New America Foundation

Last December Sen. John McCain described the 1996 “loan” of a second TV channel to broadcasters – for the stated purpose of facilitating the transition to digital and high-definition television – as “one of the great rip offs in American history. They used to rob trains in the Old West, now we rob spectrum.”

But even critics of the first Congressional giveaway could not have anticipated that within five years the FCC would allow broadcasters operating on channels 60 to… more

If Stevenson was correct in his reinterpretation of Goethe—“That which you inherit from your fathers/You must earn in order to possess”—then the efflorescence of digital technologies over the past twenty years is posing some unprecedented challenges to our democratic polity. The computer, the Internet and any other digital technologies are dramatically changing the character oforganizations, markets, the nation-state and the global economy. What is less clear is how the traditional rights and liberties of American citizens shall be re-interpreted inthe… more

Good morning members of the Commission. My name is Maya MacGuineas and I am a Fellow at the New America Foundation, a non-partisan think tank in Washington DC, where I work on fiscal policy. Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today. I realize that most of the country’s attention is focused on more immediate threats -- as is only appropriate. But it is important that at the same time, we take action to address the longer-term threats… more

Good afternoon. I'd like to take my time with you this afternoon to outline some of the pros and cons of creating an e-Congress as a security measure in the face of a credible threat to the U.S. Capitol. I'm going to divide these pros and cons into three categories: security considerations, democratic accountability considerations and political considerations. Finally, I want to consider your duty to ensure that not just Congress, but the other 80,000 state and local legislative bodies,… more

Today the American people collectively own the most valuable resource in the emerging information economy: the airwaves, also known as the electromagnetic spectrum. Auctions conducted last year in Europe and early this year in the U.S. suggest that spectrum occupied by commercial licensees has a market value well in excess of $300 billion. Unfortunately, while high bids by wireless phone companies should be a boon to the ordinary citizens who own the airwaves, high prices also evidence a policy-induced spectrum… more

Many of the resources that Americans own as a people — forests and minerals under public lands, public information and federally financed research, the broadcast airwaves and public institutions and traditions — are increasingly being taken over by private business interests. These appropriations of common assets are siphoning revenues from the public treasury, shifting ownership and control from public to private interests, and eroding democratic processes and shared cultural values.

In the face of this marketization of public resources, most Americans… more

These prepared remarks were presented by John D. Shilling at New America’s Working Group on International Finance and the Environment, held in December 2000.

The full text is available below in PDF format. 

Canadian provincial governments have a long-standing policy of subsidizing their lumber mills, to the detriment of the U.S. lumber industry, U.S. landowners and the environment. Recently, a coalition of Canadian lumber companies, some lumber consumers, and others have aimed to change the longstanding U.S. policy of combating those subsidies. Under the veil of protecting consumers, this group aims to terminate the current U.S.- Canada agreement, which contains the damage from Canada’s forestry regime, and ensure that no action is taken… more