By: Brian Bayne
Throughout Washington, and the rest of the US for that matter, there seems to be acquiescence to the idea that Congress simply is unable to get anything done. Congress’ approval rating has dropped to under ten percent and has been one of the least productive Congresses in recent history. However, it is not simply that this Congress is not passing legislation; the Senate has also been unable to approve presidential appointments. Currently there are 186 presidentially appointed nominees that have not yet been confirmed by the Senate; 53 of which are pending federal judges. What is the reason for all these vacancies? Well, you can partially blame the filibuster. In fact, the filibuster had created so much gridlock, especially in the area of confirmation hearings, that the Senate did the unthinkable, reform the filibuster rule.
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By: Maya Kushner
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), more commonly known as Obamacare, has been fraught with problems from the day of the rollout. In June of this year, President Obama announced that the so-called Employer Mandate portion of the PPACA will not be enforced until 2015, rather than its planed effective date of January 1, 2014. The decision was made after a barrage of complaints from multiple employers and lobbying groups, claiming that implementing all of the new requirements in such a short amount of time was not feasible.
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By: Andrew Strauss
Earlier this week, the Department of Justice announced a settlement with American Airlines that will allow the company to go ahead with its proposed purchase of U.S. Airways. The Department of Justice (DOJ) made headlines earlier in the year when it announced it had decided to block the potential merger, citing its antitrust authority. The DOJ used its power under the Clayton Act to challenge the proposed merger. The Clayton Act was passed in 1914 and aimed to stop anti-competitive business deals in their infancy. The Act outlaws price discrimination, conditioning sales on exclusive dealing, mergers and acquisitions that reduce competition, and service on the board of directors for two competing companies. Under the Clayton Act, the DOJ said that the American Airlines/U.S. Airways merger would reduce competition. If the deal were allowed to go through, there would only be four domestic airlines in the United States; American, Delta, United, and Southwest. More than 80% of the U.S. domestic market would be controlled by these four airlines.
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By: Zachary I. Gold
Though much has been made of the negative effects of non-practicing entities (NPEs), or, more commonly, patent trolls, on the economy, the problem has yet to be solved. Recently, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-V.A.) took a first step towards the goal of neutering patent trolls. He introduced a bipartisan reform bill, the Innovation Act, H.R. 3309.
Patent trolls extract large costs from the economy. One study found that patent trolls cost $29 billion annually in legal and licensing fees. The researchers surveyed two hundred fifty companies, hearing back from eighty two. These eighty two companies reported defending themselves against a total of 1,184 patent troll lawsuits. The most expensive cases, defended by large companies, cost $22 million each, and small and medium sized companies spent $420,000 on each case. Another study, conducted by the same researchers measuring the effect of trolls on stock prices found the cost to be $83 billion annually. U.S. businesses spend only $247 billion a year on research and development (R&D), making the tolls extracted by NPEs a significant drain on the economy and on innovation.
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By: Corey Peterson
At a time when India is enacting legislation deeming food security a right of citizens instead of just a measure taken by the government, our own government is failing to provide nutrition to our most vulnerable populations.
More than 47 million Americans, which is approximately one in every six, who receive benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP or “food stamps,” had their benefits cut earlier this month. Nearly two-thirds of these 47 million Americans are children, disabled or elderly.
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While the Legislation & Policy Brief posts the individual articles from its bi-annual book at the DigitalCommons site, hosted by the Washington College of Law, we are now making a complete PDF copy of the book accessible here on our blog.
The articles from our Spring 2013 issue are:
- Thomas Ahmadifar – Two Steps Forward, and One Step Back: How the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act Encourages Design-Build, But Roadblocks Remain
- Kyle G. Bates – Uncharted Waters: How Hornbeck Offshore Services, LLC v. Salazar Highlights Core Problems With Judicial Oversight of Agency Behavior
- Tristen Cohen – Curbing Executive Compensation: A New Tax Scheme
- Daniel Hare – Blue Jeans, Chewing Gum, and Climate Change Litigation: American Exports to Europe
