Experts in the News

Congress is debating new authorization for the use of military force known as AUMF. Fellow Joe Barnes discusses the issue in an interview with C-SPAN radio.

Congress is currently considering a bill that would make taxing internet sales more difficult. In an interview with Accounting Today, Joyce Beebe, fellow in public finance, pointed out that this issue is vitally important to states. “E-commerce sales have been growing rapidly, while on the flip side, the sales tax base across all states has contracted,” she said. “This has created financial issues for states that rely heavily on sales taxes.”

The Trump administration is considering economic sanctions against Venezuela over the country’s upcoming constitutional assembly, but doing so would hurt the already suffering Venezuelan public, said Latin America Initiative program director Erika de la Garza.

The debate over bills that would regulate transgender access to public bathrooms in Texas reveals a divide between more liberal cities and conservative state leaders, the Los Angeles Times reports. Political science fellow Mark P. Jones comments on how the proposed state legislation also demonstrated the split between centrist Republicans and tea party conservatives in the state.

Francisco Monaldi, fellow in Latin American Energy Policy, analyzes Venezuela’s oil outlook amid its growing economic, political and humanitarian crisis on Platts’ Opec Outlook podcast.