Federation of American Scientists

In anticipation of future known and unknown health security threats (new pandemics, biothreats, climate-related health emergencies, and more) our answers need to be faster, cheaper, and minimally disruptive to other operations. One path to a more permanent state of readiness is to create a commercial public health emergency payment system to use the full power of commercial healthcare reimbursement, providing clear and tunable market signals to catalyze investment in anticipation and in response to public health emergencies. ✍ Sandeep Patel #DayOne2025 #publichealth https://lnkd.in/e7R5Y-yX

HHS is uniquely positioned for—and urgently requires—investment in AI expertise, as it plays a pivotal role in delivering efficient healthcare to millions of Americans. To unlock the full potential of artificial intelligence within the Department of Health and Human Services, an AI Corps should be established, embedding specialized AI experts within each of the department’s 10 agencies. ✍ Enlli L. (1Day Sooner) #DayOne2025 #artificialintelligence #HHS https://lnkd.in/eihb9F48

The time has come for a national effort to discover why so many environmental exposures make us sick. In collaboration with the Federation of American Scientists, Gary W. Miller Sandeep Patel, and I share how a National Exposome Project would deliver improved health spans and and cement American leadership in biomedical innovation, like the Human Genome Project before it.

Despite a $182 billion annual cost, the U.S. correctional system perpetuates itself: At least 95% of all state prisoners will be released from prison at some point, yet more than 50% of them reoffend within three years. A key driver of high recidivism is the systemic negligence of the carceral experience. While much attention is given to interventions post-release, rehabilitation inside correctional facilities is largely invisible to the public. This dynamic results in approximately 2 million incarcerated persons being locked in a “time capsule”—the world passes them by as they serve their sentences. Investing in interventions behind the walls is not just a matter of improving conditions for incarcerated individuals—it is a public safety and economic imperative. ✍ Dan (April) Feng #DayOne2025 #Justice https://lnkd.in/e7bQXJF8

Spending transparency, sustained mitigation funding, technical assistance to communities, and better metrics of success: These four key principles guide Pew's work on #wildfire funding and budgeting alongside the Federation of American Scientists, Megafire Action, Taxpayers for Common Sense, BuildStrong America, and the Alliance for Wildfire Resilience. Read more from my colleague Andrea Snyder below:

Inspired by the #StateCapacity movement that Jennifer Pahlka has championed since the release of #RecodingAmerica, I wrote a policy paper over the summer that extends this idea to Cyber within State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Governments as well as owners of America’s Critical Infrastructure #SLTTCI, and I’m honored that the Federation of American Scientists have decided to promote it as a 2025 #DayOne Project to be recommended to the incoming presidential administration. As a private sector vendor-partner to a multitude of state and local governments, I’ve realized that now more than ever they are leaning on us vendor-partners to be a part of their team and support the implementation of critical cyber controls. With that said, SLTT/CIs have unique operational & policy environments where keeping services up is vital, and it’s important for us vendor-partners to build up our knowledge of these unique environments. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency plays a vital role in creating a grant program, best practices and offering free services to this community as well as partnering with the private sector through the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative, and has added so much value to the cyber defenses of our SLTT/CIs. This paper focuses on some ideas from a practitioner on how CISA’s JCDC can go even further to strengthen coordination between SLTT/CIs and their vendor-partners to continuously raise the cyber baseline within our most critical infrastructure. Thanks to the Aspen Policy Academy as well for support and guidance throughout the writing process!

While there is emerging scientific consensus that environmental exposures play a role in most diseases, including autoimmune conditions and many of the most challenging neurodegenerative diseases and cancers, the lack of exposomic reference data restrains the ability of scientists and physicians to understand their root causes and manage them. The U.S. government should establish a public-private National Exposome Project to generate benchmark human exposure levels for the ~80,000 chemicals to which Americans are regularly exposed. ✍ Gurdane Singh Bhutani + Gary W. Miller + Sandeep Patel #DayOne2025 #publichealth https://lnkd.in/ePuY5Wfk

To respond and maintain U.S. global leadership, USAID should transition to heavily favor a Fixed-Price model – tying payments to specific, measurable objectives rather than incurred costs – to enhance the United States’ ability to compete globally and deliver impact at scale. ✍ Richard Crespin, Sebastian Chaskel, Avnish Gungadurdoss, and Ben Stephens https://lnkd.in/desVJ8Xf

State, local, tribal, and territorial governments along with Critical Infrastructure Owners (SLTT/CIs) face escalating cyber threats but struggle with limited cybersecurity staff and complex technology management. Relying heavily on private-sector support, they are hindered by the private sector’s lack of deep understanding of SLTT/CI operational environments. This gap leaves SLTT/CIs vulnerable and underprepared for emerging threats all while these practitioners on the private sector side end up underleveraged. To address this, CISA should expand the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC) to allow broader participation by practitioners in the private sector who serve public sector clients, regardless of the size or current affiliation of their company, provided they can pass a background check, verify their employment, and demonstrate their role in supporting SLTT governments or critical infrastructure sectors. ✍ Zach Nandapurkar #DayOne2025 #Cybersecurity https://lnkd.in/etCV8_Y9

The federal government’s increasing reliance on data is outpacing its ability to regulate it. As AI systems become increasingly integrated into government processes, protecting fundamental constitutional rights cannot be an afterthought. Here is our response to an OMB RFI – and how the federal government can take data privacy seriously. ✍ Clara Langevin + Karinna Gerhardt https://lnkd.in/eEXSgrCt