Publications

The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and the House Energy and Commerce Committee in November held a series of hearings on the impact of patent assertion entities on the economy.

Concern has been growing about these entities—businesses that purchase patent rights but then do not actually create innovative products, instead filing lawsuits against other innovators who do. Patent assertion entities send out hundreds and thousands of demand letters to not...

by Brian D. Shaw, President of the George C. Marshall Foundation

Public officials at all levels need a type of courage that’s not often taught. They are expected to develop a bold vision for strategic change and to produce results that address the demands and expectations of multiple, often conflicting constituencies. One exemplar of the courage to lead is George C. Marshall. In a long, productive career of public service, Marshall solved some of the biggest, most complicated problems the world had seen.

The appropriate use of federal Medicaid dollars to help expand health care coverage for individuals involved with the criminal justice system presents an opportunity to achieve reductions in state and local spending, while minimizing known health and public safety concerns associated with reentry following incarceration. However, opportunities to maximize and maintain Medicaid enrollment for eligible individuals in this population, and especially to make use of Medicaid to finance certain types of care provided to those who are incarcerated, have been largely underutilized by states. This brief provides an overview of opportunities to expand health care coverage, as well as access to and continuity of care; improve public health and safety outcomes for individuals involved with the criminal justice system; and reduce state and local expenditures on corrections and health care. 

Alaska Rep. Craig Johnson’s greatest disappointment with politics today is the inability of policymakers to disagree without being enemies. “It seems now that if you don’t agree with my policy, you’re a bad person,” said Johnson, the 2014 chair of CSG West. “Just because legislators or parties can disagree, that doesn’t make anyone inherently bad; it just means we disagree. That civil discourse we’ve lost—that ability to debate without becoming enemies—is probably one of the greatest tragedies in American politics.” That inability to get along in Washington, D.C., is creating problems in the states, Johnson and other members of The Council of State Governments leadership believe.