Experts in the News

In her nine years as founding CEO of the Episcopal Health Foundation, nonresident fellow Elena Marks helped build a start-up into a $1.4 billion philanthropic organization dedicated to more broadly improving health as well as health care, reported the Houston Chronicle.

"The governor’s order to increase vehicle inspections at the border is inefficient and poses significant economic risk to the region," said fellow Tony Payan. "A better approach would be for the DPS to work with the Department of Homeland Security to assist with inspections without duplicating the work."

With a Trump-era COVID-19 immigration restriction set to end in May, U.S.-Mexico Center director Tony Payan said that "the Biden administration is preparing for a surge in immigrants at the border — ranging anywhere from the 6,000 per day the border sees currently, to as many as 18,000 per day."

The logistics of transport systems mean the U.S. will continue to import oil even when the country produces more than it consumes, said fellow Mark Finley. "The oil and refineries aren't always where the demand is, and it's hard to move supplies thousands of miles across the continent."

“I think the exceptionalism that has been carved out around cannabis has been extended to psychedelics," said drug policy fellow Katharine Neill Harris. But, she noted, “access will come first to people with money." As a result, “decriminalization is still very, very critical. Whether or not people should be using them for their health is a separate question from whether or not they should get in legal trouble for it.”