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EMS recording shows emergency response for ‘unconscious’ person at Sen. McConnell’s house on same day he was hospitalized
An EMS audio recording published by an independent journalist indicates that emergency responders were called to the Washington, DC, home of Sen. Mitch McConnell for an “unconscious” person the same day he was hospitalized last month.
Supreme Court ruling lifts limits on political party campaign spending
The decision could play a role in the battle for control of Congress this November.
Politics complicate push for year-round E15, Iowa Farm Bureau president says
Questions loom over the status of E15 legislation in the U.S. Senate. “Mixed signals is very accurate.” Iowa Farm Bureau president Brent Johnson says he’s heard members of Congress say E15 can’t pass on its own, while others say it can. “So when you look at the makeup of the Senate, I do think we […]
Colorado’s Diana DeGette concedes defeat to Democratic socialist Melat Kiros
U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette — the dean of Colorado’s congressional delegation — conceded defeat in the race for the 1st Congressional District a day after losing to Democrat rival Melat Kiros in their party’s primary contest. “I want to congratulate Melat Kiros for her victory last night, and I want to wish her all the […]
Congress celebrates 'Spirit of '76' for semiquincentennial
Each year, millions of Americans stream through the Capitol Visitor Center to see how our country’s legislative body works
Congress celebrates 'Spirit of '76' for semiquincentennial
Each year, millions of Americans stream through the Capitol Visitor Center to see how our country’s legislative body works
Congressman Tom Kean’s hospital treatment for depression may encourage men’s mental health
When a Republican, male politician spoke publicly about a leave he took to get help for his depression, the US saw something uncommon and needed, experts say.
House Dem urges transparency by public officials after GOP colleague reveals reason for extended absence
Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres urged transparency from officials after House Republican Tom Kean revealed the previously undisclosed reason for an extended congressional absence.
Medicaid work requirements challenged by coalition of 26 states
Led by Massachusetts and California, the plaintiffs say CMS ignored the will of Congress by strictly defining a “medically frail” exemption that would allow a person access to safety net medical coverage.
Democratic socialist Melat Kiros poised to become the first Gen Z woman in Congress
Kiros, a political newcomer, topped 15-term-incumbent Diana DeGette in the Democratic primary in Colorado's 1st Congressional District, a reliably blue House seat.
A democratic socialist unseats a 15-term congresswoman in Colorado
With her victory over Rep. Diana DeGette, 29-year-old Melat Kiros is the second democratic socialist to beat an incumbent progressive Democratic House member this month.
Melat Kiros shocks 15-term incumbent Diana DeGette, winning Colorado’s 1st CD Democratic primary
In the equivalent of a political earthquake, 29-year-old Democratic socialist Melat Kiros defeated 15-term U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette in Colorado’s Denver-based 1st Congressional District primary, according to unofficial election results Tuesday night. The Associated Press called the race at 10:03 p.m., with Kiros leading DeGette by just under 6 points with 78% of the vote […]
Colorado primary election results: Melat Kiros leads Dianne DeGette in congressional race
Here are the early, unofficial results as of 7 p.m. • In the 1st Congressional District, challenger Melat Kiros is leading U.S. Rep. Diane DeGette, 47%-45% • In the U.S. Senate race, U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper is leading challenger Julie Gonzales, 51%-49% Colorado voters head to the polls today to pick primary winners that will […]
Trump announces Republican midterm convention in Dallas in September
President Donald Trump has announced that Republicans will hold their first-ever national convention ahead of the midterm elections, an unusual event aimed at boosting turnout in races that will decide whether the party maintains control of Congress.
Trump announces midterm convention for Republicans in Dallas in September
The event is aimed at boosting turnout in races that will decide whether the party maintains control of Congress
Trump calls on Congress to end birthright citizenship after court defeat
The Supreme Court's ruling in the birthright citizenship case poses a political challenge for President Donald Trump.
Miller-Meeks: Girls Sports are for Girls
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-01) today released the following statement after the Supreme Court’s ruling upheld laws protecting girls’ and women’s school sports teams.
The End of Independent Federal Agencies Will Change Your Business
For executives, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Slaughter v. Trump will likely lead to less certainty and consistency for the regulated aspects of their businesses, with federal rules and their enforcement increasingly determined by political expediency rather than expert analysis. Specifically, there are five ways in which all U.S. businesses will be affected: regulation will become more informal and less transparent; consistency across administrations will disappear; oversight by Congress and the federal courts will be diminished; expert advice will be devalued; and politically-connected lobbyists will drive decision-making. In this environment, business leaders will need to plan accordingly, honing their ability to shift strategy, perhaps dramatically, after every election—and perhaps even during administrations.
Rep. Tom Kean Jr. reveals depression diagnosis after 4-month absence
The speech came on the New Jersey congressman's first day back to work
Rep. Tom Kean Jr. reveals depression diagnosis after 4-month absence
The speech came on the New Jersey congressman's first day back to work
Private equity in youth sports draws bipartisan scrutiny in Congress
Democratic and Republican Congress members expressed alarm at the trend of private equity investment in youth sports.
Watch: US congressman reveals depression diagnosis after absence
Tom Kean returned to Washington after a nearly four-month absence, speaking about his mental health struggles.
WATCH: Rep. Tom Kean Jr. says he was recovering from depression during months-long absence from Congress
Tom Kean Says Depression Led to Long Absence From Congress
After months of mystery, the New Jersey representative broke his silence about the undisclosed health issue that prompted his 117-day absence.
Supreme Court strikes limits on party spending in federal elections, backing GOP appeal
The Supreme Court on Tuesday erased limits on how much political parties can spend in coordination with candidates for Congress and president, striking down a federal election law that is more than 50 years old.
Supreme Court Strikes Down Limits on Political Party Spending
At issue in the case was a post-Watergate law that Congress passed to limit the amount of money individuals can give to political parties.
Congratulations to the 2026-2027 APSA-Sponsored Congressional Fellows -
APSA is pleased to announce the members of the 2026-2027 Class of the APSA-Sponsored Congressional Fellows! The American Political Science Association (APSA) Congressional Fellowship Program is a highly selective, nonpartisan program devoted to expanding knowledge and awareness [...]
Absent congressman returns to Congress after nearly four months
Rep. Tom Kean (R-New Jersey) has pledged to be “completely transparent” about what happened upon his return.
WATCH LIVE: Long-missing Rep. Tom Kean Jr. expected to address mysterious absence on House floor
Colorado voters head to the polls today — check here for regular updates
Colorado voters head to the polls today to pick primary winners that will vie for statewide offices in November, the result of which would determine the direction of the state in the coming years. At stake are the parties’ nominees for U.S. senator, governor, attorney general and several statewide offices, along with races for Congress […]
FDA panel on peptides will include experts who promote the unproven chemicals favored by RFK Jr.
The Food and Drug Administration is meeting next month to consider easing restrictions on several peptides, a group of unapproved drugs popular with followers of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
After mysterious four-month absence, GOP congressman plans grand return
One day before Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. planned to return to Washington, the long-missing congressman sat on the steps of his tidy Tudor-style home in North Jersey, sifting through mail beside his wife.
Colorado court rejects November ballot initiatives aimed at redrawing congressional districts
Colorado voters won’t get to decide this November on whether to change the state’s congressional districts to favor Democrats
Live Results: Colorado midterm primaries
The Democratic gubernatorial primary between U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and state Attorney General Phil Weiser will not only determine who might lead Colorado, but it could also create an opening in the closely divided U.S. Senate.
Trump unloads after Supreme Court upholds late mail-in ballots in Mississippi
Trump slams Supreme Court ruling allowing late mail-in ballots, demands Congress pass the SAVE Act requiring voter ID and proof of citizenship.
Socialists take fight west, target Colorado in latest bid to oust Democratic Party establishment
Democratic Socialists of America target Colorado primaries as DSA-backed Melat Kiros challenges Rep. Diana DeGette in Denver's 1st Congressional District.
Speaker Johnson sends housing bill to White House after Trump refused to sign measure
Speaker Mike Johnson officially transmitted Congress’ bipartisan housing bill to the White House on Monday, according to a spokesperson, kicking off a 10-day countdown for the bill to become law, even if the president does not sign it.
Slotkin Joins Michigan Delegation Urging Small Business Administration to Approve Disaster Declaration
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, joined members of the Michigan Congressional Delegation in urging the Small Business Administration (SBA) to support Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s request for an administrative disaster declaration following the severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, high winds, large hail and torrential rainfall across the state in April. […]
From mail voting to firings, SCOTUS verdict on Trump agenda is mixed
The Supreme Court dealt the Trump agenda major blows on economic regulation and mail-in voting, but also expanded Trump's power over federal agencies.
Colorado Supreme Court: Redistricting plans for 2028 election cannot proceed under state constitution
The Colorado Supreme Court blocked all attempts at redrawing congressional district boundaries for the 2028 election from reaching the ballot on Monday, concluding each of the proposed ballot measures violated the constitutional single-subject requirement. The court considered five distinct, but related, ballot measures. Three proposals would have redrawn U.S. House of Representatives districts to give […]
Congress wants to ban AI companies from selling your health data
The new proposal bans selling health and location data info — including data entered into your favorite AI chatbot.
Expert: Tennessee Redistricting Plan Driven by Politics, Not Race
An expert defends Tennessee's congressional redistricting plan, arguing racial consequences stem from partisan aims, not racial discrimination.
Her next act: Former House speaker announces 'Nancy Pelosi Institute'
Pelosi’s involvement in the NPI is not just in namesake: in the new year, she will co-teach a course on Congress with Professor Eric Schickler
For Nancy Pelosi, good-bye Congress. Hello, Pelosi Democracy Institute
The first female speaker of the House will be co-teaching a course on Congress at UC Berkeley's new institute, among other things.
Nancy Pelosi to establish new democracy institute at UC-Berkeley
The former House speaker is preparing to leave Congress after a nearly four-decade decorated career.
After 40 years in Congress, Nancy Pelosi to help create institute to train leaders of the future
The former House speaker plans to help create an institute at UC Berkeley that will concentrate on civic engagement and research
Nancy Pelosi's post-Congress plan: Launching UC Berkeley politics institute
Rep. Nancy Pelosi will launch a multimillion-dollar politics institute at UC Berkeley when she leaves office, co-teaching a course on Congress and hosting visiting fellows from across the political spectrum.
Central Florida Congressional races attract out-of-district candidates
After long-time U.S. Representative Daniel Webster announced his retirement in April, potential successors quickly filed to run for the open Central Florida seat. But of the eight major-party candidates who
Congress passes rare bipartisan bill on housing, how manufactured housing could be crucial to affordability
Editorial: Keep up congressional pushback against Trump’s anti-science agenda
For about a decade, hundreds of deep-sea buoys off America’s coasts have been monitoring the conditions of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The streams of publicly available data they produce inform weather reports, generate valuable information about the planet’s changing climate and help the maritime industry and even the military maneuver the high seas.
Multiple sclerosis affects social life and work beyond physical health
Multiple sclerosis (MS) can have a substantial impact on many aspects of life beyond physical health, with 51% of people reporting that the disease affects their social life and 48% reporting that it affects their work, according to new research presented at the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) Congress 2026.
Cassidy, fresh off a blowup with Trump, blasts RFK Jr.’s policies
The GOP senator said a “foundation of lies” had shaped Kennedy's health stances. He also accused Trump of treating Congress as an "appendage."
What Mamdani's congressional hat trick means for NYC politics | The Point Full Episode 6.28.26
Rep. Ryan rejects rolling back of PFAS cleanup at Stewart air base
Pat Ryan, a Democrat who represents New York’s 18th Congressional District, says the Department of Defense is looking to reduce statutory reporting requirements for PFAS at military installations.
Bill Cassidy accuses Trump of treating Congress as ‘merely an appendage’
Out-going Louisiana senator’s rebuke over Iran war is rare instance of a Republican politician standing up to Trump
Democrats Wrestle With Race, Populism and Ideology in Clashes With Lawmakers of Color
WASHINGTON (AP) — After democratic socialist Claire Valdez defeated an establishment-backed candidate in New York's congressional primary last week, her elated supporters quickly turned their attention to a new target. “You're next!” they chanted when an image of House Democratic leader Hakeem ...
With time running out, Trump digs in on changing midterm election rules
Fearing a Democratic takeover of Congress, the president has spent months trying to alter how the midterms will be conducted, but obstacles keep cropping up.
Mamdani's suited pool plunge overshadowed by political clash with GOP gubernatorial candidate
Video shows Mayor Zohran Mamdani jumping into an East Harlem pool in a suit, but the event turned into a clash with Bruce Blakeman over remarks about a Dem congressional candidate.
Trump-backed Julia Letlow faces John Fleming in Louisiana GOP Senate runoff
U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, who was endorsed by Trump, and state Treasurer John Fleming are competing in the runoff. The two finished ahead of Sen. Bill Cassidy in the May 16 primary after Trump denounced the two-term senator, who voted to convict him following his 2021 impeachment.
Jeffries Faces Steep Test as Far Left Builds Strength in Congress
The victories of Darializa Avila Chevalier and other anti-establishment candidates are changing the face of House Democrats, posing a challenge for their leader.
Audio: RFK Jr. urges Libertarian candidate to drop out race to help GOP keep House
OutFront obtains audio of US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. urging a Libertarian congressional candidate in Iowa to drop out of the race to improve Republicans’ chances of winning - and keep control of the House. Rick Stewart, who had no prior relationship with RFK Jr., tells Erin Burnett it’s “ludicrous” a Trump cabinet official would make such an offer.
Peters, Bergman lead Michigan delegation in calling on Small Business Administration to approve disaster declaration
WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. Senator Gary Peters (D-MI), Ranking Member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, led members of the Michigan Congressional Delegation in urging the Small Business Administration (SBA) to support Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s request for an administrative disaster declaration following the severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, high winds, large hail and torrential […]
Is the No Surprises Act working? Government watchdog is uncertain
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said it needs more data to determine what savings the 2020 law is bringing to the U.S. healthcare system—but early data indicate it falls short of expectations.
Congress Revives SAFE Banking Bill For Cannabis Businesses
A bipartisan group of lawmakers has renewed the push to let banks serve state-legal cannabis businesses without fear of federal penalties.
Congress subpoenas Leon Black during interview about Jeffrey Epstein
The House Oversight Committee issued subpoenas to billionaire Leon Black after he declined to answer questions about non-disclosure agreements.
Chairman Guthrie, Health Vice Chair Harshbarger, Congresswoman Miller-Meeks Lead Site Visit to Iowa Hospitals to Highlight Benefits of the Rural Health Transformation Program
The Committee on Energy and Commerce is the oldest standing legislative committee in the U.S. House of Representatives and is vested with the broadest jurisdiction of any congressional authorizing committee.
Democrats’ real plan to control Congress again
New York’s socialist insurgents are getting the headlines. But in swing House districts, the establishment has been getting its way.
This Democratic congresswoman almost helped elect a Republican speaker
Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) explains why she contemplated supporting Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-California) in 2023 with an extremely rare crossover vote.
WATCH: House Democratic leaders hold hearing on fair elections and voting rights
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Democratic lawmakers held a hearing Thursday on defending fair elections and voting rights.
Making Our Own Luck
We are cross-posting a piece that former NIH official Kris Willis wrote for Macroscience. Kris is now the President and Founder of the Woodley Park Institute, for which I’m a board member. Picking winners or hedging bets? Federal science agencies have long wrestled with the question of how to ensure their billions of dollars of grants and contracts result in maximum benefits for Americans. On the surface, it might seem that a goal-oriented, interventionist style of management would be the best policy: prioritize our most pressing problems and distribute funding accordingly.This top-down strategy creates a unique hazard, though: bad choices can send resources in the wrong direction, resulting in slow progress that impedes the delivery of tangible benefits to citizens. Moreover, if decision makers pursue an applied advance when the underlying scientific principles remain poorly understood, they risk costly failures and a loss of support for the research enterprise at large. Examples include Nixon’s 1971 War on Cancer, undertaken on the premise that a cure could be achieved in less than a decade, the drive to build an operational commercial fusion plant by the mid-1990s, and the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease, which failed to produce the effective treatments and prevention strategies promised by 2025. The contrasting laissez-faire approach is to hedge your bets. If the path to an advance is impossible to predict, then the wisest choice might be to distribute funding to as widely as possible. The main risk of this strategy is that spreading funding thinly may limit the resources available to the most promising research, resulting in the same negative outcomes as the interventionist approach: limited support for the most promising topics, slow progress, and delayed returns. In reality, at science agencies like the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, program managers navigate between these two extremes, setting some funds aside to target high-priority areas and using the rest to cover the widest possible range of meritorious proposals. This middle path seems like the most rational way to proceed, but it still requires making choices. How much should be set aside for high priority topics? What should those topics be? How should we define merit? Expert opinion can provide a helpful guide, but leading experts can have remarkably different opinions about what matters and what should be prioritized. Moreover, experts and administrators alike can be risk averse, giving an edge to high-profile, well-established concepts. What’s really needed is a data-driven framework to help guide decision-making, one that doesn’t simply repackage prestige or incumbency. Recognizing breakthroughs years in advance Many breakthroughs fail to attract funding or recognition at the earliest stages of development. Katalin Karikó, for example, spent years struggling to win grants for work on mRNA that would eventually win her and Drew Weissman a Nobel Prize. Similar stories can be told about Jim Allison’s groundbreaking studies leading to the development of cancer immunotherapy, Stan Pruisner’s demonstration that prions can self-replicate without DNA, or Robin Warren and Barry Marshall’s proof that Helicobacter pylori, not stress, causes ulcers. Yet at some point, the scientific community recognizes and responds to transformative breakthroughs like these. How does that change happen? And what if science funders could identify the areas that are on the cusp of a breakthrough? Those questions led my collaborators and me to study how scientists responded to past breakthroughs. Based on patterns in that data, we developed a means of predicting future breakthroughs, using biomedicine as a proof of concept. It’s worth taking a moment to describe how our approach works. Briefly, our prediction process begins by grouping the 18 million or so peer-reviewed papers in PubMed, the authoritative database of biomedical research, into roughly 50,000 unique topics. A small subset of these topics are so widely acclaimed as breakthroughs that they have been recognized with a major prize like a Nobel or a Lasker Award. We theorized that studying the development of these outliers over time, especially before they gained acclaim, was the key to identifying future instances of them. After defining topics, we chose 21 representative breakthroughs and asked what they looked like before they won prestigious prizes. To answer that question, we re-ran our topic-mapping algorithm repeatedly, winding back the clock one year each time, stringing together the years to follow the progress of each field as it grew and advanced. We found that in each case, the years leading up to a discovery followed a pattern: a burst of papers on a new, rapidly evolving topic, many of which quickly became influential. These characteristics—the percent of papers that are new, the percentage of papers that are brought in from other topics, and the influence of each individual paper—can all be measured separately for any given topic. Together, they act as a predictive signal that is detectable an average of five years before a transformative discovery is made, and up to thirty years before the discovery receives a major prize. Scanning the current research landscape for topics that display this signal allows us to predict what work will likely produce a future breakthrough. Each year we analyzed includes four or five signals, a number that appears to have remained constant across a twenty year time frame. In their classic work on the sociology of science, Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar established that the desire to participate in a major discovery is an important motivator for scientists as they consider whether they should take up (or abandon) a research problem. Although further work is needed, the simplest explanation for our results is that this behavior is widespread enough to detect at scale. A foundational advance, or something like it, draws the attention of scientists and causes them to change the direction of their research. They vote with their feet, staking their own reputation and careers by publishing on and citing the new idea. That upswell of interest is the foundation of our breakthrough signal. What kind of research does our model identify as a breakthrough? After building a model based on the patterns in our 21 preselected breakthroughs, we tested it by identifying all early signals of discovery from 1994 through 1997. Of the 18 signals we found in that time period, 17 can be traced forward in time to a breakthrough. Examples include super-resolution fluorescence microscopy (see the image above), the directed evolution of proteins and enzymes (Chemistry Nobel, 2018), and sequencing the human genome (National Medal of Science, 2008). The discovery of the role of leptin signaling in obesity is a particularly interesting case study. Around 1950, scientists noticed the existence of a type of lab mouse that suffered from a unique inherited form of obesity. When given the freedom to choose their own diet, these mice ate more than normal and preferred food that was high in fat. Researchers had few clues as to why the animals overate; early experiments pointed to the existence of a soluble ob factor found circulating in the bloodstream that regulated appetite, but its identity was unknown. In 1994, Jeffrey Friedman and colleagues identified and sequenced the ob gene, noting that the protein it encoded appeared to fit the profile of a circulating factor. A year later, a trio of high-profile publications demonstrated that ob was a hormone that regulated body weight and fat deposition by regulating appetite. One of these was co-authored by Friedman, who christened it leptin from the ancient Greek word for thin. Using our model, the data from 1996 make it clear this advance would become a breakthrough. Scientists had flocked to study the biology of the new hormone, generating the flurry of new papers and citations required to produce a signal. One of these demonstrated that serum leptin concentrations reflected the amount of adipose tissue in the human body, providing clinical validation of the earlier mouse studies. Before the identification of leptin, scientists were unable to point to a specific molecule that controlled appetite and adiposity, so that it was impossible to rule out non-physiological causes of obesity; its characterization fundamentally changed our concept of weight gain. In 2010, Friedman and fellow pioneer Douglas Coleman were awarded a Lasker for the discovery. Our work also identifies breakthroughs in clinical practice and behavioral and social sciences, even though these areas are less likely to draw the attention of major prize committees. One example that falls into this category is the introduction of endovascular aneurysm repair, a minimally invasive surgical procedure for the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm, a leading cause of death among Americans over the age of 65. Relative to the previous standard of care, it reduces in-hospital mortality by almost four-fold. In 2017, Timothy Chuter received the American College of Surgeons’ prestigious Jacobsen Innovation award for his multiple refinements to the technique. Another under-recognized breakthrough identified by our model is the development of standardized survey instruments to assess the quality of life for HIV+ patients. The antiretroviral cocktails introduced in the mid-1990s reduced AIDS mortality, but treatment came with serious side effects. The new evaluations showed that patients whose disease progressed had worse physical functioning than Americans with other chronic diseases, while those who were asymptomatic maintained a health-related quality of life on par with the overall US population. This evidence made it possible for patients and activists to argue that even in the absence of a total cure, and in spite of the side effects, alleviation of symptoms was a worthwhile priority for clinicians. My colleagues and I have failed to identify any significant recognition for the physicians and health policy experts who pioneered this advance, although in 2016, researchers called for the World Health Organization to set targets for good health-related quality of life as part of its framework to end the AIDS pandemic. From forecasting to funding How should science funders use our predictions? Any serious discussion of what we should do with this new capability needs to begin with an understanding of its limitations. We can’t (and shouldn’t) invest all of our resources in the small number of topics predicted to produce breakthroughs. Innovative new fields are born from existing ones; they rarely arise de novo. If funders don’t maintain a diverse portfolio, the breakthroughs of tomorrow will have no antecedents. Think of this as eating the seed corn, or killing the goose that lays the golden egg. There are also multiple goals of funding beyond basic scientific discovery, including translating discoveries into clinical practice, developing new technologies, supporting economic development, and training new scientists. The investments needed to accomplish these goals are likely different from those required to support emerging breakthroughs. Finally, we must be aware that we may not capture every instance of a breakthrough. The concept is fuzzy, and not every significant discovery is recognized with a major award. Further, breakthroughs are rare, meaning that our dataset is, by necessity, small. This makes formal estimates of accuracy challenging. Although our overall success rate appears to be high, any one signal may turn out to be a false positive. We found one apparent example: the development of the third generation COX-2 inhibitors, Vioxx and Celebrex, which were much celebrated in the early 2000s as effective but non-addictive pain relievers, meets all the algorithmic criteria of a breakthrough. Five years after it received FDA approval, researchers demonstrated that Vioxx was associated with serious cardiovascular complications, and the manufacturer voluntarily pulled the drug from the market. Celebrex remains available, although like other NSAIDs, it carries an FDA warning for increased cardiovascular risk. Decision makers who were overly focused on the breakthrough potential of this research might have wasted substantial resources nurturing an area that ultimately proved to be a failure—but so would those who relied on expert opinion at the time. That said, the potential benefits of funding the next mRNA vaccine or cancer immunotherapy years earlier than we might have are large. When we can’t assume the outcome of an action, it’s worth conducting an experiment. Can targeted support for areas that are poised to produce a breakthrough increase the return on scientific investment without cannibalizing future advances? With the necessary administrative infrastructure in place, conducting this experiment would be straightforward. First, identify all the breakthrough signals between 2018 and 2023, select half at random, and commit to a decade of investment. For biomedicine, a six year window should yield about 30 topics with the potential to produce a breakthrough. Providing strong support to half of these might be accomplished for $300 million a year. That’s roughly half of the recent annual budget of the NIH Common Fund or around 20% of the fiscal year 2025 budget for ARPA-H. After five years, then again at ten, compare to see which group — the one that was actively managed, or the control — produced more breakthroughs, and on what timescale. Although we used biomedicine as an example, the same experiment could just as well be run for physics, materials science, or any other discipline. Any attempt to undertake such an experiment should keep three points top of mind. First, we can predict the topic of future breakthroughs, but the people and vision for how to move the work forward are still important. In practice, this means success requires active program managers with the expertise to develop the science and the authority to do so, including by recruiting investigators. Second, we would be wise to learn from the failures of past attempts to fund transformative research. High among these are funding modestly repackaged work, confusing the genuinely novel with the merely unfamiliar, and relying too much on incumbent investigators. All of these risks can be mitigated by thoroughly and intelligently integrating high quality data into portfolio management. Finally, we need to have patience. Even with strong funding support, producing a breakthrough takes time. If supporting breakthroughs is the best way to nurture the birth of new fields, we also need to accurately describe and properly manage the other two stages, so that we invest wisely throughout the productive lifetime of ideas and divest once they reach the point of diminishing returns. We would benefit from more study of all of these phases, especially the transition from one to another. More research could answer questions like: When does a breakthrough become an established field? How do the availability of funding, the size and characteristics of the available workforce, and the accumulation of evidence that disagrees with prevailing models affect a field’s decline? Exactly how do old ideas give birth to new ones, and can we speed up the process? The more we understand about the dynamics of scientific progress, the better we can maximize the odds that our curiosity leads to results. I’d call that finding a way to make our own luck.
Trump’s fixation on election overhaul bill derails GOP agenda on Capitol Hill
A nasty feud over President Donald Trump’s elections overhaul push has further crippled an already-dysfunctional Congress, leaving Republicans unable to move on critical elements of their agenda.
Platner, Collins’ campaign spar over federal contracts
Platner released a multi-point plan he calls “a corruption crackdown,” which covers issues such as big money in politics, lobbying activities by former members of Congress, and making it more difficult for presidents to cash in on their position while in office.
Health Subcommittee Markup of 15 Bills Addressing Illicit Drugs and Health Care Price Transparency
The Committee on Energy and Commerce is the oldest standing legislative committee in the U.S. House of Representatives and is vested with the broadest jurisdiction of any congressional authorizing committee.
Two NC lawmakers, a Democrat and a Republican, push Congress to delay SNAP changes
Above the federal penalty threshold, NC could owe $140M a year, putting at risk a program that helps over 1.2 million North Carolinians.
RFK Jr. urged Iowa candidate to make deal to help GOP win House seat, per audio recording
The health secretary urged Iowa Libertarian candidates to drop out of key races to help Republicans keep control of Congress, according to interviews and a recording obtained by The Post. The effort highlights mounting GOP anxiety over the battle for the House.
Supreme Court strikes down law limiting guns in businesses
The justices nixed a Hawaii law that made gun owners get permission to bring guns into certain establishments.
Lane County Public Health to slash jobs as it weathers federal healthcare cuts
Lane County’s Public Health Department announced significant budget reductions as federal healthcare cuts approved by Congress in the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, or H.R.1, go into effect.
Before governor's race, Xavier Becerra was depicted in kids novels
In Kitty Felde's young adult novels, the lead character is modeled after a girl she'd mentored in L.A. For the father, she picked a certain ex-L.A. congressman.
Jeffrey Epstein's friends' settlements draw Congress' interest
Members of Congress have discussed issuing subpoenas to find out about the NDAs between some of Jeffrey Epstein's friends and his accusers.
Congressman: ‘Trump clearly decided that his crisis was more important than America’s crisis’
White House asks Congress for $88 billion for Iran war
The request mostly includes money for the Pentagon, with $67 billion going toward replenishing the military’s stocks of munitions and the cost of sending so many forces to the Middle East.
Mamdani's sweep in New York a 'political earthquake' among Democrats
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani scored a massive political victory on Tuesday when his trio of insurgent congressional candidates toppled two incumbents and the establishment favorite in an open seat, results some described as "a political earthquake" for Democrats.
WATCH: Under proposed rule, USPS won't deliver mail ballots to states that don't provide voter rolls, postmaster general says
Postmaster General David Steiner told a Senate committee Wednesday that, if a proposed rule is adopted, the U.S. Postal Service would withhold mail ballots from states that do not hand over to the federal government lists of people who have requested absentee or mail ballots.
WATCH: Congress dedicates national time capsule ahead of America's 250th anniversary
The Time Capsule Act, a 2016 law creating the nonpartisan America250 commission mandated that a time capsule be buried in Philadelphia on July 4, 2026, and dug up 250 years later in 2276.
Netanyahu’s growing unpopularity, angering Trump, boosts Mamdani’s pro-Palestine candidates for Congress
Netanyahu faces criticism over Gaza and Iran, pro-Palestinian candidates score major victories in New York politics.
Kennedy scion Jack Schlossberg loses crowded New York City congressional primary
Kennedy family scion and political novice Jack Schlossberg lost Tuesday to New York state Assembly Member Micah Lasher, in a closely watched and crowded Democratic primary for an open congressional seat in the heart of Manhattan.
An emboldened hard left eyes Schumer challenge
The Democratic Senate leader is staring down a tectonic shift in his home state.
Jasmine Crockett’s silence could hurt James Talarico’s U.S. Senate chances in November
The Dallas congresswoman, Talarico’s erstwhile rival in the Democratic primary, has yet to say whether she’ll campaign for him in the general election against Republican Ken Paxton.
Trump’s stunt on the housing bill seems like a very bad idea
President Donald Trump is a familiar legislative arsonist. He’ll often throw curveballs at the last minute that give congressional leaders fits – especially in his own party.
Primaries prove it: In New York, pro-Israel politics are now a liability
All of Mayor Zohran Mamdani's congressional picks won in Tuesday’s primaries. And they all campaigned on cracking down on the Jewish state
Trump says he won't sign major housing bill until Congress passes SAVE Act
The president's announcement came at an awkward time for House Republican leadership, coming just as they were speaking at a press conference about the importance of the bill in addressing affordability.
They poured fortunes into trying to join Congress
Of the most expensive self-funded congressional campaigns since 2000, only four out of 20 were successful.
Trump refuses to sign landmark housing bill, demanding Congress pass voter ID law
Trump demanded that Congress pass the SAVE America Act, the proof-of-citizenship voting bill, before he would consider the housing legislation.
USPS tells Congress it needs cash rescue amid broken business model
Postmaster General David Steiner told a Senate committee the agency has amassed nearly $31 billion in cumulative defaults and could run out of cash by year's end
Trump cancels housing bill signing, pressures Congress to pass voter ID law
The bill was supposed to have been signed Wednesday at the Capitol
Trump cancels housing bill signing, pressures Congress to pass voter ID law
The bill was supposed to have been signed Wednesday at the Capitol
Trump cancels plan to sign major housing bill as he fights with Congress over the SAVE Act
Just hours before heading to Capitol Hill, Trump called the big, bipartisan housing bill Republicans hope to run on in the fall “of minor importance.”
New York primaries: Clean sweep as 3 candidates endorsed by Mamdani win
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani flexed his political muscle Tuesday, getting a clean sweep as his three endorsed congressional candidates advanced to November's general election.
Zohran Mamdani has lost none of his political magic
The New York Knicks might have won in five, but the city’s mayor did it in three: a trio of candidates backed by Mamdani appear set to land seats in US Congress