I hope everyone is enjoying the official start of summer.
Earlier this month, I shared a framework proposal for reducing gun violence. The legislation that was recently signed into law is a great first step. The bill provides grants for states to implement red flag laws and/or other crisis intervention programs. In addition, the legislation includes new spending for mental health treatment and school security. It aligns very well with my proposed framework from the perspective that it relies heavily on funding and incentives to empower state and local solutions. Gun violence rates differ heavily by state, and the gun culture and nature of gun problems vary considerably by state and municipality.
As I mentioned in my post, the federal government can actively support regional efforts through data collection and sharing of best practices.
This approach would also be useful for many other problems, such as supply chain opportunities and vulnerabilities that have fueled inflation. The federal government is already a rich source of data, but that data is not always easily accessible.
Last year I submitted testimony to the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress regarding the potential establishment of an office to provide members of Congress and their staff with analysis of complicated scientific and technological issues.
There is a much broader opportunity that potentially spans the political divide. Simply put, the federal government can support individuals, companies, good government organizations and local government by ensuring critical data is accessible in an “open source” platform that facilitates easy retrieval and analysis. This is not dissimilar to Meaningful Use, which was implemented over a period of years to ensure that medical records were stored and transmitted to CMS in a manner that allows easy analysis of healthcare best practices.
Note that we have updated our website to improve access to blog posts and other publications and have cleaned up our newsletter page. More work is planned in the future.
Next month, I will provide an update on our work to develop an objective electoral quality and integrity standard.
Take care and have a great Fourth of July holiday.
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