The Paper Trail: August 20, 2024

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The Paper Trail

Top stories for August 20, 2024

He regulated medical devices. His wife represented their makers: For 15 years, Dr. Jeffrey Shuren was the FDA official charged with ensuring the safety of medical devices. During that time, his wife represented the device makers as a lawyer with one of Washington’s most powerful law firms. (Christina Jewett, New York Times)

IRS can take more than a decade to pay whistleblowers who report tax cheats: The IRS’s nearly 20-year-old tipster program has been beset by complaints about the opaque and lumbering process that has seen collections plunge more than 75% in recent years. (Julie Zauzmer Weil, Washington Post)

Secret Service finds protecting Trump is extraordinarily challenging: The assassination attempt in July illustrates the extraordinary challenges the Secret Service faces protecting Trump, who not only holds large-scale campaign rallies but also routinely mingles with scores of unscreened people at Mar-a-Lago and his other properties. (Josh Dawsey and Carol D. Leonnig, Washington Post)

Several House Democrats urge USPS to implement heat safety protections for workers: The Biden administration in July issued a proposed rule to protect mail carriers working in extreme heat, but 77 House members urged the USPS to implement those protections before the rule goes into effect. (Sean Michael Newhouse, Government Executive)

Biden’s Justice Department backs Donald Trump in DC protest suit: The government has agreed to foot the bill if former President Trump is found liable for violating the rights of protesters who were forcibly ejected from Lafayette Park in June 2020. The DOJ, which also filed a motion to dismiss the case, told the court that Trump is entitled to government support because he “was acting within the scope” of office. (Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney, Politico)

Analysis: We built a surveillance state. What now? For decades, Republicans and Democrats have greenlit a massive surveillance apparatus. What happens when this powerful tool is in the hands of the wrong person? (Don Bell, The Constitution Project at the Project On Government Oversight)

Israel-Hamas War

Leaked documents reveal Israel’s strategy to avoid U.S. foreign lobbying law: The Israeli government sought legal guidance on ways to get around the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which mandates the disclosure of foreign-funded lobbying efforts. The concern stemmed from having to meet burdensome transparency standards and bringing undue attention to American organizations working with the Israeli government. (Jerusalem Post)

Insurrection

Armed and underground: Inside the turbulent, secret world of an American militia: American Patriots Three Percent (AP3), one of the largest U.S. militias, has sought to shape American life through armed vigilante operations at the Texas border, outside ballot boxes, and during Black Lives Matter protests. AP3 has also forged alliances with law enforcement around the country. (Joshua Kaplan, ProPublica)

🔎 See Also: A growing number of far-left vigilantes are infiltrating the far right (David D. Kirkpatrick, New Yorker)

Dobbs Aftermath

For abortion providers, a tough business gets even tougher: The fall of Roe v. Wade has pushed many abortion clinics to explore alternative markets for their services. Some are moving to abortion-rights states or expanding their presence there. However, clinics are finding that blue states can be almost as hostile to their presence as red ones. (Jennifer Miller, New York Times)

Missouri outlawed abortion, and now it’s funding an anti-abortion group that works in other states: Thanks to a lucrative tax credit combined with the millions of dollars the state directly allocates to pregnancy resource centers, Missouri has become a leader in investing in anti-abortion groups. (Jeremy Kohler, ProPublica)

Defense and Veterans Affairs

Military sexual assault rate higher than DOD estimates, report finds: A new report found sexual assault prevalence in the military is likely two to four times higher than Department of Defense estimates. (Jonathan Lehrfeld, Military Times)

U.S. soldier indicted for lying about association with group advocating government overthrow: Kai Liam Nix, who is stationed at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, was indicted on charges of lying to military authorities about his association with a group that advocates overthrowing the U.S. government. Nix was also charged with firearms offenses. (Associated Press)

🔎 See Also: “We will fight!” The soldier waging war against America from Fort Liberty (Jeff Tischauser, Southern Poverty Law Center)

Business and Finance

“The banks have won”: Fed, regulators at impasse over capital rule overhaul: Officials at the Federal Reserve and other regulators, which jointly unveiled the proposal in July 2023, have been negotiating for months over how to move forward with the draft rules in the face of a powerful lobbying effort by Wall Street. (Michael Stratford and Victoria Guida, Politico)

The movement to diversify Silicon Valley is crumbling amid attacks on DEI: The network of nonprofits and consultants that blossomed in the early 2010s to promote race and gender representation in Silicon Valley is struggling amid a growing political backlash against DEI programs. (Naomi Nix, Cat Zakrzewski and Nitasha Tiku, Washington Post)

Infrastructure

Opinion: Why is there still lead in America’s water? An estimated 9.2 million lead service lines still supply drinking water nationwide, even though lead pipes have been outlawed in new construction since 1986. More than 2 million Americans don’t currently have running water in their homes, and millions more are exposed to contaminated water supplies. (Nayyirah Shariff and Jessica Dandridge-Smith, Governing)

Why Amtrak’s equipment keeps breaking down: Some of it is 100 years old: Amtrak’s vulnerabilities along the Northeast Corridor can be traced back to the system’s age and long-outdated technology. Upgrades will come at enormous cost and take more than a decade. (Patrick McGeehan and James Glanz, New York Times)

Health Care

Road salt may hurt vital link in freshwater food chain, study says: New research suggests that de-icing road salts — even those marketed as environmentally friendly — may harm a critical part of the food chain. (Erin Blakemore, Washington Post)

Weight-loss drugs are a hot commodity. But not in low-income neighborhoods: Black and Hispanic patients and those with lower incomes are more likely to suffer from obesity and are at higher risk for diabetes. Yet these populations are less likely to be prescribed the new generation of weight-loss drugs. (Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post)

ICYMI

Project 2025:

→ Deploying on U.S. soil: How Trump would use soldiers against riots, crime and migrants

→ Project 2025 co-author caught admitting the secret conservative plan to ban porn

Immigration and Border Security:

→ U.S., Philippines reach deal to assist Afghan allies

Other News:

→ U.S. concludes Iran is behind hacking attempts targeting Trump and Biden-Harris campaigns

→ House GOP makes impeachment case against Biden without proof of crime

→ Former New York Rep. George Santos pleads guilty to wire fraud, identity theft

→ East Palestine, OH residents want more time and information before deciding to accept $600M settlement

→ You’ll soon need a Real ID to travel in U.S. Here’s how to get one

Hot Docs

🔥📃 DHS OIG: FEMA’s Inadequate Oversight Led to Delays in Closing Out Declared Disasters. OIG-24-45 (PDF)

🔥📃 GAO - Clean Water: Revolving Fund Grant Formula Could Better Reflect Infrastructure Needs, and EPA Could Improve Needs Estimate. GAO-24-106251 (PDF)

🔥📃 GAO - Priority Open Recommendations: Office of Management and Budget

🔥📃 The Costs of War Project: Deserted: The U.S. Military’s Sexual Assault Crisis as a Cost of War. August 14, 2024 (PDF)