As with many other actions by the Obama Administration, both the anticipation and political antagonism surrounding his immigration executive order were greater than the actual impact of the policy.  From the perspective of critics who deny complexity in the immigration debate and see deportations and fence building as the only legitimate responses to the question, anything the President did to make the lives of undocumented workers better was going to be an outrage.... Read More

The day after the November 4th election returned Republicans to power in the Senate, a group of conservative leaders sent an open memorandum to Senate Republicans arguing that they should not restore the 60-vote threshold to cut off debate on nominations to administration posts and non-Supreme Court judicial slots.  On November 6th, an editorial by Senator Orrin Hatch and C. Boyden Gray in the Wall Street Journal made a similar case, saying, “Some bells cannot be unrung.”  They laid down a marker against a Republican reversal of the “nuclear option” exercised by Democrats in November 2013.  Perpetuation of the nuclear option would represent another regrettable step toward remaking the Senate in the image of the House of Representatives.... Read More

Through our foreign Aid Effectiveness work at The Lugar Center, we focus on bringing greater accountability to foreign assistance. This accountability is comprised of three key components - transparency, evaluation, and learning – and is based on the belief that being transparent about what is being spent, for what purpose and where, evaluating whether the investment has indeed had an impact on achieving its goals, and then using what is learned from the project to strengthen that program and/or others, we can exert greater impact on helping people support themselves. This accountability can and should set a high bar for both taxpayers and donors of foreign aid, and for those who receive it.... Read More