Nonresident fellow Todd Moss testified before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Global Human Rights on the importance of defeating energy poverty in Africa and ensuring that African countries get fair treatment in climate policy.
Restrictions in Texas' medical cannabis law keep most of the state's patients from participating. Our survey of 2,866 Texas residents who use medical cannabis sought to gain insight into the needs and experiences of this population.
A substantial number of Americans remain unprepared for retirement, despite past policy support and tax incentives to enhance retirement income security. Public finance fellow Joyce Beebe reviews recent policy developments and proposals to enhance the retirement savings system.
In this paper, the author examines past attempts at immigration reform in the United States, especially as they pertain to the nation’s undocumented population. Analyzing these early reform efforts could be deeply instructive for the prospects of President Biden’s U.S. Citizenship Act and reveals both durable patterns and new developments that could shape the chances for legislative breakthroughs.
Fellow Katharine Neill Harris testified before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on the failed war on drugs and solutions based on racial justice and harm reduction.
Jim Blackburn, co-director of Rice’s SSPEED Center and a Baker Institute Rice faculty scholar, examines what the city of Houston has done to prepare for flooding and other extreme weather events brought about by climate change since Hurricane Harvey struck Houston more than three years ago.
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program has provided hundreds of thousands of young people in the U.S. with a reprieve from deportation, but program recipients have long lacked a pathway to permanent residency. This paper explores routes to immediate status and citizenship for those eligible for DACA, also known as "DREAMers."
Lebena Varghese, a research manager at the McNair Center, highlights the data trends gathered from a survey administered to small businesses owners in the Houston, Texas area. The goal of the survey was to determine the impact of COVID-19 on business operations and functioning and to gather small businesses’ perspectives on all aspects of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
Nonresident scholar David R. Brockman examines the role of Christian nationalism in Texas state officials' response to the COVID-19 pandemic between March and July 2020.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.25613/q0td-0989
Following a comprehensive review of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the authors determined that the CDC’s COVID-19 case reports contained surprisingly incomplete information about the spread of the virus in the United States. Uniform case reporting to the CDC for life-threatening pandemics should be mandated, they write.