News and Issues

Jo Freeman Reviews: The primary narrative is a biography of a man who spent his life taking photographs in order to document America. It’s not a full biography, as the focus is on the years of 1936-42, when Russell Lee worked for the Farm Security Administration. His life before and after is covered only briefly. It includes a biography of Roy Stryker, who was Lee’s boss and friend. A second theme is a history of the FSA’s Historical Section, headed by Stryker, who sent his photographers on assignments around the country. Their initial task was to document the effects of Depression and drought on rural American in order to justify the expenditure of federal funds to remedy problems. As war approached, their task shifted to documenting America’s strength and prosperity in order to convince enemies that it was a formidable foe. more »

The No Surprises Act (NSA) establishes new federal protections against surprise medical bills that take effect in 2022. Surprise medical bills arise when insured consumers inadvertently receive care from out-of-network hospitals, doctors, or other providers they did not choose. Peterson-KFF and other studies find this happens in about 1 in 5 emergency room visits. In addition between 9% and 16% of in-network hospitalizations for non-emergency care include surprise bills from out-of-network providers (such as anesthesiologists) whom the patient did not choose. Surprise medical bills pose financial burdens on consumers when health plans deny out-of-network claims or apply higher out-of-network cost sharing; consumers also face “balance billing” from out-of-network providers that have not contracted to accept discounted payment rates from the health plan.1 The federal government estimates the NSA will apply to about 10 million out-of-network surprise medical bills a year. more »

"Bring patriotic cheer when you give unique gifts from the National Archives Store. As the exclusive store of the National Archives Museum, we support the exhibition and educational messaging through the development and presentation of a wide variety of high-quality merchandise highlighting the holdings of the National Archives." more »

The National Institutes of Health's duties include researching infectious diseases and administering over $30 billion a year in research grants. NIH uses IT systems containing sensitive data to carry out its mission. This GAO report is a public version of our June 2021 report on NIH cybersecurity. The agency has taken actions intended to safeguard the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of its systems. However, we found many weaknesses related to identifying risks, protecting systems, and more. We have made 219 recommendations for improvements. NIH has partially implemented more than half and fully implemented about a third of them. more »