|
|
NEMWI Releases Articles on Energy Policy for Regional Economic Recovery
The magnitude of the economic crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic requires a robust policy agenda to set the nation on the path to economic recovery. In response the Northeast-Midwest Institute is launching a series of articles to examine the role that energy policy can play in driving the recovery, with a particular focus on renewables. Today NEMWI is releasing the first two articles in this series focused on energy as it relates to regional economic recovery.
The first article in the series by NEMWI Senior Fellow Richard Corrigan provides a brief overview of lessons from previous economic downturns and introduces several clean energy initiatives currently being contemplated. The first article is available here. The second article in the series by NEMWI Research Intern Cotter McCarthy discusses a study from the University of Oxford, as well as several other studies, which make the case for an economic recovery driven by climate-friendly or "green" fiscal policies, including investment in renewable energy. The second article is available here.
|
|
New Research Addresses the Role of State Governments in Police Reform
Research by new Northeast-Midwest Institute Senior Fellow for Criminal Justice and Policing, Dr. Lawrence Sherman, points to the critical role of state governments, including state governors and legislatures, in implementing police reform that addresses rogue policemen and police cultures. Professor Sherman is Director of the Jerry Lee Centre of Experimental Criminology and Wolfson Professor of Criminology Emeritus at the University of Cambridge
Dr. Sherman's work on the role of state governments in regulating and reforming American local police agencies is recently published in the Cambridge Journal of Evidence-Based Policing. Dr. Sherman asserts that "saving the legitimacy of a democratic policing system from the outrages of rogue cops and rogue police cultures ...requires a
realpolitik
vision of
who
can get the policies implemented and
how
they can accomplish that...", pointing out that the "most powerful political actor for police reform" is usually a state's governor followed by the state legislature. His example of Minnesota's gubernatorial response to the George Floyd killing includes the example of the state Attorney General's swift action. There are other examples of state Attorneys General playing crucial roles in policing and other aspects of criminal justice reform not cited by Dr. Sherman in this Journal article.
For other recent scholarship on the role of Attorneys General, see: "
State Attorneys General as Agents of Police Reform
" by Jason Mazzone & Stephen Rushin in the Duke University Law Journal. Citing the
HM Inspectors of Constabulary in the UK,
Dr. Sherman argues that U.S. states should create "Inspectors-General of Policing" (IGP empowered to decertify both police officers and police departments after a documented pattern of abusive ("rogue") policing. While Dr. Sherman admits that "the precedents of both Camden, New Jersey, and Northern Ireland are not exact matches," they both demonstrate in their own ways "the potential for reforming any police agency that has lost the trust of the community they are sworn to serve and protect."
Dr. Sherman's article on police reform in the Cambridge Journal of Evidence-Based Policing can be
viewed here.
Dr. Sherman's recent webinar using his article as the centerpiece can be
viewed here.
|
|
House Committee to Consider Water Resources Legislation
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will markup a Water Resources and Development Act (WRDA) this Wednesday. WRDA, which is typically taken up every two years by Congress, authorizes a bulk of the water infrastructure activities conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Included in this year's WRDA is a formal authorization of a project at the Brandon Road Lock and Dam site in Joliet, IL, which would modify the structure to prevent the spread of invasive Asian carp from the Mississippi River basin to the Great Lakes.
The bill authorizes the project at an 80 percent federal cost, and a 20 percent local cost, for the construction phase.
Similar language was included in a Senate WRDA bill that was approved by the Environment and Public Works Committee earlier in the summer. NEMWI will continue to monitor and provide analysis as WRDA moves through the legislative process. The T&I markup can be viewed here.
|
|
House Appropriations Committee Continues Work on FY 2021 Bills
The House Appropriations Committee last week approved a handful of its annual FY 2021 appropriations bills, including the FY 2021 Interior-Environment bill, and the FY 2021 State & Foreign Operations bill. Key highlights of these bills include:
FY 2021 Interior-Environment
- $335 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI);
- $6.36 billion for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund;
- $3.86 billion for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund;
- $248 million for EPA's Sec. 106 Clean Water State Grants;
- $56.7 million for EPA's Sec. 221 Sewer Overflow and Stormwater Grants;
- $188 million for EPA's Sec. 319 Non-Point Pollution;
- $25 million for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Asian carp activities;
- $10.62 million for USGS Asian carp activities; and
- $13 million for the USGS Great Lakes Science Center.
FY 2021 State & Foreign Operations
- $10.8 million for the International Joint Commission (IJC):
- FY 2021 funding remains consistent with the prior year level for the IJC's Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Adaptive Management Committee for Phase II of their expedited review of IJC's Plan 2014; and
- $36.99 million for the Great Lakes Fishery Commission (GLFC), of which, no less than $1 million be used to address grass carp in the Great Lakes.
In addition to these bills, the House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to markup the FY 2021 Energy & Water Development Appropriations bill, and the FY 2021 Transportation & HUD bill, among others. Key highlights of these bills include:
FY 2021 Energy & Water Development
- $1.68 billion for Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (HMTF) activities;
- $50 million for the Great Lakes-Mississippi Interbasin Study (GLMRIS);
- $123.22 million for the construction of a new Soo Lock;
- $14.3 million for the operation and maintenance of the electric fish barrier in the Chicago Area Waterway System (CAWS);
- Language stating that the Brandon Road Lock and Dam project is critical to keeping Asian carp out of the Great Lakes and that the Army Corps is reminded that the project is eligible to compete for additional funding within the bill's Investigations account;
- Language reminding the Army Corps that the Great Lakes Coastal Resiliency Study is eligible for funding as a new start;
- Language reminding the Army Corps that funding for the final phase of electric fish barrier project in the CAWS is eligible for funding under the Operations and Maintenance account, which would allow it to complete the remaining testing required to bring the barrier online;
- Language stating that HMTF funding for individual projects within the Great Lakes Navigation System should exceed original levels outlined in WRDA 1986;
- $2.85 billion for DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy; and
- $10 million for the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve.
FY 2021 Transportation & HUD
- $40 million for the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation (SLSDC):
- Not less than $15.8 million is for the seaway infrastructure program;
- $4 million is for market development and promotion of the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway navigation system; and
- $300 million for the MARAD Port Infrastructure Development Program.
The full House is expected to reconvene next week for votes both the week of July 20th and July 27th. It is expected that the full House will likely take up all or most of the FY 2021 appropriations bills at that time. The Senate Appropriations Committee has yet to formally announce their schedule to markup their respective bills. NEMWI will continue to monitor the FY 2021 appropriations process as it continues to develop.
|
|
Coronavirus Crisis Causing Devastating Revenue Shortfalls in States, Cities
There is more and more documentation with each passing week of the devastating impact of the coronavirus crisis on state and city revenues as well as increasing media attention to these major state and city revenue shortfalls nationwide.
The Northeast-Midwest Institute released a concept paper on April 13 highlighting the urgent need for federal action to replace non-recoverable state and local revenue shortfalls resulting from COMID-19 mitigation initiatives, which is
available here.
Governors, mayors, and local officials are sounding increasingly dire alarms that they are confronting major revenue gaps due to business closures and unemployment, and that these revenue shortfalls are projected to grow in the months ahead. State Budget Watch has released a report with data documenting state revenue short-falls state-by-state as a result of the ongoing
coronavirus crisis here.
The Tax Policy Center has released the following report on the extent of state tax revenue losses in the month of April,
available here.
And the Rockefeller Institute at the State University of New York (SUNY) has released a report documenting the impact of COVID-19 economic relief on the state balance of payments with the federal government,
available here.
A continually updated selection of news articles reporting these state and local revenue gaps and the need for major federal support follows:
Maryland coronavirus: Gov. Larry Hogan $2.8 billion revenue drop
|
|
NEMWI: Strengthening the Region that Sustains the Nation
|
|
|
|
|
