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The Abstract
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> Edited by Torie Ludwin, Arnold Ventures (AV)
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The federal government's current debt — what we owe — is over $36 trillion dollars. Chairman of the House Budget Committee Jody Arrington brought the issue of high debt into focus in his recent op-ed in The Wall Street Journal. “It’s time to face reality. The era of spending without limits or accountability has reached its breaking point. We must start by reducing the debt, a challenge that’s daunting but not insurmountable.”
Right now, the fiscal iron is hot: the new Administration and Congress are looking to address the expiring provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act through budget reconciliation before the end of 2025. Responsibly reducing our unsustainable national debt is important, and it will provide an environment for economic growth that avoids pushing our fiscal burdens on future generations. That means both cutting spending and closing tax loopholes, and as Chairman Arrington writes, doing both is not just possible, but necessary.
Read Chairman Arrington's op-ed in The Wall Street Journal> (free link)
Read AV Public Finance Program Integrity Fellow Doug Criscitello’s column in Forbes about the risks of high federal debt>
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90%
Reduction in mortality among people in jails with health care services that have been accredited and meet industry standards versus those in control facilities
Researchers who conducted a recent 4-year randomized control trial (RCT) calculated that this percentage amounts to nearly 20 people’s lives over the course of the study. They also found that health care accreditation leads to a substantial decline in six-month recidivism. This means that people who are incarcerated in jails with accredited health services are much less likely to re-offend once they are released back into their communities. Less recidivism means less crime and better public safety. A rough cost-benefit analysis suggests that accreditation can actually save jails anywhere from $9 million to $90 million per year.
Read our Q&A on this exciting newly published research on health care accreditation in jails with Marcella Alsan, the Angelopoulos professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and the Harvard School of Public Health, and Crystal Yang, the Bennett Boskey professor of law at the Harvard Law School.
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Transparency and Oversight in Medicare Advantage and Part D Programs
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Public Finance
- House Speaker Mike Johnson in an interview this week said he was open to working in a bipartisan way to address the debt ceiling, in The Hill.
- Bloomberg explains why any extension of the 2017 tax cuts should be revenue-neutral over the next decade. (free link)
Health Care
Infrastructure
- City Journal proposes ways to navigate judicial review as part of permitting reform.
- Lawflash notes that recent executive orders suggest that oil and gas development and permitting reform will likely move to the top of the Administration's energy agenda.
Higher Education
- With reconciliation ahead, Inside Higher Ed looks at where there may be funding cuts in higher education.
Criminal Justice
- South Dakota continues to grapple with a serious problem of understaffing in its prison system, South Dakota Searchlight reports. In addition to a 10% vacancy rate for security staff, the system is now confronting a 53% rate for licensed practice nurses and 40% for registered nurses.
- Law360 discusses former President Biden’s record on criminal justice issues, including the signing of the bipartisan Federal Prison Oversight Act into law last year.
Evidence and Evaluation
- The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) summarized a Base Camp session featuring Justin Milner, AV's executive vice president of evidence and evaluation, who discussed the challenge of making research relevant to policymakers.
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- On Tuesday, February 4, from 8:30-10 a.m. ET, the Medicare Policy Initiative at Georgetown’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms will host a free event that explores how Medicare Advantage plans can use prior authorization to strike a balance between protecting patients’ access to care and containing program costs. Learn more and register to attend.
- With the launch of two new Requests for Proposals (RFPs), the AV Evidence and Evaluation team invites all interested parties to attend one of two webinars, scheduled for Tuesday, February 11, at 12:00 p.m. ET and Thursday, February 27, at 1:00 p.m. ET. Email the team with questions or to learn more.
- Results for America (RFA) and the Fines and Fees Justice Center (FFJC) will be hosting a 7-part online Solutions Sprint exploring why and how to implement effective and efficient ability-to-pay (ATP) assessments in courts. This hands-on workshop is designed for court stakeholders and advocates interested in implementing ability-to-pay assessments, payment plans, and/or community service or alternatives to fines and/or fees. Applications are due no later than Monday, February 24, 2025.
- On Wednesday, March 12, from 11:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the Mayflower Hotel Washington, D.C., as part of the Association for Education and Finance Policy (AEFP) conference, the AV Evidence and Evaluation team will host an inaugural Innovation Day, bringing together researchers and policymakers to explore areas of common interest and potential new avenues of research. Space is limited; please complete the online application by January 31 to attend. We strongly encourage policymakers, practitioners, and policy-adjacent individuals to apply.
- On April 18-19, the University of Texas Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs will host the Texas Economics of Crime Workshop. This workshop brings scholars together to discuss cutting-edge research from the economics of crime field. It will include presentations of working papers related to criminal behavior and the criminal justice system.
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A tech company in Ireland used 3D printing to build an affordable housing project in 132 days — 35% faster than with traditional building methods.
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The Criminal Justice team has released an RFP titled “ Causal Research on Community Safety and the Criminal Justice System.” The RFP seeks research proposals across all issues related to the criminal justice system and will remain open.
The Evidence and Evaluation team has released two RFPs, " Building Evidence" and " Strengthening Evidence," whose goals are to help build the body of proven policies, programs, and interventions. To learn more, attend one of two upcoming webinars on Tuesday, February 11, at 12:00 p.m. ET and Thursday, February 27, at 1:00 p.m. ET. Letters of interest are due Friday, March 14, 2025.
View our RFPs>
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