entire nation is not simple. There are different ways to determine who is employed and who is not, and these measures can produce very different conclusions about the unemployment rate and the state of the U.S. economy.

Cap and Trade

As discussed in our brief on Decarbonization (linked in Further Reading), reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a key strategy for reducing global temperature increases. There are many ways to achieve this goal with new technologies, such as requiring Americans to use electric vehicles instead of those powered by gasoline. Cap and trade offers another strategy, one that leaves it up to individual decision-makers to decide when and how they will reduce greenhouse gasses. Is cap and trade a good alternative or complement to government regulations?

Electric Vehicle Infrastructure: introduction

Production and use of electric vehicles (EVs) has increased dramatically over the last decade. In addition to an increase in overall popularity, this trend is also due to government incentives to drive costs down for both manufacturers and consumers. A widespread move to EVs could help address climate change because actual driving of EVs does not produce greenhouse gasses like traditional gas and diesel vehicles. However, while internal combustion engines have around 200 parts that need to be maintained and possibly repaired as compared to EVs which utilize only around 20 parts, current EVs have unique environmental problems related to sourcing, disposal and other aspects of these parts, and require nationwide installation of appropriate charging infrastructure and a significant increase in demand of the power grid. So, do these problems outweigh the benefits of a transition to EVs? Note: this brief is a general introduction to the issues surrounding EV infrastructure. For our analysis of how many EV charging stations are needed and where they would be located, see https://tinyurl.com/28fcn2ts.

Fracking

In the past two decades, U.S. natural gas and oil production has increased to the point that America is now a net exporter of these commodities. This change is due to a new technology, hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. How does fracking fit into the debate over climate change?

Sequestration

As discussed in our brief on decarbonization, most strategies for reducing CO2 levels in the atmosphere involve switching to power generation and transportation technologies that produce less CO2. An alternate strategy is to extract and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, referred to as sequestration. At first glance, sequestration could be an attractive option for achieving the “net zero” goal, where the total amount of CO2 in the atmosphere would remain constant instead of increasing. Instead of building costly new renewable energy sources, retrofitting buildings, and switching to electric vehicles, sequestration offers a way for society to continue producing and using energy largely as we do now. The primary difference is that we would have to implement enough sequestration measures to offset global CO2 emissions. The question is, is sequestration on the levels required to achieve this outcome even possible? What would it cost?

Gerrymandering

Gerrymandering, named after Founding Father and 5th U.S. Vice President Eldridge Gerry, is the process of creating legislative districts that benefit one party more than the other. Districts must be redrawn as a state’s population changes and because of shifts in population concentrations within a state. This process is often a political one because the very elected officials who have an electoral stake in the outcome of redistricting are often able to draw lines that benefit themselves and their co-partisans. Is there a way to keep politics out of drawing legislative districts?

Energy Tax Credits

One potential strategy for mitigating climate change is shifting how Americans generate and use energy. Federal tax credits are intended to incentivize individuals and businesses to make these changes. Energy tax credits are expensive, but how much of an effect do they have? Are there other drawbacks to these programs?

Renewable Energy

Over the last 30 years, renewable energy systems such as solar panels and wind turbines have become major electricity sources for the United States. One mitigation strategy for climate change would involve vastly increasing renewable systems over the next two to three decades to the point that the United States could sharply reduce the amount of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) used to produce electricity and for transportation. Reducing fossil fuel use is one of the ways that Americans could limit and reduce the amount of greenhouse gasses released into the environment. This brief aims to lay out the feasibility of increasing our reliance on renewable energy and describe what such a transition would involve in terms of infrastructure changes, benefits and costs.

Decarbonization

Humans’ increased production of greenhouse gasses appears to be a contributor to global temperature changes. One solution is to reduce the amount of greenhouse gasses released each year, a process known as decarbonization. In this brief, we describe where greenhouse gasses come from and consider what changes could significantly reduce emissions.

Climate Change

Climate change has been among the most hotly debated topics over the last few decades. Are temperatures and sea levels rising? Are weather patterns becoming more extreme? Are such changes due to human activity? Can or should we try to reverse these trends? Is doing so worth the enormous cost and change in the way we live? Answers to these questions have profound implications for how we and our descendants will live their everyday lives. This write-up is intended to provide a summary of climate related topics that are more fully explained in a set of policy briefs that dive deeper into specific scientific knowledge, industry data and real-world implications surrounding climate change. We focus on exploring various policy options, from reducing the use of fossil fuels (oil, coal, and natural gas) to developing infrastructure to support electric and hybrid vehicles, as well as general pros and cons to it all. Links to these other briefs and supporting documents are in the Further Reading section. Our central argument is that climate, and more specifically, climate change, is a complex issue. Global temperatures are the result of many poorly-understood processes, from nuclear fusion inside our Sun, to patterns in cloud cover around the globe, to changes in urban sprawl. Scientists are uncertain how temperature changes will affect sea levels, severe weather events, and many other factors. It is also unclear as to the nature and extent of changes that will occur in the next 100 years, or the next 1000, and how or if some of these changes naturally reverse themselves as in the past with little to no modern human impact or intervention. In these various briefs we take a look at the costs, benefits, limitations and negative implications of measures to address climate change. Many technologies, such as carbon capture, are experimental. Reforms that reduce the use of fossil fuels will be enormously expensive and may require large changes in American society. Someone can reasonably believe that climate change is a problem, yet not endorse the direction, timing, and speed of proposed policy changes. Our goal is to present arguments about the magnitude, causes, and potential consequences of climate change from a 360-degree perspective. We report scientific data and commercial data and insights, highlighting findings and supporting evidence. We also identify the limitations of these analyses and dissenting views. Regardless of what you think about climate change, it is a certainty that this policy issue will be on governmental agendas for years to come. Our policy briefs give you a basic understanding of climate change so you can form your own conclusions about what role the government and society should play.

Border Security: Terrorists

One of the primary methods for preventing foreign terrorist attacks on U.S. soil is to prevent individuals and groups from entering the country in the first place. Recent data released by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shows that some individuals from the Terrorist Screening Dataset (TSDS) have tried to enter the U.S. at ports of entry at the border with Mexico. Others have been detained after attempting to enter the U.S. illegally between ports of entry. Do these cases point to an increased risk of future terrorist attacks on U.S. citizens?

Freedom of Religion

Religious beliefs are intensely personal, which is one reason why the U.S. Constitution contains a guarantee about freedom of religion. At the same time, our civil liberties are limited in specific ways. How does the Constitution allow religious freedom while simultaneously limiting what people can do in the name of pursuing these beliefs?

Vote By Mail

Voting by mail used to be considered a practice mostly for the elderly, disabled, or military members. In the post-pandemic era, many Americans send in their votes by mail. However, mail-in voting is not an option in every state, and the integrity of mail-in voting has been called into question. Where can people use the option? How much fraud occurs? Could mail-in voting become the way Americans vote in the future?

Right to Bear Arms

One of the most controversial civil liberties guaranteed in the Constitution is the right to bear arms. For most of U.S. history, the government has regulated the kinds of firearms that can be owned and who can own them. More recently, a series of court decisions as well as state legislative actions have sought to tighten requirements for firearms purchase and ownership, and in some cases, loosen firearms regulations. How extensive is the right to bear arms?

Freedom of The Press

The freedom of the press is one of the most important civil liberties in the United States. A free press informs the public about government actions, makes the government aware of the public’s interests and needs, and allows for sharing of ideas and information. Freedom of the press was first established in the First Amendment and has since grown in scope. What safeguards does the U.S. have to protect this freedom? How has the freedom of the press changed over time?

Freedom of Speech

One of the bedrock guarantees in the U.S. Constitution is freedom of speech. Freedom of speech means that the government cannot prevent people from expressing their opinions. However, freedom of speech does not mean anything goes in all contexts. Many laws limit what people can say and do. The rules governing speech are especially important in a polarized, diverse society with many opposing viewpoints. What are the rules governing speech?

Voter Identification

The primary purpose of laws that require citizens to show identification at polling locations is to ensure that a person claiming to be an eligible voter is who they say they are. At the same time, voter ID laws influence who shows up to vote in the first place, as eligible voters may not have the required type of identification. The other side of the argument is that if a valid ID is required to book a hotel room, drive a car, redeem a lottery ticket, purchase alcohol, or board an airplane, why shouldn’t identification be required to vote? Where do these laws exist? How difficult is it to obtain a valid ID? How much voter fraud occurs in the first place? And how much do voter ID laws affect turnout?

Counting Votes

Concerns about the integrity of the voting process reached new heights after the 2020 presidential elections. One focus of these concerns was the system used to count votes. How is the vote-counting process administered, and who oversees the process? What safeguards exist to make sure all votes are legitimate and accurately counted? Does the system ensure that all valid votes are counted?

Student Loan Debt Forgiveness

Students and their families incur substantial costs from attending college. In recent years, loans to students and their parents are being used to cover much of this cost, leaving substantial debts to be repaid on graduation. The magnitude of these costs has led to call for some of all of this debt to be forgiven by the federal government. What is the logic of debt forgiveness, and what are the specifics of forgiveness proposals?

Border Security

One of the most controversial and important topics in American politics is the security of its borders. Over the last two years, the system has been overwhelmed by large numbers of entrants. How does the U.S. government protect its borders? Why are we experiencing such an increase in border activity?

Classified Documents

The federal government routinely classifies documents and other information whose disclosure would harm national security. Even so, classification can also be used to hide internal deliberations and policy failures. Classified documents typically get in the news when they are found in the possession of active or retired politicians and high-profile individuals. What are the procedures for classifying information, and how do people run afoul of these rules?

School Funding

Education is often described as a fundamental right, one that gives everyone an equal opportunity to gain the knowledge and skills needed to prosper in modern society. Yet, the system we use for funding K-12 education creates disparities in how much communities spend on education, leading to differences in educational achievement. What policy choices create these disparities, and what can be done about them?

Unauthorized Immigration

America is a nation of immigrants. Virtually all of us can trace our ancestry to people who immigrated to the United States. Even so, immigration is a controversial issue, particularly in the case of unauthorized immigration, where individuals enter or reside in the United States in violation of the law. How many individuals in the United States are unauthorized? Does unauthorized immigration have negative consequences, such as an increase in crime? This brief focuses on unauthorized immigration; there are links in the Further Reading section to other immigration-related topics such as Authorized Immigration, Refugees and Asylum, and Border Security.

Espionage Act

While political opponents sometimes accuse each other of treason, the definition of the crime has nothing to do with politics. Rather, the crime of treason is set out in a statute known as the Espionage Act. This brief describes the provisions of the Espionage Act and gives examples of the kinds of crimes that have been prosecuted under the Espionage Act. Additional information on classified documents can be found in our Classified Information policy brief linked in the Further Reading section.

Government-Mandated Standardized Tests For Schools

Schools have always used standardized tests to evaluate student progress. Although many colleges and universities have made tests optional, many still use standardized tests for admissions. One of the newer practices is using standardized tests by federal and state governments to monitor student performance in specific subject areas and assign ratings to local schools. These mandated tests are our focus here. What is their purpose, and how do they influence what students learn?

Vocational Education

In the 2019-2020 academic year, around 11 million college or high school students were enrolled in vocational education programs. These programs allow students to develop skills for a specific profession, such as nursing or a skilled trade. Vocational education is often discussed as an alternative to university degree programs. What careers does vocational education train students for? Is it a good alternative to a four-year college degree? How does choosing a vocational path versus a traditional university degree impact student debt?

Right to Privacy

What about ourselves can we keep private? In part, the issue is whether anything can be considered private in a world where corporations collect and sell personal information to the highest bidder and government regulations shape even the most personal choices. At the same time, keeping information private can cause social harm – for example, most people would agree that a would-be mass shooter should not have the right to keep their preparations private. Balancing these competing interests, the courts have established that individuals have a right to keep some information private and to make some decisions without government oversight. How much privacy does this right give the average American? How do these decisions balance an individual’s interest in privacy with society’s interest in preventing bad outcomes?

Equal Protection

The Equal Protection Clause in the 14th Amendment requires the federal and state governments to provide equal protection under their laws to all individuals in the US. What does “equal protection” mean?

Eminent Domain

Eminent domain is the government’s right to seize private property for public purposes as long as the original property owners are compensated. Despite the Constitution’s guarantees of life, liberty, and property, eminent domain allows the government to take things even if the owners are unwilling to accept compensation. What is eminent domain? How has it been used, and what is its role in today’s society?

Bureaucratic Authority

The policy-making process in the United States is like building a house. An owner (the American public) hires an architect (Congress and the President) to build a house. The architect decides what kind of house to build, then hires a contractor (the bureaucracy) to build the house. Because the contractor in most cases has built many houses, the intent is they know the ins and outs of the building process better than the architect or the owner. This expertise gives the contractor (the bureaucracy) considerable authority over how the house gets built. The same is true for the American bureaucracy in the policy-making process.

Federalism

The United States has a federal form of government, meaning that the power to make policy is shared between the national government in Washington and the 50 state governments located across the country. Federalism has certain advantages, most notably the ability for state and local governments to act based on better information on local needs. At the same time, federalism creates the potential for conflict between different levels of government in cases where they disagree on services, regulations, or other policy matters. When do such conflicts arise? Which level of government gets to have their say?

Due Process

Due process is a citizen’s right to be treated fairly by the government. What does “fairness” mean when an individual faces the government, either in a court case or an administrative action? What ensures that governments respect due process?

Media Regulation

For citizens to make informed decisions about who to vote for or what policies they prefer, they need good information about politics and public policy. In contemporary America, mass media is one of the prime sources of this information. Even so, most media organizations are for-profit companies, subject to the same regulations as other businesses. Broadcast media companies also use a scarce resource, the radio spectrum they use to transmit their radio or television signal. Can the government regulate the media without influencing coverage?

Digital Divide

Americans’ use of the Internet has increased dramatically since 2000, to the point that the Internet is a leading source of information, commerce, and social interactions. However, a digital divide exists in the United States – not everyone has the same access to the Internet. Where does the divide exist in the U.S.? What are the consequences? What can or should the government possibly do about it?

Presidential Power

The President of the United States is widely considered the most powerful person in the world. But where does this power come from? What can the president do, and how does he go about it? Moreover, the U.S. has a system of checks and balances between its three branches of government. The president can appoint judges in the judiciary branch and veto legislation from the legislative branch. Do other branches have to back the President for things to happen? What can they prevent the President from doing?

Judicial Power

The courts act as the third branch of the government, checking the power of the executive and the legislature. The power of judicial review allows the courts to ensure the executive and legislative branches of government are not overstepping their constitutional authority. The use of judicial review has played an integral role in America’s history, particularly through well-known cases like Brown v. Board of Education, where racial segregation by the government was deemed unconstitutional. How did the judiciary, often described as the weakest branch of government, gain such a powerful check on the other two branches? What does judicial review do, and why does it matter?

Media Usage: Things to Consider

The media sources from which an American receives information is considered one of the most important factors for predicting that person’s political views. Research has not firmly established whether the media influences views or whether people simply selectively pick media sources that align with their existing ideas. So, what are the differences in the media diet of Republicans and Democrats? Does one party trust the media more than the other? What do we make of the changing media landscape that includes a growing number of digital media sites?

Refugees and Asylum

Across the world, it’s estimated there are more than 100 million people who are forcibly displaced because of war, political turmoil, and other hardships. Some of these individuals, also known as refugees, will come to the United States and ask for status that allows them to live and work in America. In effect, refugee status allows someone to jump to the front of the immigration line, bypassing the complex application process that limits the number of people who can legally enter the US each year. What criteria are used to determine who is a refugee? How many refugees does the US admit each year?

Media Bias

Because the news media is the primary way Americans learn about politics and policy, we hold news media organizations to high standards of neutrality, ethics, and fairness. Do they live up to this standard?

Economic Policymaking

Economic conditions matter. Inflation increases what we pay for everything from food to houses. When unemployment is high, some of us do not have a job. And low economic growth makes it harder to get promoted or gain a higher salary. The question is, how much can (and should) the government do to ensure a Goldilocks economy — one with low inflation, strong economic growth, and low unemployment?

Authorized Immigration

If you are wondering what a green card is and what criteria are used to determine who gets one, then you are wondering about the United States’ policies on authorized immigration. An authorized immigrant is a noncitizen born in another country who has received formal permission to live and work in the United States. Green cards are the most visible indicator of the complex rules and processes that determine who can immigrate to the US and who cannot. Often, the term ‘immigration’ is used to describe both legal (authorized) immigration and illegal (unauthorized) immigration. This brief focuses on authorized immigration, or immigration to the US that is allowed by the US government. (For information on unauthorized immigration and other aspects of immigration policy, see the For Further Reading section at the end of this brief.)

Defense Spending: What Does It Pay For?

America’s military is important as a symbol of our nation, to deter conflicts, and for the United States to prevail when conflicts arise. Defense spending is one of the largest programs in the federal budget and is an enormous sum compared to funding for other domestic programs such as education or welfare. What do Americans get from defense spending? How does America’s defense budget compare to spending by other nations?

International Trade

A large chunk of America’s economy involves international trade – buying (importing) and selling (exporting) goods and services across national borders. International trade has clear benefits: Americans can purchase a wider range of goods, often cheaper than from domestic producers. Trade also creates new markets for American businesses, allowing them to sell more products, and increasing profits and employment. At the same time, by increasing competition, trade can force American companies out of business and workers out of jobs because of foreign competition. Faced with these benefits and costs, is free trade a good idea – and for whom?

Discretionary Spending

In the fiscal year ending on September 30, 2022, the federal government spent over six trillion dollars on providing goods, services, and payments to Americans. Much of this spending was on national defense and expenditures known as entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare (for details on these programs, see the briefs listed in the For Further Reading section). The rest of the budget, almost a trillion dollars every year, is discretionary spending, covering everything from law enforcement and road building to foreign aid and education. What do Americans get for this substantial annual expenditure?

Entitlements: What You Need to Know

Entitlements are government programs that provide benefits to people who require support and qualify because of their age, income, or disability. Entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare are designated as part of the mandatory spending within the federal budget. In recent years, entitlement programs have required an increasing share of federal spending. Which programs are entitlements? Who do they serve? Can anything be done to curb their costs?

National Debt/Debt Limit: What You Need to Know

Every few years, Republicans and Democrats battle over increasing the national debt limit. Each side tries to avoid blame for the size of the debt and the need to increase it. They also make dire predictions about what will happen if the debt is not raised (a situation known as default), and debate whether an increase should be accompanied by spending cuts, tax increases, or other policy changes. For Americans, this spectacle raises important questions. Why do we have a national debt – and what can we do about it? What happens if the United States defaults on its national debt?

Balanced Budget: What You Need To Know

If one billion dollars is equal to a school bus filled to the brim with $100 bills, the United States’ annual budget is equal to about 6,300 school buses. These funds pay for everything from keeping parks open and building new highways to unemployment benefits, the President’s salary, and the military’s tanks, planes, ships, and soldiers. At the same time, the United States has a budget deficit, meaning that more than a thousand of those school buses are filled with money that the government borrows to pay its bills. Where did this budget deficit come from? Does it matter? What needs to happen to reduce it?

Section 230: What You Need To Know

The Internet is a vast medium for sharing information, from news and current events to entertainment, stories, and pictures of our families and neighbors. However, the Internet is not always a transparent and safe space, especially for younger or more vulnerable populations. Lies, threats, and misinformation often go viral and can cause real damage to individuals, organizations, and businesses. A legal provision known as Section 230 minimizes liability for the people who control websites and social media forums and limits their exposure and responsibility for the accuracy of information and data being presented, including reviewing and posting false or malicious content on their websites. Should Section 230 be reformed? Why does it exist in the first place?

Inflation: What You Need To Know

As the COVID pandemic began to recede in 2021, Americans noticed rising prices throughout the economy, from groceries to gasoline, utility bills, and house prices. Rising prices reduce consumer and business confidence and make it harder for people to make ends meet. What is inflation, what causes it, and what can the United States government do about it?