{"articles":[{"id":492,"title":"Attorney General Sessions Reverses Obama Sentencing Policy and More in Politics Today","html_content":"

by Causes | 5.12.17

It’s difficult to stay up-to-date on what’s happening in this country and to break through the clutter, so we’re here to make it easier. Here’s what we at Countable are reading today:

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1. Attorney General Orders Tougher Sentences, Rolling Back Obama Policy

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Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered federal prosecutors late Thursday to pursue the toughest possible charges and sentences against crime suspects, reversing Obama administration efforts to ease penalties for some nonviolent drug violations.
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The drastic shift in criminal justice policy, foreshadowed during recent weeks, is Mr. Sessions’s first major stamp on the Justice Department, and it highlights several of his top targets: drug dealing, gun crime and gang violence. The Justice Department released the new directives on Friday.
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Read more at the New York Times.

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2. New Trump Executive Order Would Move Federal Cybersecurity to the Cloud

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President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday targeting the federal government's notorious vulnerability to cyber threats, mandating one set of standards and making the heads of each government agency responsible for security.
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Drafts of the order have been widely circulated for months, but the version Trump signed Thursday includes a major and unexpected initiative: moving as much of the government's cyberdefense system to \"the cloud\" as possible.
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That provision effectively establishes a single structure centralizing all federal IT networks.
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Read more at NBC News.

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3. The Head of the Census Resigned. It Could Be as Serious as James Comey

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Yet the news this week that John H. Thompson, the director of the Census Bureau, has abruptly resigned is arguably as consequential to the future of our democracy. That's because the Census Bureau, while less flashy than the FBI, plays a staggeringly important role in both U.S. elections and an array of state and federal government functions.
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\"At the very heart of the Census is nothing less than political power and money,\" said Terri Ann Lowenthal, who served as the staff director of the House census oversight subcommittee before becoming a consultant on census policy and operational issues. \"It is the basis, the very foundation, of our democracy and the Constitution's promise of equal representation.\"
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Read more at Time.

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Tell your reps what you think about the Census at Countable!

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4. GOP Move to Ease Existing-Condition Health Coverage Mandate Could Endure

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One of the most controversial provisions of the House Republican health-care bill had been expected to quietly disappear in the Senate. Now, some government budget experts think it might not.
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\"If those [state] waivers have a federal budgetary consequence—[if] by making those changes it will affect the amount of subsidies or federal expenditures—I think it would qualify as being legitimate and not violate the Byrd rule,\" said Bill Hoagland, a senior vice president at the Bipartisan Policy Center who formerly was a veteran Senate staffer specializing in the budget.
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Read more at the Wall Street Journal.

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5. Foreign aid advocates and fiscal hawks all like Trump’s nominee to head USAID

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Mark A. Green serves as a rebuttal to the hyper-partisanship of Washington. From across the ideological spectrum came effusive praise for the Trump administration’s announcement Wednesday that it will nominate the former Republican congressman from Wisconsin and ex-ambassador to Tanzania to head the U.S. Agency for International Development.
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Fiscal hawks in Congress said Green would work to make sure programs receiving tax dollars were run more efficiently. Aid groups that focus on development and disaster relief welcomed someone who cares about foreign economic aid to argue on their behalf.
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Republicans said Green would promote liberty and human rights. Democrats said he would work in a bipartisan fashion.
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Read more at the Washington Post.

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— Asha Sanaker

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(Photo Credit: Mother Jones / Creative Commons)

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