Election Day

 Election Day is less than a month away on Tuesday, November 5th!

There will be a polling location on Rice campus, at the Welcome Center, 7 am-7 pm. All voters registered in Harris County can vote here. Be sure to bring your government-issued ID.

Early voting begins October 21^st and ends November 1^st.

Approved early voting sites can be found here at Vote-Centers. (Election Day sites can also be found here.)  Ride the Rice BRC/TMC Shuttle to the closest Early Voting site (shuttle stop 12).

If you are voting in Harris County, view your voter-specific ballot at Whats-on-my-Ballot.

There are other important races and issues voters will decide on this year, including US Senate and Representative, Texas State Senator and Representative, Railroad Commissioner, and numerous judges and county officials.  Harris County also has three separate bond proposals to be voted on. We hope you will make your voice heard today.

For non-partisan information about candidates and issues, League of Women Voters Guides for Harris County are available in the Kelley Center for Government Information in the basement of Fondren as long as supplies last.  The Guide can also be found online here.   

The Houston Chronicle 2024 Texas Voter Guide provides sample ballots for Harris and Houston area counties along with information about each candidate.  They also post their endorsements in many races. (The Houston Chronicle is available to members of the Rice community.  Rice students, faculty, and staff: please visit https://library.rice.edu/houston-chronicle for instructions on registering for a free Houston Chronicle account.)

For a more comprehensive list of election resources, access the Kelley Center’s Voter and Election guide. 

For example, if you want:

for information about a candidate's biography, voting record, positions, ratings, speeches, and funding, check Project Vote Smart.

to see where candidates stand on a host of issues, check ProCon.org's Presidential Election site.

for information about campaign contributions, check the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and/or OpenSecrets.org.

for general information on evaluating candidates for public office, check USA.gov's Choosing Candidates to Vote for.

 

Public Feedback Sought for Congress.gov

If you want current information on the federal legislation that is accurate and official, the best site to use is Congress.gov. 

Congress.gov is a collaboration among the Library of Congress, the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, and the Government Publishing Office. The site is searchable and free and provides the status, full text, and summary to each bill before Congress. It also provides direct links to the Congressional Budget Office which analyzes the cost estimates of each bill. The Congressional Record (which provides a daily transcript of speeches and actions of Congress) provides the process of the bill through Congress. The site gives access to the entire Congressional Record back to its first publication in 1873. Background information on the site are profiles of each member of Congress, legislative process videos, Committee profile pages, historic access to previous bills, and previous public forums. 

Once a year, in September, the Library of Congress conducts a public forum to educate the public and to gather feedback on the site. The next public forum has been scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 18 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET. 

If you would like to attend the forum virtually here is the registration link. If you are lucky enough to be in Washington and can attend in person at the beautiful Library of Congress, register here. 

The forum will present enhancements to Congress.gov based on previous user feedback. It will also show how “legislative information is gathered and made available to the public.” There will also be Q&A discussion segments where attendees can learn about the site and share ideas for future enhancements. Those who cannot attend can also submit suggestions before and after the forum at Congress.gov Public Forum Survey Form.

From the Library of Congress: The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United States — and extensive materials from around the world. It is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. Explore collections, reference services and other programs and plan a visit at loc.gov; access the official site for U.S. federal legislative information at congress.gov; and register creative works of authorship at copyright.gov.

The Best of Both Worlds or Between a Rock and a Hard Place

The United States Postal Service is a strange hybrid. 

It was established by the First Continental Congress in 1775.  The new federal government established in 1789 established the postal service permanently as a government agency in 1792.

Therefore:

The USPS is a government agency within the Executive Branch. 

Its service standards are set in the Code of Federal Regulations, and the Postal Regulatory Commission has oversight of it.

It has a public mission, and the price of minimal service must remain affordable.

It maintains a monopoly of mailboxes and letter delivery to be able to provide service to communities that would not be financially viable for a private company.  Only the USPS can deposit items into mailboxes. 

As a government agency, the USPS is exempt from tolls, vehicle registration fees, state/local taxes, property/real estate taxes, and parking tickets for delivery vehicles.

To fund growth and improvements, the USPS is granted very low interest loans.

Postal workers are federal employees.  The USPS assumes all financial risks for workers’ compensation from its revenue.  It cannot use a private insurer.

Postal workers cannot strike.

 

However:

Since the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, the USPS does not receive appropriations from Congress provided by tax revenues. Unlike most government agencies, it is almost completely financially independent. 

It is required to act like a private business and must compete for customers.

The rise in costs of providing services, especially employee retirement benefits, competition from other delivery companies, and a reduction in need for the postal service because of technological innovations for delivery of communication (email, etc.) has led to a loss of revenue for the USPS. 

Currently the cost of universal mail service is higher than the monetary value of having a monopoly.

Other handicaps:

USPS has more flexibility in purchasing than other government agencies, but purchasing is regulated by government oversight and is not as flexible as a private company would have. 

The USPS is forbidden by law from putting retirement program monies into any but the most secure investments.  Therefore, the cost of retirement benefits for postal employees is higher than the money the investments make. 

The amount the USPS can borrow for growth and improvements is capped by law, and the cap has not changed in 30 years.

Because of its hybrid nature, the USPS has some control over it’s operations and low to no control over others.  For example, USPS has no control over providing 6-day service.  It also has no control over its ability to diversify products and services.  It has high control over the prices it charges for services it competes with other companies to provide such as package delivery.

The US Postal Service component of the Office of Inspector General has studied the tension between the competing natures of the Postal Service as a privately funded entity and a government agency and in a white paper released August 2, 2024 has determined that its current structure is not sustainable and needs reform. 

 

Copyright and AI

“AI raises fundamental questions for copyright law and policy, which many see as existential. To what extent will AI-generated content replace human authorship? How does human creativity differ in nature from what AI systems can generate, now or in the future? What does this mean for the incentive-based foundation of the U.S. copyright system? In what ways can the technology serve as a valuable tool to amplify human creativity and ultimately promote science and the arts? How do we respect and reward human creators without impeding technological progress?” 

                                         Shira Perlmutter, Register of Copyrights 

Because of the disruptive nature (i.e., an innovation that significantly alters the way that consumers, industries, or businesses operate) of AI generated materials, the US Copyright Office has been studying the effects of AI on the role of copyrights and devising policies and procedures for dealing with those effects. 

On March 16, 2023 the Copyright Office launched the New Artificial Intelligence Initiative to address, among other things, the copyrightability of works produced by AI and the use of copyrighted materials in creating data sets that “train” generative AI, which they define as “an application of AI used to generate outputs in the form of expressive material such as text, images, audio, or video. Generative AI systems may take commands or instructions from a human user, which are sometimes called ‘prompts.’” 

In August of 2023, the Copyright Office published in The Federal Register a Notice of Inquiry requesting comments and information from the public addressing these issues. Comments were accepted through December 6, 2023. 

From their study, which will incorporate these public comments and information, the Copyright Office intends to publish their report Copyright and Artificial Intelligence which will make recommendations for policies within the Copyright Office and to Congress for establishing copyright laws. 

On July 31, 2024, the Copyright Office published the first part of the report, Part 1: Digital Replicas. This first part of the report deals with the proliferation of videos, images, and audio recordings that “digitally created or digitally manipulated to realistically but falsely depict an individual.” The report concluded that these unauthorized replicas threaten the entertainment industry, the political arena, and private individuals. It recommends Congress pass laws for protection from these replicas and defines the scope these laws should take in reference to “what kinds of replicas it should cover, whom it should protect, the term of protection, liability, licensing and assignment, First Amendment concerns, potential remedies, and the statute’s relationship to state law.” The recommendations do not include protections for an artist’s “style.” 

No dates have been announced yet for the forthcoming parts of the Report. One can follow the progress of the study and the reports on the Copyright Office AI webpage.

Hot Enough For Ya?

July and August are the hottest months of the year, with September not far behind here in the South.  Extreme high heat can affect our outdoor activities, our electric bills, and our moods.  But what effect does heat have on the most vulnerable communities and what is their resilience to this external pressure on them.  According to the Census Bureau, “Community resilience is the capacity of individuals and households within a community to absorb the external stresses of a disaster.”

The United States Census provides data about the population in numerous topic areas.  Most recently (July 16, 2024), they released their report on the 2022 Community Resilience Estimates (CRE) for Heat.  The report includes Quick Guide which can be used to understand and use the data available.  The Bureau previously released data for 2019.

In general, the CRE reports the social vulnerability that inhibits community resilience.  The CRE for Heat (which is an experimental report) adds new components of social vulnerability and information concerning exposure.  For example, the report looks at which areas (by geography, state, county, and census tract) have more than two days in a row of temperatures over 90 degrees and what households in those areas do not have air conditioning. 

The CRE for Heat uses information from the American Community Survey and the Population Estimates Program.  The American Community Survey is conducted every month of every year and, unlike the decennial census, is sent to a sample of addresses.  The survey asks questions about topics not in the regular census such as education, employment, internet access, and transportation. 

The Population Estimates Program annually produces reports on the estimated changes in population and housing units for the nation, states, counties, cities and towns and includes births, deaths, and migrations. 

Arizona State University’s Knowledge Exchange for Resilience collaborates with the Census Bureau to produce the CRE for Heat reports.

The data from the CRE for Heat is included in My Community Explorer which is a Census Bureau tool to identify underserved communities and includes Census Bureau and Emergency Response datasets. 

Gun Violence Research

The U.S. Government Publishing House (GPO) is good about processing major, important, and impactful government documents soon after agencies release them. 

Yesterday evening (June 25, 2024) the PBS News Hour discussed with the University of Colorado's Dr. Emmy Betz, an emergency room physician and director of the Firearm Injury Prevention Initiative, the Surgeon General's report as a national health problem. 

• Access the report here: Firearm Violence: A Public Health Crisis in America. 
• ATF provides the most comprehensive government data collection on firearms. Data & Statistics | Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives 
• HHS quick facts: Fast Facts: Firearm Injury and Death | Firearm Injury and Death Prevention | CDC

To explore more government information and conduct research on more topics, check out https://libguides.rice.edu/gov , visit the Kelley Center, or schedule an appointment with Anna Xiong, your FDLP Representative at Fondren Library: govhelp@rice.edu.

Consumer Protection and Consumer Data

Before you take out a loan or mortgage from financial institution that is not a bank, you will want to check the registry being created by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

The financial crisis of 2008 revealed that although banks have a great deal of oversight of their lending practices by federal regulators, other financial institutions do not.  These financial institutions include debt collectors, payday lenders, and credit reporting companies.  Most importantly, they include nonbank mortgage lenders.  Many of these companies are not licensed or registered with any agency or registry. 

When financial companies break consumer laws, they are usually assessed a fine by a court or the CFPB.  However, many companies see these fines as the “cost of doing business” and proceed to continue their illegal practices.  With the creation of this new registry, the CFPB will be able to track lawbreaking companies, hold them accountable, and prevent corporate recidivism. 

This registry will be used by state attorneys general, state regulators, and other law enforcement agencies to ensure these companies are paying their fines and not continuing to participate in illegal activities such as scams, fraudulent schemes, and other illegal conduct that harms the public.  Most importantly the public, including investors, creditors, business partners, and average consumers will be able to vet the financial institutions they deal with. 

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is an official 21st century government agency that implements and enforces Federal consumer financial law and ensures that markets for consumer financial products are fair, transparent, and competitive.  It provides financial education for individual consumers on such topics as auto loans, credit cards, and frauds and scams.  It also provides data for researchers on their Public Data Inventory section and provides access to FOAI requests.  It also provides legal information on the rules and regulations governing consumers and financial institutions serving them. 

Consumers can submit complaints about financial products or services by visiting the CFPB’swebsite or by calling (855) 411-CFPB (2372).

Employees who believe their company has violated federal consumer financial protection laws are encouraged to send information about what they know to whistleblower@cfpb.gov.