Here is the Heritage Take on the top issues today.Please reply to this email to arrange an interview.
Wokeness’ at the Fed could easily create another banking crisis <[link removed]> - You expect your money to be safe in a bank, but if the Federal Reserve gets its way, that may not be the case soon. That’s because the Fed has begun to put politics before fiscal stability. Heritage Expert: EJ Antoni <[link removed]>
The FAA Should Focus on Technology, Hiring Qualified Personnel Not Pursuing A Woke, Radical Agenda <[link removed]> – The $15 billion of 2023 federal funding for the FAA
includes a special focus on “environmental justice” and “climate change mitigation,” “prioritizing sustainable design and construction,” “enhancing equity through more inclusive contracting.” With some terminal air traffic control facilities 79 years old—and the “youngest” traffic control center being 56 years old—and
the FAA drawing attention to the need for maintenance and upgrades—it is preposterous to be squandering tax dollars on “sustainable fuels,” “solar based technologies for runways,” and green “pavement materials.” It’s time for the FAA to return to its mission: Providing the safest, most efficient aerospace system in the
world. Heritage Experts: Joel Griffith <[link removed]> and Diana Furchtgott-Roth <[link removed]>
Problems persist at FAA despite $23B-plus budget <[link removed]> - The FAA receives over $23 billion in
taxpayer funding per year. Despite this, vital systems that the FAA operates are badly outdated and less effective than those in peer nations such as Canada and the UK. We should transition to an independent, privately operated air traffic safety system. A symptom of the sclerotic nature of federal bureaucracy is that our Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system is not expected to be upgraded to
modern international standards until late 2024, even though the process began in 2021. It is fortunate that the NOTAM system failure occurred on a day with relatively little inclement weather, and that no accidents occurred as a result. However, the safety of America's air passengers should not be left to fortune. Even though the US led the way on aviation in the 20th century, our commercial aviation industry lags behind the rest of the developed world due to layers of federal dysfunction that exist to benefit narrow special interests, effecting air safety, airport
infrastructure, and much more. The federal Department of Transportation under President Biden and Secretary Buttigieg has embraced a wide range of impractical and polarizing progressive ideological fads, obsessing over identity politics and "climate" rather than seeing through the core duties of the DOT. Today's debacle should come as no surprise. Heritage Expert: David Ditch <[link removed]>
Diplomacy in Drag <[link removed]> - At a time when inflation has forced belt-tightening in households across America,
the State Department has seen fit to give a cultural center in Ecuador $20,600 to host “drag theater performances,” with the goal to “promote diversity and inclusion.” Heritage Expert: Simon Hankinson <[link removed]>
Iowa Governor Leads on
Ambitious School Choice Initiative <[link removed]> - Under the governor’s plan, all Iowa families who opt their child out of the public school system would be able to access the state’s portion of per-pupil
spending—about $7,600—through an ESA to use for private school tuition, tutoring, textbooks, curricular materials, special-needs therapy, and more. Heritage Expert: Jason Bedrick <[link removed]>
House Passes Bill Protecting Babies Born Alive in Botched Abortions <[link removed]> - Nobody should get away with infanticide. Without specific enforcement provisions or clear legal consequences for negligent providers, abortion survivors are left vulnerable to neglect and ultimately death, particularly in abortion sanctuary states and jurisdictions. The status quo is unacceptable. The Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act would augment current law by requiring that infants born alive after an abortion receive proper medical care and establishes criminal consequences for abortionists who fail to do so. This is not a hypothetical problem. State and federal data confirms that babies can and do survive abortion attempts. Protecting these children isn’t remotely controversial. Heritage Experts: Melanie Israel <[link removed]>, and Emma Waters <[link removed]>
Social Media Gave Me the Idea ‘I Could Be a Boy.’ Chloe Cole’s Journey Into and
Out of Transgenderism. <[link removed]> - “Social media introduced this idea that I could be a boy,” Chloe Cole <[link removed]> says. Cole began telling her friends and family that she was a boy when she was 12 years old after she was introduced to gender-identity ideology through social media. She started taking testosterone and puberty blockers at 13 and had a double mastectomy at 15. At 16, she
detransitioned <[link removed]>. Heritage Expert: Virginia Allen <[link removed]>
‘Election Interference by Omission’: Oversight Project Files FOIA Request on Classified Biden
Docs <[link removed]> - Mike Howell <[link removed]>, director of Heritage’s Oversight Project, released the following statement Tuesday in response to reports that classified documents were discovered late last year on the premises of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, an
organization closely associated with Joe Biden and partially funded by Chinese interests <[link removed]>. Some of those documents were reportedly labeled “sensitive compartmented information,” an upper-level classification used for highly sensitive information obtained from intel sources. Heritage Expert: Mike Howell <[link removed]>
“Gas stove ban ‘on the table’ for a federal agency <[link removed]> - The Biden Administration is considering a nationwide ban on natural gas stoves, citing new research <[link removed]> that links pollutants released from natural gas stoves with asthma. In reality, this is a ruse to push yet another part of the Biden administration’s misguided “all of government” climate agenda. Natural gas is a clean, domestic, reliable, and abundant source of energy. President Biden is proposing to ban Americans’ access to this energy on the dubious premise of fighting global warming and increases in asthma. Banning natural gas drives up costs for the economy at a time Americans are suffering with inflation and puts yet more decision-making in the hands of unaccountable bureaucrats
– this time at the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The Biden administration should be focused on unleashing American energy production, achieving energy freedom, and providing relief to Americans. Heritage Experts: Rachael Wilfong <[link removed]> and Katie Tubb <[link removed]>
<[link removed]>
-
