Proactive Transparency
What to know: After hearing complaints about the city’s handling of the Public Information Act, one Dallas city councilmember is urging her colleagues to embrace transparency and proactively post “all travel records by staff and elected officials” online. Doing so, she says, would help promote public confidence.
The TPPF take: The proactive disclosure of public information is a surefire way to improve trust, transparency, and accountability.
“Trust in government is vital for a strong and healthy republic. For this reason, elected officials should seize every opportunity to proactively release public information and data. It rightfully belongs to the public anyhow,” says TPPF’s James Quintero. “Dallas’ push for travel record transparency is the right call and, hopefully, other large cities will follow suit.”
Way More Risk?
What to know: Writing in the Wall Street Journal, attorney Steve Cohen says a Waymo driverless taxi took him and his wife the wrong way down one-way streets, forcing the couple to bail out of the vehicle.
The TPPF take: Just as with all other technology, self-driving vehicles are a tool that can induce positive and negative outcomes.
“As a first principle, and for the sake of innovation broadly, it is crucial that Texas continue to hold the line on the regulation-heavy instincts of states like California and Illinois,” says TPPF’s David Dunmoyer. “With responsible guardrails in place and the ingredients for an innovative hotspot, Texas will continue to lead the nation as the exemplar of responsible technology that seeks to serve humanity, and not the other way around.”
Birth Tourism
What to know: The top federal prosecutor in South Texas says allegations about birth tourism — foreigners coming to America to have their babies to secure U.S. citizenship — are “highly alarming.”
The TPPF take: Recent litigation over birthright citizenship has renewed national attention on the issue.
“Regardless of how those questions are ultimately resolved, one point remains clear: Businesses that facilitate birth tourism through visa fraud or other unlawful conduct are not shielded from investigation or prosecution,” says TPPF’s Selene Rodriguez. “The debate over citizenship is separate from enforcing laws against fraud.”