Student Right to Know Before You Go Act

Oregon Senator Ron Wyden is capturing national headlines for his push for more sunshine on government snooping. But he also wants more sunshine to help students assess college programs for graduation rates, projected earnings and debt loads before they enroll.

The Student Right to Know Before You Go Act has been introduced with bipartisan sponsors in the U.S. House and Senate. Democrat Wyden is teamed up in the Senate with Florida GOP Senator Marco Rubio.

Much as he has on the issue of personal privacy in the face of massive government surveillance, Wyden is pressing for more transparency. "There's no question everyone needs access to higher education," Wyden says, "but it's time to bring value into the equation. This bipartisan legislation would allow people to understand where they can expect their educational choices to take them in the real world."

The idea behind the legislation is to make data available online in an easily accessible format. According to a statement by Wyden and the bill's cosponsors, "Using information already gathered, the bill would allow student records to be matched with employment and earnings data.

The result would be highly accurate and informative and finally provide students and their families the opportunity and tools needed for a more complete picture of the value of their education.

The U.S. Department of Education currently makes available some institutional data through its College Scorecard, but Wyden and his colleagues call the information "extremely limited." Under their legislation, much more information would be compiled:

  • Average post-graduate earnings would be broken down by program of study, credential received, educational institution and state of employment.

  • Graduation rates would be made available for first-time, full-time, part-time and transfer students.

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Wyden in Eye of National Security Tornado

The warnings by Oregon Senator Ron Wyden about sweeping surveillance of U.S. citizens in the name of national security became chillingly real last week amid media revelations of extensive federal government data mining.

A leaked document revealed the National Security Agency acquired phone records from Verizon and the Guardian and Washington Post separately reported NSA data-mining of the Internet, including emails, photo and voice data and connection logs. The monitoring apparently was approved by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and is legal under the federal Patriot Act of 2007 and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 2008.

A member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Wyden has been discreet in his repeated warnings. He was less so in media interviews, such as the one he gave to POLITICO. ”I will tell you from a policy standpoint, when a law-abiding citizen makes a call, they expect that who they call, when they call and where they call from will be kept private. As a result of the publications today, there’s going to be a big debate about this, and I think it’s appropriate.”

While civil libertarians applauded Wyden's stand questioning the constitutionality of this surveillance, there was remarkable bipartisan unity on Capitol Hill in defending government data-gathering. Democratic and Republican leaders said meta-data analysis has foiled terrorist plots on American soil. President Obama made an unusual 10-minute digression in comments at his Palm Springs meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao to reassure Americans that "no one is listening to your calls." 

The Atlantic ran a story saying the birth of "Surveillance State" originated in the Senate Intelligence Committee when it criticized NSA for failing to tap modern technology in its counter-terrorism efforts. This admonition came in the committee's official report listing "mistakes that led to 9/11."

The NSA was described as a Cold War dinosaur, out of touch with the emerging threats of a more nimble nemesis posed by al-Qaida. NSA and FBI officials use meta-data to find "key intersections" of information that offer clues to potential and actual terrorist acts. Former NSA senior director Philip Bobbitt, writing in a New York Times op-ed, called this data the "threat matrix" and described how it could have warned security officials of the 9/11 terrorist attack before it happened.

Massive data collection hasn't always gone smoothly for NSA. An early data-mining program, called Trailblazer, turned into a boondoggle, The Atlantic says. Even more recent efforts have their drawbacks as security officials admit there is more data collected than can be analyzed.

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Disappearing Veterans in Congress

America turned after World War II to veterans such as Dwight Eisenhower and John Kennedy to guide the fortunes of the nation. Now the last WWII vet in Congress has died, as the overall number of military veterans in Congress has dwindled.

New Jersey Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg's death today ends a string of 115 WWII veterans who served in the U.S. Senate. But it also portends a declining number of veterans serving in Congress.

The Washington Post reports that as recently as the 111th Congress, which ended in January 2011, there were 26 members of the Senate who were veterans. With Lautenberg's death and the retirements of Iowa Senator Tom Harkin and South Dakota's Tim Johnson, that number could shrivel to as few as 12 sitting senators when the 114th Congress convenes in January 2015.

The U.S. House has a similar profile, according to the Washington Post. Only 19 percent of current House members saw active military service, which the newspaper says is the lowest percentage since WWII. 

"Sending American men and women to war is the most serious decision Congress can make," writes Chris Cilizza of the Post. "Fewer and fewer people making those decisions in the future will be able to speak from a position of experience and authority on the subject."

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CRC Still Dangling by a Thread

The Washington legislature is in overtime. Governor Inslee has made transportation funding a go-home vote. Columbia River Crossing officials are working on mitigation deals with major employers impacted by a new I-5 bridge. But the verdict remains in doubt whether the bridge project will survive.

Bridge backers staged a rally in Olympia, ran radio spots and conducted phone banks to generate grassroots support. Inslee arguably made his most serious plea for a 10-cent gas tax increase to pay, in part, for major projects, including the CRC. A broad coalition of business, labor and civic leaders have pleaded for support in one-on-one meetings with key Washington state senators who hold the key to any funding this session.

Despite all that, the future of CRC is still a roll of the dice.

The Oregon legislature acted earlier in its 2013 session to approve $450 million for the CRC. Now it is Washington's turn to approve an equal share or risk losing earmarked federal funds for the project, including extension of light rail from Portland to Vancouver.

While proponents have been busy, so have opponents. GOP Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler, who represents Southwest Washington, used her leverage as a member of the House Appropriations Committee to insert report language urging the Coast Guard to submit a report on the economic impact of the CRC on river users before issuing a permit for the project.

Citing pending mitigation deals with manufacturers Greenberry and Oregon Iron Works, Beutler said, "We deserve to know what will happen to those jobs once the deals are signed. If the CRC can't provide assurances that those businesses' jobs will stay in the region, then the Coast Guard should not permit the project."

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Obama's Horrible, Very Bad Week

If Alexander thought he was having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, President Obama must feel like he is having the same kind of week. Scandals, bad judgment and roiling international events have rocked his boat.

Obama is trying to take command and provide damage control by firing the interim Internal Revenue Service administrator, releasing reams of email after the fatal raid on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and supporting a press shield law. But that may not be enough to stop the political carping.

It also didn't help that just as Secretary of State John Kerry appeared to make a breakthrough by securing Russian agreement to a June summit to discuss the Syrian civil war, Russians claimed they uncovered and expelled a U.S. agent, with whiz-bang spy gadgets and a satchel of cash.

Then came news that jobless filings increased, drought may accelerate wildfire season and across-the-board federal budget cuts may hamper the ability of emergency responders during the hurricane season later this year.

Obama can probably empathize with Alexander's wake-up discovery of gum in his hair, trip to the dentist. distaste for his railroad pajamas and lack of dessert in his lunch.

Whatever the emotion and political fallout, the compounding brouhaha has pushed economic stimulation and job growth back into the shadows again.

The subject that most voters in America list as their number one concern was on track as Obama began his second term, but events and politics have conspired to push it off stage. The Newtown school shooting prompted an all-out push by Obama for gun control measures. The effort attracted national attention, but ultimately hit a roadblock in the U.S. Senate.

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