Federal Strategy and Management

Trump's de facto ban on H-1B visas won't protect American workers, but it will likely result in fewer U.S. jobs and weaker U.S. companies. In Washington Monthly, Robert Atkinson argues that there are better ways to smooth this pathway for America to attract talented workers from around the world.

Unless we can restore the growth imperative in the West, we can—no surprise—expect slower, or in the case of some countries like Canada and the UK, negative per-capita income growth.

The Trump administration doubled down on its push for the federal government to take financial stakes or other commercial interests in major U.S. companies—a policy that would weaken American competitiveness, invite political manipulation, and undermine the very goals of U.S. industrial strategy.

Turning CHIPS Act grants into government equity stakes would undermine their purpose and weaken U.S. efforts to expand domestic semiconductor manufacturing.

The Strengthening Cyber Resilience Against State-Sponsored Threats Act is a timely and necessary response to the growing threat posed by state-sponsored cyber actors, particularly from China, but Congress should further refine it to truly future-proof the nation’s cybersecurity posture.

Iran’s growing cyber capabilities, combined with recent geopolitical tensions, pose a serious threat to U.S. critical infrastructure, requiring urgent federal action to strengthen digital defenses and build long-term resilience.

Canada needs a new federal institution that makes its innovation system more than the sum of its parts: a Canadian Innovation and Industrial Transformation Agency. This institution wouldn’t replace programs. It would govern them coherently, strategically, and at speed.

Tariffs and tax breaks won’t fix America’s quality crisis. But perhaps an overhaul of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award will.

It’s time to think big and bold. The United States should pursue a super-automation moonshot by establishing 50 to 100 demonstration factories that deploy state-of-the-art automation technologies.

Assuming the Trump administration is serious about shrinking government, why not eliminate an agency whose sole purpose is to distort market outcomes by privileging firm size over performance and productivity? When it comes to government waste, the Small Business Administration is low-hanging fruit that has been over-ripe for a long time.