CEI Today: Groups oppose E-Verify, FCC is 3rd costliest agency, and Virginia's disastrous transportation plan

E-VERIFY - DAVID BIER

CEI Coalition Letter to Congress Opposes E-Verify

CEI sent a coalition letter to Congress yesterday opposing E-Verify. Over 40 public policy groups signed onto the letter, including the ACLU:

We, the undersigned organizations, representing thousands of  businesses and millionsof Americans from all sides of the political spectrum, encourage you to vote against a mandatory national “E- Verify” electronic employment verification system established by S. 202 or in subsequent comprehensive immigration reform bills. Although we believe it is irredeemably flawed, we believe reasonable amendments can mitigate some of its negative effects. > View the coalition letter

> Interview David Bier

> See also: E-Verify's Hang Everyone Approach

COST OF THE FCC - RYAN YOUNG Regulatory Report Card: FCC It may come as a surprise that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is the third most expensive branch of federal regulation, costing an estimated $142 billion per year.  Only the Department of Health and Human Services ($184.8 billion) and Environmental Protection Agency ($353 billion) cost more. “The FCC and other regulatory agencies should be putting out report cards like this on their own. It’s basic transparency,” said report card author Ryan Young, CEI’s Fellow in Regulatory Studies. > View the report > Interview Ryan Young

VIRGINIA'S DRIVE TOWARD SOCIALISM  - IAIN MURRAY National Review: Virginia’s Transportation Mess Virginia’s transportation-funding system’s drive toward socialism seems to veering even further left. [The latest] plan retains all of the bad features of the governor’s plan. It breaks the user-pays principle so that non-transit users in the rest of the state will pay for the brunt of transit schemes in Northern Virginia. It still relies heavily on an Internet sales tax. Worst of all, it represents a massive tax increase. The price the governor and the Virginia lower-house speaker had to pay to get this tax increase agreed on also apparently includes the legislature’s giving up its power over redistricting. It defies believe that such a plan could be proposed in a commonwealth where conservatives have supposedly dominated state government. All conservative Virginians should oppose this plan, forcefully. > Read the full commentary > Interview an expert

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