Trump’s Amendment to the H-1B Visas

Lindsey Mattila (CMC ’17) On April 18th, 2017, President Trump signed an executive order to reform the H-1B visa program. This program has traditionally been used for companies to hire highly-skilled foreign workers in tech, medical, industrial, and science fields. The United States currently admits approximately 85,000 H-1B visas annually. This executive order comes as…

Non-Compete Agreements and the Race for Self-Driving Technology

Lindsey Mattila (CMC ’17) Non-compete agreements, or the lack thereof, have played an instrumental role in the quick growth and innovation of Silicon Valley. Non-compete agreements, which are generally built into employment contracts, require employees to wait a year, or some other designated amount of time, before joining a competitor. In theory, these agreements should…

The Single-Payer Health System

Lindsey Mattila (CMC ’17) The United States is currently the only developed country that does not have universal health coverage. While the Affordable Care Act provided access to healthcare for millions of people that would have otherwise been unaffordable, nearly 13 percent of the American population, ages 18 to 65, are still uninsured. Beyond extending…

International Law and Election Interference

Lindsey Mattila (CMC ’17) On January 6, 2017, The U.S. Intelligence Community– 16 separate governmental agencies that work on intelligence activities– released a report stating that there is enough evidence to conclude that Russia was behind the cyber attacks on the Democratic National Committee email servers. This hacking produced intel that the Intelligence Community argues…

Trump’s Gag Orders

  By Lindsey Mattila (CMC ’17) On January 25th, reports emerged from employees at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Human and Health Services, and Department of Agriculture that the Trump administration had enforced rules that would limit their communication and research. The days that followed were filled with uproar as environmental, health, and agriculture advocates…

Trump’s Policies: Immigration

By Lindsey Mattila (CMC ’17) Trump’s stances on immigration were a key part of what made him such a popular candidate. His inflammatory comments calling undocumented Mexican immigrants rapists and drug dealers, along with his promise that Mexico would pay for a new southern border wall, captured headlines for months after he made them. Eventually,…