Here’s a selection of articles we’re reading this week.
Will the 8th go blue? – The recent retirement announcement by seven-term U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert opens Washington’s first truly competitive congressional race since 2010. The 67-year-old Reichert was hardly the most obvious contender to step aside nationwide, especially after a 20-point win in 2016. But with Republican retirements mounting nationwide, Reichert becomes the latest in a series of races putting the GOP on the defensive. The question is: Can Democrats actually take advantage of the opportunity? Read more from Crosscut.
Tax cuts cost how much? – How to pay for policy proposals lawmakers want to enact is an age-old question in Congress that has killed or stalled countless ideas. That question is now a dark cloud hanging over Republicans as they seek to overhaul the tax code. Read more on Roll Call.
Data Retrival Tool: It’s baaaaack! – The IRS and the Department of Education on Sunday restored the data retrieval tool that allows students to automatically import their family income data into their applications for federal student aid. The IRS abruptly suspended the tool in March, citing suspicious activity and potential vulnerability of taxpayer information. Read more from Inside Higher Education.
Supreme Court Watch – On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a major new case about partisan gerrymandering. The case began just days after the Nov. 8 election, when a federal court struck down a Republican-drawn legislative map in Wisconsin for being too partisan. Because of special rules for some voting rights cases, the Supreme Court is required to hear the case. Read the analysis from the Washington Post.
Gerrymandering, it’s a science – About as many Democrats live in Wisconsin as Republicans do. But you wouldn’t know it from the Wisconsin State Assembly, where Republicans hold 65 percent of the seats, a bigger majority than Republican legislators enjoy in conservative states like Texas and Kentucky. The United States Supreme Court is trying to understand how that happened. On Tuesday, the justices heard oral arguments in Gill v. Whitford, reviewing a three-judge panel’s determination that Wisconsin’s Republican-drawn district map is so flagrantly gerrymandered that it denies Wisconsinites their full right to vote. Read more from the New York Times.