A May 13, 2024 presentation at the American Enterprise Institute by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
In its work for the Congress, CBO regularly projects budgetary and economic outcomes over the 10-year budget window (the period used in the Congressional budget process) and for an additional 20 years. This presentation highlights key findings from two recent reports on those projections.
Click here to see presentation document.
As election officials gain both increasing public visibility and scrutiny, it has become increasingly obvious that the time has come for identifying the ethical standards unique to the election administrator profession. It is essential to identify national standards for election officials that provide guidance in the administration of voting throughout the United States. It is therefore encouraging to learn that the American Law Institute (ALI) has provided a forum, released to the public on January 29, 2024, for a working group developing such standards, resulting in a report Ethical Standards for Election Administration
The report sets out seven principles, discussed in detail, along with the basis for each. It is the hope of the working group that these principles provide the professional election administration community with a common vocabulary for communicating the moral underpinning of their work; assist in the training of the next generation of officials; and help guide officials in carrying out their responsibilities when the law does not supply the answer and public scrutiny is keenest. These principles also supply the grounds for specific standards of conduct that reflect these principles and put them into practical effect.
According to responses to the 2024 ABA Survey of Civic Literacy, 74% of individuals surveyed said that U.S. democracy is weaker than it was five years ago. Most blamed misinformation, disinformation, and political parties for contributing to this result. The survey is released each year to mark Law Day, observed annually on May 1. The responses are from a nationally representative telephone survey of 1,000 respondents from March 4-9. Here is an overview of some of the results as reported by the ABA on their website: followed by a link to the full text of the survey.
“We’re writing to let you know about some updates coming to your Google One subscription starting on May 15. These changes are designed to streamline your benefits while ensuring you have a valuable subscription experience.
Key changes:
The American Bar Association Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility released Formal Opinion 509 on Feb. 28, 2024. According to the announcement, Formal Opinion 509 provides guidance on how disqualification rules apply to both current and former government lawyers under the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct. “It specifically addresses issues raised when these lawyers know confidential government information about a third person.”
The model rules define confidential government information as “information that has been obtained under governmental authority and which, at the time this rule is applied, the government is prohibited by law from disclosing to the public or has a legal privilege not to disclose and which is not otherwise available to the public.”
For additional discussion of Formal Opinion 509, see the recent article in the ABA Journal, Government lawyers’ use of ‘confidential information’ in private practice clarified in new ABA ethics opinion, by David L Hudson Jr.
The following is information compiled by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) regarding H.R.7322, Standing Up to the Executive Branch for Act 2024, as ordered reported by the House Committee of the Judiciary on February 15. 2024. It includes a brief summary of the bill, and links to estimated cost of implementation and the full text of the legislation:
SUMMARY:
H.R. 7322 would grant standing to state governments to bring action against the federal government in a federal district court for the purpose of seeking injunctive relief from immigration enforcement decisions that have harmed the state or its residents.
INTRODUCTION:
Medicare, the federal health insurance program in the United States, serves millions of Americans, providing essential healthcare coverage for seniors and certain individuals with disabilities. However, with its vast reach and substantial funding, Medicare is also a target for fraud and deception. Fraudulent activities not only drain taxpayer dollars but also jeopardize the integrity of the healthcare system and endanger patient well-being. To combat these threats, Medicare employs various strategies and initiatives aimed at detecting, preventing, and prosecuting instances of fraud and deception. Yet, some people would argue the since Medicare loses billions of dollars every year to fraud, waste, and abuse, they could do a better job at preventing fraud.
DETECTION MECHANISMS:
Microsoft has sponsored and published a valuable collection of essays on the future of AI written by a group of experts, with specialties encompassing a broad spectrum—spanning the fields of business, economics, education, engineering, healthcare, history, law, mathematics, medicine, mental health, psychology, and the sciences—to explore the capabilities of GPT-4 before its public release and provide their insightful reflections” on the future of AI. The collection includes an Introduction, Reflections on AI and the Future of Human Flourishing. by Eric Horvitz, Chief Scientist at Microsoft.
Experts who participated in this project were asked to consider the following two questions when preparing their essays:
How might this technology and its successors contribute to human flourishing?
Presiding Justice Hector D. LaSalle and the Justices of the Appellate Division, Second Department on January 11, 2024, announced the creation of a Task Force to study
the interplay of artificial intelligence and the courts of the Appellate Division, Second Department. The Task Force will meet with experts in the field of artificial intelligence
and propose recommendations on how the Appellate Division, Second Department and the trial courts within its jurisdiction may best utilize reliable artificial intelligence
AALL will hold it’s 2004 Annual Meeting at the Hyatt Regency Chicago. to bring together collaborators from across the legal information profession for four days of innovative learning and networking. Here is the Schedule At-A-Glance of the Annual Meeting.
The American Association of Law Libraries was founded in 1906 to promote and enhance the value of law libraries to the legal and public communities, to foster the profession of law librarianship, and to provide leadership in the field of legal information.
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