Free Agency

Analysis and commentary on the work of the executive branch, on federal agencies, and on the issues our government is charged with solving. 

If you would like to contribute an original article to Free Agency, please contact Understanding Government’s executive director, Ned Hodgman at ehodgman@understandinggov.org or call us at (202) 775-8080.

Charles Peters asks, “While we’re at it, how much of a salary cut would work for you?”  

Cat.: Charles Peters: Speaking His Mind, Free Agency
By Charles Peters | 01. September 2010
Comments

I have frequently expressed concern that the White House has been as deficient as the media in its lack of curiosity about what’s going in the bureaucracies that it oversees. Further confirmation of my fear comes from a recent headline in the Washington Post: “White House Orders Agencies to Identify (more...)

Post-salmonella, FDA starts inspecting egg factories  

Cat.: Free Agency, Government in My Backyard (GIMBY)
By Ned Hodgman | 31. August 2010
Comments

Disturbing fact unearthed by William Neuman of the New York Times:  the miserable, filthy conditions at the Iowa egg farms that were the source of salmonella bacteria were investigated for the first time after the salmonella was discovered.  New rules for inspecting egg farms were written “well before the current (more...)

End-of-summer reading: the Big Green Buy  

Cat.: Free Agency, Government in My Backyard (GIMBY)
By Ned Hodgman | 31. August 2010
Comments

You might have missed this one over the summer, but it’s worth a look:  The Nation‘s Christian Parenti looks at one way government can quickly and easily move the economy greenward.  He calls it the Big Green Buy, and the idea is simple:  Instead of looking for breakthrough environmental technologies (more...)

Idea: Have government regulate oil industry  

Cat.: Environment, Environmental Protection Agency, Free Agency
By Ned Hodgman | 30. August 2010
Comments

Who knew?  Turns out there’s an oil company called BP that is responsible for releasing petrochemicals into the environment without telling people.  James C. McKinley, Jr. reports in the New York Times on BP’s latest travesty in Texas (they’re good at creating disasters over in Louisiana, but in Texas they’ve (more...)

Immigration enforcement: problems and problematic solutions  

Cat.: Citizenship and Immigration Services, Free Agency, Immigrations & Customs Enforcement
By Ned Hodgman | 27. August 2010
Comments

Is there a difference between an illegal immigrant and an illegal immigrant who has filed papers for residency status?  Immigration raids across the country have rounded up both categories of undocumented workers, and, as Julia Preston reports in the New York Times, Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division (more...)

Minerals Management Service: the Novel  

Cat.: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, Environment, Free Agency, Minerals Management Service
By Ned Hodgman | 25. August 2010
Comments

Set aside some time to read Juliet Eilperin and Scott Higham’s insightful (and long) look in the Washington Post at the culture of permissiveness that developed over many years at the Minerals Management Service, the federal agency (now disbanded) that was responsible for overseeing mining and drilling of natural resources (more...)

Preventive Journalism update: Gardiner Harris on FDA and medical tubes  

Cat.: Food & Drug Administration, Free Agency, Preventive Journalism
By Ned Hodgman | 23. August 2010
Comments

A simple solution to a lethal problem could come with the stroke of a pen — and save lives.  It remains out of reach because the Food and Drug Administration’s unwieldy review process.  Gardiner Harris of the New York Times investigates something  basic and alarming — the misconnection of plastic (more...)

DOE needs more than a scolding (how about some new ideas?)  

Cat.: Dept. of Energy, Free Agency
By Ned Hodgman | 19. August 2010
Comments

The Dept. of Energy still can’t seem to get stimulus money out the door (we’ve written about this problem here and here).  But the Washington Post‘s editorial board misses an opportunity in their look at the slow release of stimulus grants at DOE. (more...)

If you can’t trust the government . . .  

Cat.: Food & Drug Administration, Free Agency, Government in My Backyard (GIMBY)
By Ned Hodgman | 17. August 2010
Comments

When the people whose very livelihood depends on the government say they don’t trust the government, we’ve got a lot to worry about. David A. Fahrenthold and Juliet Eilperin report in the Washington Post that Gulf Coast shrimp fishermen, told by the Obama administration that they can start shrimping today (more...)

Why regulation works  

Cat.: Free Agency
By Ned Hodgman | 15. August 2010
Comments

Jonah Lehrer looks in the Wall Street Journal at why, contrary to popular belief, people who are well-liked can rise to power, and how they often become less likable (and less competent) when they get the corner office.  He throws in perhaps a few too many different psychological experiments to (more...)