The Paper Trail: September 24, 2024

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The Paper Trail

Top stories for September 24, 2024

Russia, Iran use AI to boost anti-U.S. influence campaigns, officials say: Russia, Iran, and China are using AI tools to sway American voters ahead of the November election. Officials say Russia’s efforts, aimed mostly at undermining Vice President Kamala Harris, are the most aggressive. (Joseph Menn, Washington Post)

EPA scientists said they were pressured to downplay harms from chemicals. A watchdog found they were retaliated against: EPA inspector general reports detail retaliation suffered by agency scientists who stepped forward with claims that their supervisors pressured them to make chemicals they were vetting seem safer than they really were. (Sharon Lerner, ProPublica)

Lobbyists exploit massive loophole to wine and dine lawmakers, aides at fancy getaways: In 2007, after one of the biggest lobbying scandals in U.S. history, Congress imposed limits on lobbyists’ ability to wine and dine lawmakers and aides. Nearly 20 years later, the influence industry has blown a hole through those rules. Leading the way is the nonprofit Congressional Institute. (Adriana Navarro et al., Politico)

U.S. research aided Chinese military technology, House Republicans say: A congressional report argues that China has exploited ties with American universities to advance technologies with military applications, and that stricter guidelines around federally funded research are needed. (Ana Swanson, New York Times)

🔎 See Also: U.S. proposes ban on smart cars with Chinese and Russian tech (Sean Lyngaas and Kyle Feldscher, CNN)

Nearly 40% of FAA air traffic control systems need urgent updates, GAO reports: The GAO found that over one-third of the FAA’s air traffic control systems are “unsustainable” and in urgent need of modernization. (David Dimolfetta, Government Executive)

Analysis: A digital tsunami is coming. The National Archives is in trouble: NARA is starved for funding, understaffed, facing a mountain of 13 billion pages to digitize, and about to be engulfed by a digital tsunami of new records. At the same time, declassification backlogs persist — a long-running crisis that involves not only NARA but also national security agencies. (David E. Hoffman, Washington Post)

Israel-Hamas War

U.S. sending “small number” of troops to Middle East as attacks ramp up: The troops would add to the 40,000 American forces already in the region, including over a dozen warships in the surrounding waters and thousands of Marines aboard ships in the Mediterranean Sea. (Paul McLeary, Politico)

Russia-Ukraine War

U.S. officials looked at Americans traveling to Ukraine to fight. Ryan Routh fell through the cracks: DHS and FBI have been monitoring Americans who traveled to Ukraine to fight, fearing they could become violent when they return home. But they missed the man suspected of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump last week. (Betsy Woodruff Swan and Erin Banco, Politico)

Political Misbehavior

As president, Trump demanded investigations of foes. He often got them: In at least 10 instances, after then-President Trump made public or private demands for various perceived enemies to be targeted by the government, these individuals faced federal pressure. If Trump wins another term, his administration will consist of carefully vetted loyalists who will eagerly carry out his demands, bolstered by a recent Supreme Court ruling that presidents enjoy broad immunity from prosecution. (Michael S. Schmidt, New York Times)

Defense and Veterans Affairs

There’s too much “gray area” in Army extremism policies, lawmakers say: Lawmakers criticized new Army rules addressing extremism in the ranks, arguing they’re ambiguous and leave too much room for individual commanders’ subjective interpretation. (Nikki Wentling, Army Times)

VA’s new EHR saw 826 “major” incidents since its launch: The VA has seen hundreds of major problems with its Electronic Health Record system since its launch nearly four years ago. Major incidents with the system collectively impacted its performance for 1,909 hours, or nearly 80 days. (Jory Heckman, Federal News Network)

Congress presses VA for fixes to lingering suicide hotline outages: Lawmakers want the VA to better secure its suicide prevention hotline amid a spate of short-term outages. VA officials insist those challenges haven’t resulted in widespread problems for operations. (Leo Shane III, Military Times)

Business and Finance

Rise of the insurance apocalypse: As climate change intensifies extreme weather, the insurance system has been thrown into disarray. Skyrocketing premiums are causing more people to forgo coverage, leaving them vulnerable and driving prices even higher. This vicious cycle is causing insurance companies to leave risky markets like California and Florida. (Lois Parshley, The Lever)

DOJ poised to sue Visa for antitrust violations: DOJ has been investigating Visa for several years over whether and how it hinders competition in the debit card network from both rival companies and emerging financial technology startups. (Josh Sisco and Josh Gerstein, Politico)

Tech

Electronic warfare spooks airlines, pilots and air-safety officials: Fake GPS signals that militaries use to ward off drones and missiles in active conflict zones are also permeating a growing number of civilian aircraft, confusing cockpit navigation and safety systems and taxing pilots' attention. (Andrew Tangel et al., Wall Street Journal)

Infrastructure

Why millions of Americans give up control of their thermostats: Utilities remotely control customers’ solar panels, home batteries, and smart thermostats in “virtual power plant” programs. Experts say these programs will be crucial for helping the country clean up the electric grid without facing blackouts or waiting years for new power plants and transmission lines; however, these programs need to win over skeptical power companies and consumers. (Nicolás Rivero and Niko Kommenda, Washington Post)

The Department of Energy promised this tribal nation a $32 million solar grant. It’s nearly impossible to access: Earlier this year, the Department of Energy awarded the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation a $32 million grant for a solar energy project. Months later, the tribal nation is still unable to access the money. (Tony Schick, ProPublica)

Health Care

FTC accuses drug middlemen of inflating insulin prices: The FTC took legal action against the three largest pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) last week, accusing the companies of inflating insulin prices and steering patients toward higher-cost insulin products to increase their profits. The administrative complaint targets CVS Health’s Caremark, Cigna’s Express Scripts, and UnitedHealth’s Optum Rx, who collectively control 80% of prescriptions in the U.S. (Reed Abelson and Rebecca Robbins, New York Times)

Chemicals linked to breast cancer leach into our foods, study finds: Nearly 200 chemicals connected to breast cancer are used in the making of food packaging and plastic tableware, and dozens of those carcinogens can migrate into the human body. (Sandee LaMotte, CNN)

Weight-loss drugs are supposed to be forever. Until they run out: Shortages, shifting insurance coverage, patient whims, and a lack of guidance are forcing doctors and patients to improvise what quantity of weight-loss drugs to take and when. (Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post)

2 in 5 Gen Z men don’t have a primary care doctor: Nearly 40% of men born between 1997 and 2005 don’t have a primary care provider — the highest rate of any age group, according to a new survey. (Alejandra O'Connell-Domenech, The Hill)

Racism, other social factors may affect Asian Americans’ heart health: Cardiovascular health varies widely between subgroups of Asian Americans, who are underrepresented in health research. Experts warn that combining different subgroups into a single “Asian” category could mask important differences. (Erin Blakemore, Washington Post)

ICYMI

Project 2025:

→ Project 2025 was in the works for decades. Why did the mainstream media fail to inform readers of its threats to democracy?

Immigration and Border Security:

→ USCIS to allow late fees from immigrant investor enterprises

Other News:

→ Secret Service acknowledges failures in protection of Trump in Pennsylvania shooting

→ Lawmakers look to alleviate Senate confirmation pain

→ Microsoft deal would reopen Three Mile Island nuclear plant to power AI

→ California accuses ExxonMobil of lying about plastics being recyclable

→ Melania Trump was paid for a rare appearance at a political event. It’s not clear who cut the unusual six-figure check

→ The public health consequences of public housing failures

Upcoming Events

📌 Examining the Department of Defense’s Financial Management Practices. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability; Subcommittee on Government Operations and the Federal Workforce. Tuesday, September 24, 2:00 p.m., 2154 Rayburn House Office Building.

📌 Oversight of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. Wednesday, September 25, 10:00 a.m., 538 Dirksen Senate Office Building.

📌 FAA Oversight of Boeing’s Broken Safety Culture. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; Subcommittee on Investigations. Wednesday, September 25, 2:00 p.m., 342 Dirksen Senate Office Building.

📌 The Border Crisis: The Cost of Chaos. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability; Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs. Wednesday, September 25, 2:00 p.m., 2154 Rayburn House Office Building.

📌 Foreign Policy, Interrupted: How Fraud, Waste, and Abuse Blunt America’s Impact Abroad. House Committee on Foreign Affairs; Subcommittee on Oversight and Accountability. Thursday, September 26, 10:00 a.m., 2172 Rayburn House Office Building.

📌 United States Postal Service’s Role in 2024 Election Mail Readiness. House Committee on Appropriations; Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government. Thursday, September 26, 10:00 a.m., 2359 Rayburn House Office Building.

📌 Trafficked, Exploited, and Missing: Migrant Children Victims of the Biden-Harris Administration. Committee on Homeland Security; Subcommittees on Border Security and Enforcement and Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability. Thursday, September 26, 2:00 p.m., 310 Cannon House Office Building.

📌 Zoom Webinar: Threats to Democracy and the 2024 Election. ProPublica. Monday, September 30, 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. ET.

Hot Docs

🔥📃 DHS OIG: I&A Needs to Improve Its Security Inspection Program to Reduce the Risk of Unauthorized Access to Classified Information. OIG-24-55 (PDF)

🔥📃 GAO - Cyber Resiliency: CrowdStrike Outage Highlights Challenges. GAO-24-107733 (PDF)

🔥📃 GAO - Air Traffic Control: FAA Actions Are Urgently Needed to Modernize Aging Systems. GAO-24-107001 (PDF)

🔥📃 VA OIG: Facility Leaders and Staff Have Concerns about VA’s New Electronic Health Record. 24-02874-256 (PDF)

🔥📃 VA OIG: VA Needs to Strengthen Controls to Address Electronic Health Record System Major Performance Incidents. 22-03591-231 (PDF)