Publications

How can it possibly be ethical for a president to sue an agency he completely controls, and negotiate a settlement with an attorney general he appointed? That’s not a negotiation between adversarial parties—that’s a sweetheart deal—especially since Trump was not going to win any of those lawsuits or claims on their merits.

Now that you know what is really in the SAVE America Act, does it strike you as more important than anything else Congress could possibly be doing? It is worth ending the filibuster over?

Or is it possible that this is mostly an unnecessary intrusion on federalism designed to satisfy a president’s private obsession?

It was always unlikely that the Court was going to issue a sweeping decision overturning the prevailing interpretation of the 14th Amendment, because of the two axes we described earlier.

It’s important to remember that the Supreme Court is never the final say on any matter of controversy. The political process always has the final say. The political process can make, change or eliminate laws; amend the Constitution; elect the people who nominate and confirm Supreme Court justices; and in extreme circumstances, even impeach justices. Only the Court itself has asserted that it has the final say on constitutional issues.

Auction revenue matters, but it should not be the final determinant of spectrum policy. If policymakers want the connected economy to keep working for consumers, homes, businesses and innovators, they must continue making the world safe for Wi-Fi.

The real problem is big government. The bigger the government, the more opportunities there are for fraud.

That’s why at IPI we argue for limited government, not better government. Better government is nice, sure, but also not very likely.

Between June 2024 and June 2025, there were 15,540 reported theft and vandalism incidents targeting America's communications networks, disrupting service for more than 9.5 million customers. Nearly 9,800 occurred in the first half of 2025 alone, double the previous six months. This is an accelerating crime wave.

A deeply troubling threshold has been crossed. In recent weeks, the national debt (debt held by the public) of the United States has exceeded our gross domestic product (GDP). In other words, we owe more than we produce. This is the first time since World War II that national debt has exceeded GDP.

Licensed spectrum remains important to American AI leadership. But importance is not exclusivity, and proximity to AI is not necessity. Policymakers allocating scarce spectrum resources should ground decisions in data: where AI traffic flows, which connectivity models markets are building and what consumers and businesses need.

The Surface Transportation Reauthorization is being consider in committee this week in Washington. The draft legislation thankfully does not contain the harmful provisions of the Railway Safety Act, but proponents will attempt to add an amendment to the draft language. For the sake of the economy, here’s hoping wiser heads prevail.

A new study documents more than $39 million in foreign funding—from billionaires and foundations in Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Denmark—flowing into a coordinated network of activist groups working to block U.S. data center construction.