Decision-Making Without Data?

(Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO), Photo: Getty)

As Congress examines the bipartisan tax package proposed by Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), one of the flashpoints is the expansion of the Child Tax Credit and how to pay for it.
 
What’s Happening: The package trims the Employee Retention Tax Credit, a pandemic-era provision that rewarded businesses for keeping employees during the throes of the pandemic, to help pay for reforms to the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and several business tax provisions. The CTC reform has the potential to help 16 million children.
 
Why It Matters: The Employee Retention Tax Credit, once a valuable incentive for businesses to retain employees during a moment of crisis, has turned into a fraud-riddled mess handing out aid to businesses years after the pandemic’s end.
 
What’s Next: The Ways and Means Committee passed the tax package with broad bipartisan support, and it will be up for a vote in the House in the next few weeks.
 
Read Andrew Moylan’s op-ed in the Wall Street Journal about this credit>

Criminal Justice

• Fox 5 News reports on how the Council of State Governments Justice Center recently presented data to a Maryland Senate committee showing that the number of unsolved serious crimes in the state (known as clearance rates) has been increasing in recent years.
   
• A new report from The Boston Foundation and MassINC shows that the incarceration rate in Massachusetts has fallen significantly in recent years while at the same time crime rates have also been decreasing. While a “definitive link” cannot be established, the report suggests that these dual declines may be at least partially attributable to a raft of criminal justice reforms enacted by the state in 2018.
   
• In an op-ed for the Georgia Recorder, Mark Spencer and Dominique Grant make the case that the state’s money bail system undermines community safety and wellbeing and should be rolled back rather than expanded.
   
• In an op-ed for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Helen Weston of the American Conservative Union Foundation’s Nolan Center for Justice praises Virginia’s current and former governors Glenn Youngkin (R) and Ralph Northam (D) for enacting a series of evidence-based criminal justice reforms that have started to decrease the state’s prison population while maintaining one of the lowest recidivism rates in the country.

• AV grantee Families USA published a report emphasizing the need for meaningful payment reform to reduce health care costs and achieve high-quality care.
   
• AV grantee Brookings Institution published commentary on early experiences and challenges with the arbitration process under the No Surprises Act.
   
• The Federation of American Scientists’ recently published a blog post calling for reform to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which regulates advisory committees at the Food and Drug Administration.

• Low-income families would reap the majority of the benefits from temporary changes to the Child Tax Credit proposed in bipartisan, bicameral tax legislation, according to analysis from AV grantee the Tax Policy Center.
   
• Kyle Pomerleau of AV grantee the American Enterprise Institute explains why a one-year lookback provision in the Child Tax Credit, as proposed in the pending bipartisan tax legislation, would not significantly impact the work incentives in the credit.
   
• AV grantee the Committee for a Responsible Budget applauded the House Budget Committee markup of a bill to establish a Fiscal Commission — a critical first step on the path to fiscal sustainability.

• A new report from the Federal Reserve of Philadelphia shines a light on the highly fractured pool of federal student loan borrowers and offers policy recommendations for borrowers who struggled to make payments.
   
• A blog post from New America explains the U.S. Department of Education’s ongoing negotiated rulemaking process to better protect students receiving Pell Grants and other financial aid.

• Efforts to address Minneapolis’ housing shortage have driven a wedge within the local environmentalist movement, Jerusalem Demsas writes in The Atlantic.

• In the Los Angeles Times, columnist Sammy Roth interviews Rep. John Curtis (R-UT), founder of the Conservative Climate Caucus, who has made global warming a focus of his political career.

• Hey there, cowboys and girls, tickets just went on sale for the largest livestock show and rodeo in the world, which includes a cookout, carnival, contests, and concerts.
   
• The event pledges to award 800 scholarships totaling $14 million this year, as well as awards to junior exhibitors and other grants.
   
• That Houston hospitality is most definitely present in the Rodeo's 35,000+ volunteers, who serve on 110 different committees as well as on the fairgrounds every day (they can point you toward the turkey legs as well as the mutton bustin'). Come on down, y'all. We'd love to see you.