RTP's Fourth Branch Podcast

Hawaii leads the nation in high housing prices. Experts Ted Kefalas and Jonathan Helton from Grassroot Institute explain the regulatory obstacles to building sufficient housing for Hawaiians, and regulatory reform efforts that could increase the housing supply. It has been over 18 months since the fires that nearly destroyed the town of Lahaina in Maui County, Hawaii. Since that time, thousands of commercial and residential properties have been destroyed or damaged, and only 6 houses have been rebuilt. In this segment, Kefalas and Helton discuss the legal and regulatory hurdles that have prevented Hawaiians to rebuild their destroyed homes and businesses, and proposals that could help facilitate rebuilding. In the final segment, the experts discuss what lessons California could learn from Hawaii's experience to ensure that Angelinos do not experience the same slow rebuild after the Pacific Palisades Fire.

Artificial Intelligence has been rapidly brought to the forefront of the public conversation in recent months. President Trump has pledged to support AI innovation, while the newly-established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been working to streamline government processes through AI. Join our panel of experts, including Dhruva Krishna, Dr. Megan Ma, and Kevin Fraizer, for a discussion on the benefits and legal ramifications of incorporating AI into government.

The 2025 Pacific Palisades Fire has underscored the challenges of building in California’s complex regulatory landscape. In response, Governor Newsom issued an executive order suspending CEQA and Coastal Act requirements to expedite reconstruction, raising important questions about the future of development in the state. In this podcast, experts Jeremy Talcott and Donald Kochan examine California's regulatory environment before the disaster and the broader implications of its permitting processes in the effort to rebuild. Join us for an in-depth discussion on balancing efficient recovery with long-term regulatory considerations.

Since its inception, the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program has been contentiously debated. For example, several pharmaceutical manufacturers filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) challenging the program’s constitutionality. This webinar will discuss whether the Biden Administration’s implementation and interpretation of the IRA go beyond Congress’s intent or constitutional boundaries. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently issued a statement that the Trump Administration is committed to “incorporating lessons learned to date from the program and considering opportunities to bring greater transparency in the Negotiation Program. CMS intends to provide opportunities for stakeholders to provide specific ideas to improve the Negotiation Program, consistent with the goals of achieving greater value for beneficiaries and taxpayers while continuing to foster innovation.” Accordingly, this webinar discusses whether the Trump Administration may pause the program and whether Congress should repeal the program. Featuring: (Moderator) John Shu, Attorney and Legal Commentator Jeff Stier, Senior Fellow, Conumer Choice Center and Taxpayers Protection Alliance Dan Troy, Managing Director, Berkeley Research Group

On January 22, 2025, newly-elected President Trump announced a widespread project to invest $500 billion in American AI development, known as “Stargate.” A few days later, a new Chinese AI chatbot program “DeepSeek” was launched to the shock of US tech investors.What do these new developments mean for the AI dominance race? What will the changing global and trade relations signify for AI innovation and production? Join us for a discussion on these and other updates to the international AI conversation, featuring Neil Chilson from the Abundance Institute, and John Villasenor from Brookings, and moderated by Ashkhen Kazaryan from Stand Together.

Linda Chavez, Chairman for the Center for Equal Opportunity, moderates a discussion between the Heritage Foundation’s Senior Legal Fellow, GianCarlo Canaparo and Dan Morenoff, Executive Director of the American Civil Rights Project. They discuss President Trump’s orders relating to civil rights enforcement and discrimination (including discrimination touted as serving “diversity,” “equity,” “inclusion,” “accessibility,” and “environmental justice,” among others).

On January 15, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments for Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton, a case involving Texas H.B. 1181, which is a law that imposes an age-verification requirement for adult sexual content websites. While content filtering has been used in the past by parents to regulate their children’s access to adult websites, the rapid advancement of technology in the past 20 years has raised concerns about the success of content filtering. The age verification requirement poses a more effective alternative, but if implemented, it could have implications for privacy concerns and free speech rights. Jennifer Huddleston from the Cato Institute is joined by Clare Morell of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Bailey Sanchez of the Future of Privacy Forum, and Shoshana Weissmann of the R Street Policy Institute, to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of age verification laws, the policy implications of H.B. 1181, and the potential outcome of the Supreme Court case.

In November 2024, Spirit Airlines filed for bankruptcy after a federal judge blocked their proposed merger with JetBlue Airlines earlier that year. Far from simply impacting travel plans, however, the failed merger shows the Federal Trade Commission's recent focus on efficiency. Former FTC General Counsel Alden Abbott joins the podcast to discuss the antitrust background of the case, and whether such federal interference actually benefits consumer competition.

President-elect Trump has announced that entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a new Department of Government Efficiency “to cut the federal government down to size.” In a Wall Street Journal op-ed last month, Musk and Ramaswamy promised DOGE would yield “a drastic reduction in federal regulations” that would pave the way for “mass head-count reductions across the federal bureaucracy.” So far, however, there are questions about the specifics of how the new president would nullify thousands of regulations.Hon. Susan Dudley discusses what the future of DOGE may look like in an article for Forbes and a second piece in the Wall Street Journal. In addition, Prof. Nicholas Bagley discusses DOGE in his article for The Atlantic.Please join us on December 19 at 3 PM EST, as this panel will provide a practical overview of how DOGE might operate to reduce regulations, and the opportunities and challenges it will face.Featuring: Hon. Susan Dudley (Moderator), Founder, GW Regulatory Studies Center & Distinguished Professor of Practice Trachtenberg School of Public Policy & Public Administration, George Washington UniversityProf. Nicholas Bagley, Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law SchoolProf. Christopher Walker, Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School

President-elect Trump has announced that entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a new Department of Government Efficiency (“DOGE”). In a Wall Street Journal op-ed this past November, the pair explained that they have a sweeping mandate to cut the overreaching contra-constitutional federal bureaucracy “down to size” and “deliver a federal government that would make our Founders proud.” They said they will first focus on identifying executive actions that can be taken to rescind “thousands” of regulations that exceed the statutory authority of the issuing agencies. These dramatic regulatory rollbacks will support significant agency staff reductions in force and other cost-saving administrative reforms. Musk and Ramaswamy alsopromised that DOGE will cut the size and cost of government by challenging the constitutionality of the 1974 Impoundment Control Act and identifying executive actions that can be taken to materially improve the cost-effectiveness of the government’s procurement process.The panel discussion in Part One of this program, Department of Government Efficiency: Opportunities and Challenges (Part I) discussed the main challenges that DOGE will face as it attempts to fulfill its sweeping mandate within the eighteen-month time limit set for the task. These challenges include the certainty that widespread resistance to DOGE will be mounted by interests benefitting from the status quo, the complexity and length of the typically contested process required to rescind existing regulations, and the strength of the widely held conflicting belief that administrative reform efforts should be focused on improving regulation rather than simply eliminating regulation. Part II of this program will continue a discussion of the challenges that DOGE will face, and will also identify some specific executive actions that could mitigate at least some of these challenges. Featuring: Abhishek Kambli, Deputy Attorney General, Office of the Kansas Attorney GeneralJ. Kennerly Davis, Senior Attorney, Former Deputy Attorney General for Virginia(Moderator) Casey Mattox, Vice President, Legal Strategy, Stand Together