Happy Friday! I’m Aanika Eragam, here with your week in review. We surveyed the latest battlegrounds in American federalism (a civics lesson that actually affects your life), checked in on tariff refunds and went into Olivier’s wayback machine for the inside scoop on secret government travel.
Read more States vs. the Feds: Who’s Really Governing Your Life?
Monday
On Monday, Olivier predicted a central rallying cry of the Democrats’ midterm platform: tariff refunds.
In late February, the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration had illegally used the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to collect $166 billion in import duties. This was not a win for American consumers, however, as the roughly $100 billion in the resulting tariff refunds was returned to the corporations that paid duties.
Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts wrote to corporations – including Amazon, Apple and Walmart – urging them to “pass along any refund you may receive to the consumers who paid higher prices for your products while the tariffs were in place.” Other Democrats have similarly pushed for ways to get the money to consumers.
Tuesday
Hackers are increasingly targeting municipal water supplies.
Georgia last week announced a cyberattack had targeted local water infrastructure, leading to reduced water pressure and a temporary boil-water advisory. The incursion was one of more than 100 hacks at municipalities around the country, the New York Times reported.
To Olivier, the real problem is “that Washington is trying to protect creaky vital infrastructure that is typically under local, not federal, control – and overseen by authorities who often lack the funding, staff or systems to defend it.”
Wednesday
On Wednesday, news that President Donald Trump used a catering truck to make a covert escape out of Turkey prompted Olivier to reflect on his own experiences with secret government trips.
Clandestine trips are not new, Olivier noted, but what was unprecedented in Trump’s Turkey exit was that “the press corps was kept in the dark.”
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In February 2007, Olivier was a White House correspondent traveling with Vice President Dick Cheney, who made unannounced visits to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Olivier was tapped to accompany him on the journey – and was sworn to not file his story until Cheney landed outside Islamabad.
“We all understand the importance of keeping our word to keep some secrets secret,” Olivier writes. “In fact, to my knowledge, no American president or vice president has ever had a trip scuttled by an indiscreet reporter.”
Thursday
Olivier ended the week asking the question: Who really has the power to govern your life?
During the pandemic, all eyes were on Dr. Anthony Fauci and presidential policies. But in the end, most mandates came from state officials.
Today, the state vs. federal battle is being waged on an array of fronts. State attorneys general and even local officials are seeking to regulate prediction markets despite the feds asserting exclusive oversight. States are passing regulations on AI as tech giants lobby Congress for broader, more lenient federal rules. Education policy and water management have also been part of the federalist tug-of-war.
Olivier’s key question: “Can an 18th-century federalist framework – malleable as it is – handle a 21st-century world?”
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