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February 15, 2023 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter

Hannah Story Brown Emma Marsano

Newsletter

ClimateEthics in GovernmentGovernance

The Value of a Human Life, According to Economists

Last week a shocking story from NPR largely slipped under the radar. The headline: “Why the EPA puts a higher value on rich lives lost to climate change.” Climate Correspondent Rebecca Hersher shared the “twisted tale of math, ethics and climate change” that is the Environmental Protection Agency’s effort to decide what’s been called the most important number you’ve never heard of: the social cost of greenhouse gases. 

February 08, 2023 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter

Hannah Story Brown Ananya Kalahasti

Newsletter

Corporate CrackdownEthics in GovernmentHealthRevolving Door

Will the White House Let Covid Vaccine Prices Skyrocket?

Since the early days of the pandemic, the federal government has been pre-purchasing Covid vaccines at an average cost of around $20 per dose (around $29 per dose for the bivalent boosters) to ensure public access to vaccination at no cost. However, with Congress no longer willing to fund Covid treatment, the Biden administration has indicated that it intends to end the Covid public health emergency in May, and more or less hand over control of Covid prevention to the healthcare industry.

February 01, 2023

Toni Aguilar Rosenthal

Blog PostNewsletter

Executive BranchState of the Union

The State Of The Union, And The Year That Followed

President Joe Biden’s second State of the Union address is next Tuesday. Amid an uprising sparked by yet another horrific video of police violence, deep uncertainty about U.S. fiscal and monetary policy, and continuing wars and threats around the world, the nation — or at least, the politics junkies in the nation — will gather to hear the President lay out his agenda to a Congress absolutely no one reasonably expects will deliver on it, or likely even take it all that seriously.

January 25, 2023 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter

Hannah Story Brown Emma Marsano

Newsletter

Corporate CrackdownEthics in GovernmentExecutive BranchHealthRevolving Door

Biden’s Choice of Chief of Staff Threatens Populist Potential

Last Friday marked the exact midway point of Biden’s presidential term. With this newly divided Congress, there are scant possibilities for legislation in the next two years. By and large, this next stage of Biden’s presidency should be all about the executive branch: implementing recent laws, enforcing existing laws, and enacting much-needed regulation. (Biden should have been overseeing these things all along, of course—that’s what the Presidency is for!)

January 11, 2023 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter

Hannah Story Brown KJ Boyle

Newsletter

2022 ElectionClimateExecutive BranchGovernanceGovernment CapacityIndependent Agencies

Government Spending and its Discontents

We spent October highlighting the perpetual underfunding of most federal departments and agencies, and urging Congress and the Biden administration to use December’s omnibus bill to finally provide them with the money and resources they need. Sadly, while appropriations did increase for FY2023, budgets consistently fell short of what agencies requested. The most jarring example may be the Department of Housing and Development (HUD), whose budget is a whopping $16 billion shy of the requested $77.8 billion. Biden recently announced his goal to cut homelessness by 25 percent in the next two years, but it’s hard to see how even this meager goal will be achieved without a fully funded HUD.

January 04, 2023 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter

Hannah Story Brown

Newsletter

Corporate CrackdownDepartment of TransportationExecutive BranchFDA

These Airline Meltdowns Aren’t Inevitable

As 2022 ends and 2023 begins with record-breaking winter heat blanketing Europe and much of the south and north-eastern United States—68°F and humid in DC, in January!—climate change is in the air, if not on the legislative agenda. We expect that much of the hard-won climate progress in the next year will be in executive branch implementation and regulation, alongside state-level legislation and court cases.

December 21, 2022

Hannah Story Brown Andrea Beaty Dorothy Slater Dylan Gyauch-Lewis Julian Scoffield KJ Boyle Max Moran Timi Iwayemi Toni Aguilar Rosenthal

Newsletter

Ethics in GovernmentExecutive BranchRevolving Door

RDP’s 150th Newsletter: Our 2022 Revolving Door Superlatives

How better to mark the darkest day of the year than with a bit of dark humor? This winter solstice, we present our 2022 Revolving Door Superlatives, where we spotlight the most craven, captured, and corrupt personnel and policy debates of this past year. From Revolver of the Year to 2022’s Worst Look to our Biggest Personnel Nightmare Entering 2023, we have a positively ghoulish assemblage of honorees for your perverse reading pleasure. Take comfort, dear reader, in this at least: the days are only getting longer from here on out. 

December 19, 2022 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter

Emma Marsano

Newsletter

ClimateEthics in GovernmentHack WatchRevolving Door

Meet the former Biden Advisor Using “Climate Advocacy” as a Trojan Horse for Corporate Interests

With the Senate’s rejection of Senator Joe Manchin’s permitting reform legislation as a notable exception, last week was a bad one for fossil fuel disasters and corporate accountability. In Kansas, a Keystone pipeline leak caused the largest US crude oil spill in a decade. Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, investigators found ongoing gas leaks in Equitrans’ pipeline storage facilities that released massive amounts of methane in November — enough to erase 50% of emission gains from US electric vehicles sales this year.