Federal Appropriations Research Articles

Mapping Spatiotemporal Disparities in Residential Electricity Inequality Using Machine Learning.

The move toward electrification is critical for decarbonizing the energy sector but may exacerbate energy unaffordability without proper safeguards. Addressing this challenge requires capturing neighborhood-scale dynamics to uncover the blind spots in residential electricity inequality. Based on publicly available, multisourced remote sensing and census data, we develop a high-resolution, spatiotemporally explicit machine learning (ML) framework to predict tract-level monthly electricity consumption across the conterminous U.S. from 2013-2020. We then construct the electricity affordability gap (EAG) metric, defined as the gap between electricity bills and 3% of household income, to better identify energy-vulnerable communities over space and time. The results show that our framework largely improves the resolution of electricity consumption data while achieving an R2 of 0.82 compared to the Low-Income Energy Affordability Data (LEAD). We estimate an annual $16.18 billion economic burden on the ability to afford electricity bills, exceeding current federal appropriations in alleviating energy difficulties. We also observe pronounced seasonal and urban-rural disparities, with monthly EAG in summer and winter being 2-3 times greater than other seasons and rural residents facing burdens up to 1.7 times higher than their urban counterparts. These insights inform equitable electrification by addressing spatiotemporal mismatches and multiple jurisdictional challenges in energy justice efforts.

Treating abandoned mine drainage can protect streams cost effectively and benefit vulnerable communities

Some communities endure environmental hazards from abandoned mines and job loss from the energy transition away from coal. Recent US legislation provides a historic appropriation for abandoned mine hazards like the acidic water that often drains from them. Who the investment will benefit and what it will accomplish is unclear. Here we provide answers for the case of abandoned mine drainage in Pennsylvania. We find that communities most exposed to mine drainage have incomes 30 percent below that of unaffected communities and are twice as vulnerable to the energy transition. Within affected communities, exposure is associated with a greater urban, non-white, renter population. Analytical modeling using data from past treatment efforts shows that they have been relatively cost effective, protecting streams for about $5700 per kilometer per year. Federal appropriations for Pennsylvania could address all impaired streams for 25 years but would leave insufficient funding for other abandoned mine hazards.

U.S. Federal Nutrition Policy and the Legal Geographies of Precision Welfare

Produce prescriptions are nutrition incentive programs that focus on specific populations diagnosed with chronic diseases. Since 2010 these programs have multiplied across the United States, with much of this growth attributed to expanded federal funding in the 2014 and 2018 Farm Bills. Framed as both “commonsense” solutions and a novel approach to food access and public health, they have been institutionalized within the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program. Although framed as novel, prescriptions and dietary interventions are not new areas within nutrition policy. This article brings nutrition policy into the realm of legal geographic inquiry to examine how recent federal appropriations relate to not only social anxieties over diet and nutrition, but historical and contemporary concerns over public use of, and government spending on, federal benefit programs for targeted populations. This examination expands legal geographies literature through discussions of the “body” within law and how federal power comes to govern specific contexts. It argues we are seeing a new enclosure of federal benefits through the precision welfare of targeting individual bodies and their metabolic functions.

A Narrative Analysis of Federal Appropriations for Research and Development

A Narrative Analysis of Federal Appropriations for Research and Development

ACCESS TO JUSTICE

ACCESS TO JUSTICE

АМЕРИКАНСЬКА МОДЕЛЬ ОРГАНІЗАЦІЇ ДЕРЖАВНОГО ФІНАНСОВОГО КОНТРОЛЮ: ПЕРСПЕКТИВИ АДАПТАЦІЇ В УКРАЇНІ

The article analyzes the practice of state financial control in the USA. The author highlighted the experience of implementing organizational mechanisms of state financial control of an economically developed state and investigated the powers of its controlling bodies. The practice of standardization of control in the USA is disclosed, the characteristics of the main standards of state control are presented. The American system of state financial control is characterized by the practice of applying control standards, which include: principles of formation and approval of federal appropriations laws; generally accepted standards of state audit; standards of internal control in federal executive bodies; methodical manual for state financial audit; a guide to assessing the compliance of necessary costs with planned results. The essence of administrative-budgetary management is revealed and its impact on the state of the state's financial system as a whole is determined. Administrative-budgetary management includes the development and implementation of the budget; federal procurement management, financial management and information technology; presidential decrees and memoranda; regulatory policy, including coordination and review of all significant federal regulations by executive agencies; submission of recommendations to the president on legislative issues. As a result of the generalization of world practice regarding the implementation of state financial control, directions for adapting foreign experience of state financial control into domestic practice are proposed, which will contribute to the effective use of state financial resources and the development of the system of control bodies. Thus, the conducted analysis shows that the state financial control bodies in the USA take an active part in the management of state finances. In their activities, they adhere to the principles of independence, objectivity and transparency.

Expanding advocacy for community college success

AbstractCommunity colleges serve the largest percentage of under‐represented, under‐prepared, and under‐resourced students yet they are often underfunded in state budgets. This article demonstrates challenges and opportunities for community college leaders in state and federal political advocacy from the perspective of a community college state system leader, a national community college trustee leader, a Washington, DC attorney advocating for community college consortium initiatives, and a university researcher. Drawing from the American Association for Community Colleges (AACC) third edition of the Competencies for Community College Leaders, the article frames discussion of advocacy within leadership development. The purpose of the article is to equip community college leaders with strategic knowledge for advocacy in local, state, and federal political contexts to expand fiscal resources. The article details recent developments in community college consortium building for targeted federal funding and a recent shift in federal policy allowing earmarks in federal appropriations.

Adult Protective Service's Role in Addressing Older and Dependent Adult Abuse in the Age of COVID.

In the United States, Adult Protective Services (APS) exist in every state and territory. APS is the only government agency dedicated to addressing older and dependent adult abuse- from the reception and investigation of abuse, assessment of client's service needs, to coordination of healthcare, social, and legal services (1). Most APS programs investigate self-neglect, neglect, physical, emotional (or psychological), sexual, and financial abuse. A smaller number of programs also investigate other types of abuse, such as suspicious death and abandonment (2). All APS programs investigate abuse allegations in the client's home or in a private residence. In 38 states, APS programs also investigate abuse allegations in some types of residential care facilities, such as nursing homes or assisted living facilities. While all APS programs serve older adults age 60 or 65 and above, some programs also serve younger adults with disabilities (3). A range of professionals make up the APS workforce. Although the majority have social work backgrounds, others come from the healthcare and criminal justice sectors [e.g., (4)]. The lack of federal appropriations historically has resulted in variations in state APS programs. APS was developed following the enactment of Title XX of the Social Security Act, now part of the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG). Protective services for children and adults is one of many categories covered by SSBG, but each state has discretion in determining how much funding is to be used in each category (5). APS programs in 37 states opt to use SSBG to finance their APS program to one degree or another. Despite the 2010 enactment of the Elder Justice Act authorizing formula grant funding to states to support their APS programs, no appropriations were provided for this purpose. Apart from the use of SSBG funding for APS, states rely upon state general revenue funds to finance older and dependent adult abuse investigations. The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) added fuel to the fire of older and dependent adult abuse. Preventive measures, such as self-quarantining, aim to decrease the risk of COVID-19 infection. However, being isolated is a risk factor of abuse (6), creating a catch-22 for this population. A recent study found an 83.6% increase in 1-year abuse prevalence for adults age 60 and older (7). Researchers also voiced concern about abuse against people with disabilities during the pandemic (8). Although 63% of states reported having APS emergency preparedness plans in place before COVID-19, most address challenges brought by natural disasters instead of a pandemic (9). Most older and dependent adult subject to abuse require home-based long-term services and supports, which in itself is a risk factor for COVID-19. Negative physical and psychological health comorbidities as a result of abuse also increase the risk of COVID-19 infection (10, 11). As Han and Mosqueda (12) publicly identified APS as the government agency that protects older adults during the pandemic, this opinion describes APS work during the pandemic, highlighting how the workforce adapted to pandemic related changes to continue protecting older and dependent abuse survivors.

Designing an Interstate Compact for a Pandemic Testing Board

Analysts have recently focused their attention on two pathways for the United States to reopen prior to the development of a vaccine for COVID-19. The first is to accept a series of rolling openings and closings: reopening as infection rates decrease, then reclosing as they rise again due to increased interac- tions. This approach is generally thought to be enormously costly economically and socially, as people will be kept in their homes and commerce restrained for considerable amounts of time. The second approach is to massively ramp up the production of testing, either through a universal testing regime (which would require capacity to test all 300+ million Americans every week or two) or a system of testing, tracing, and supported isolation (which would require testing 5 million Americans a day, plus tracing those who were in contact with the infected and isolating them). The testing pathway would enable the United States to reopen without having to close repeatedly and it would, as a result, save billions of dollars. The problem is that we do not have the number of tests necessary to pursue a testing pathway to reopening. Scaling up testing presents a variety of challenges -- including supply of the underlying materials within the supply chain; coordination problems that link supply to demand; and personnel and plans for how to deploy millions of tests per day. One solution to these challenges, which the Harvard Roadmap for Pandemic Resilience has outlined, is to establish a single coordinating body—a Pandemic Testing Board—to be tasked with ensuring the necessary supply of tests, deploying those tests, and facilitating a tracing program. There are two ways to design this body. It could be a federal government institution, part of the Executive Branch. Or it could be built through an interstate compact, with federal appropriations but not federal administration. This paper offers a blueprint for how to design a pandemic testing board via an interstate compact.

Dietary Postbiotics Reduced Cytotoxicity and IL-1 Cytokine Release Induced by Crystalline Silica in Lipopolysaccharide-Primed Macrophages

Abstract Objectives Inhalation of crystalline silica (cSiO2) has been linked to the pathogenesis of human autoimmunity such as systemic lupus erythematosus. Alveolar macrophages (MΦ) are a major site of inflammasome activated release of pro-inflammatory cytokines, thus plays a vital role in the onset and progression of lupus. Diet supplemented with probiotics have been shown to decrease disease severity. The model used was the murine macrophage RAW 264.7 cell line (WT) and RAW 264.7 stably transfected with the inflammasome adapter protein ASC (RAW-ASC) as WT lacks a functional inflammasome. cSiO2 elicits robust inflammasome activation and IL-1β release in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-primed RAW-ASC cells. We hypothesize that probiotic-associated cell-free fraction (postbiotics) could decrease cSiO2-induced cytotoxicity in MΦ and suppress pro-inflammatory IL-1 cytokines release. Methods Lactobacillus rhamnosus (LGG), L. reuteri (REU), and Bifidobacterium lactis (BB12) were grown in de Man, Rogosa and Sharpe (MRS) broth. Postbiotics were collected and filtered between OD 1.0–3.0. RAW-ASC and WT cells were primed with LPS, stimulated with cSiO2 and treated with postbiotics or MRS control. Cytotoxicity and IL-1 cytokine release was measured by an Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) assay and ELISA, respectively. Results Postbiotics obtained at OD 3.0 exhibited greatest protective effect on cSiO2-induced cytotoxicity compared to OD 1.0 and 2.0. RAW-ASC stimulated with cSiO2 produced robust IL-1β release (272.8 ± 20.9 pg/mL) compared to WT (70.67 ± 9.6 pg/mL). Postbiotics obtained from LGG, REU, and BB12 grown to OD 1.0–3.0 decreased IL-1β release from RAW-ASC. LGG-associated postbiotics from all ODs reduced IL-1β release in WT. However, postbiotics obtained from BB12 at OD 3.0 but not OD 1.0 and 2.0 decreased IL-1β release. Interestingly, only REU postbiotics reduced IL-1α release in RAW-ASC while LGG and BB12 did not alter IL-1α production in both cell lines. Conclusions Dietary postbiotics can protect against cSiO2-induced cytotoxicity in MΦ. Postbiotics from LGG and BB12 down-regulated release of IL-1β but not IL-1α. We propose that the RAW-ASC cell model is a robust model to study mechanisms by which dietary constituents can activate or suppress inflammasome function. Funding Sources This work was supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Federal Appropriations.

Docosahexaenoic Acid Supplementation Alters Gut Microbial Populations in Silica-Triggered Lupus-Prone NZBWF1 Mice Fed the Total Western Diet

Abstract Objectives Inhalation of crystalline silica (Si) has been linked to the pathogenesis of human autoimmunity such as lupus. Dietary lipid intervention can delay progression of Si-induced autoimmunity in the lupus-prone female NZBWF1 mice. However, the role of gut microbiome relative to dietary lipids and Si-induced autoimmunity is unknown. We seek to ask whether Si-induced pathogenicity and supplementation of a Western diet with DHA can alter gut microbial populations. Methods Four experimental diets were used in this study: modified Total Western Diet (MTWD), MTWD supplemented with DHA (↑DHA), MTWD with reduced saturated and ω-6 fatty acids (↓SFω6), and MTWD with ↓SFω6 and ↑DHA (↓SFω6/↑DHA). Groups of mice (n = 8/gp) were fed one of the four isocaloric experimental diets beginning at 6 wks of age. After 2 wks, mice were anesthetized and intranasally instilled with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) or Si in PBS. DNA obtained from fecal pellets for gut microbiome analysis was collected from an individual mouse at 13 (early-phase) and 22 (late-phase) wks of age. DNA was extracted and sequenced on the Illumina MiSeq platform. The relative abundance of microbial taxa was differentiated by pairwise comparisons using ANalysis of COmposition of Microbiomes (ANCOM), Linear Mixed model (LM), and LDA Effect Size (LEfSe). Results Lupus triggering by Si with dietary lipid intervention caused a significant difference in Lachnospiraceae bacterium 609 (Lb609) abundance depending on the stringency of analysis frameworks. Under early-phase data, Lb609 was significantly found to be higher in the group of Si-exposed MTWD (MTWD/Si) than all other groups in LefSe analysis (LDA score >3). LM showed the same results except the comparison between MTWD/Si and ↓SFω6 (FDR-adjust P > 0.05). In the results of ANCOM, Lb609 in MTWD/Si was only significantly different from the groups of PBS-exposed MTWD (MTWD/PBS) and ↓SFω6+↑DHA. Although Lb609 was identified discriminatively between MTWD/Si and MTWD/PBS in all analyses from late-phase data, it was not differential in other comparisons. Conclusions Lupus triggering altered microbial composition reflected in increased Lb609 and decreased when supplementation was applied. Further, the studies revealed that interventions on microbial populations were dependent on time. Funding Sources The USDA National Institute of Food and Federal Appropriations.

Budgets versus Bans: How U.S. Law Restricts Germline Gene Editing.

In late 2019, He Jiankui, the Chinese scientist who created the world's first gene-edited babies, and two embryologists were sentenced to prison and fined. Thirteen months earlier, when the world first learned about the experiment, He and his colleagues drew swift and nearly uniform international condemnation for prematurely moving to human trials, for the risks they took with the children's health, and for He's secrecy. The organizing committee for the second genome editing summit said the experiment failed to conform with international norms." In the United States, the legal picture is complex. No doubt the specific experiment He performed would have run afoul of long-standing research regulations due to its problems with informed consent and ethical review. But other laws also affect this kind of work, in particular, a budget rider that for the past four years has been included in federal appropriations legislation.

Competition Between Public and Private Education: Evidence from the Great Recession

This paper asks whether funding for public schools affects parents' decision to send their children to private schools. In the wake of the Great Recession, funding for public K-12 education fell precipitously in the United States and stayed low for several years. Critically, states with greater historical reliance on state appropriations (rather than local or federal appropriations) and states with no income tax experienced larger cuts. These two features were set decades before the Great Recession, changed little over time, and do not predict other impacts of the Recession, such as unemployment, providing plausibly exogenous sources for variation in public school funding. I combine these two sources with the timing of the Great Recession in an event study framework to instrument for local public school funding. I find that students exposed to a $1,000 (9.0 percent) decrease in per-pupil funding are more likely to enroll in private schools by 0.48 to 0.59 percentage points (4.5 to 5.6 percent). I show further that the effect is strongest among high socioeconomic status students living in disadvantaged areas. These findings suggest that reductions in public school resources lead to greater inequality in education through school choice.

The 2019 Partial Government Shutdown and Its Impact on Health Care for American Indians and Alaska Natives.

The 2018-9 partial government shutdown created a 35-day gap in federal appropriations for the Indian Health Service and tribal health programs. With ongoing challenges for American Indian and Alaska Native health systems, including clinician shortages and poor health outcomes, the funding gap engendered substantial health risks. Other federal health systems have been sheltered from this and past shutdowns through receiving their appropriations in advance. Several approaches exist to implementing advance appropriations, including instituting advance appropriations across Bureau of Indian Affairs and Indian Health Service programs; or by moving Indian Health Service funding to the same appropriation as the Department of Health and Human Services. Furthermore, building and strengthening health partnerships with non-federal institutions, such as academic medical centers, may help distribute financial risk and strengthen care systems.

The Chief Justiceship of William Howard Taft, 1921–1930 by Jonathan Lurie

Reviewed by: The Chief Justiceship of William Howard Taft, 1921–1930 by Jonathan Lurie John Thomas McGuire The Chief Justiceship of William Howard Taft, 1921–1930. By Jonathan Lurie. Chief Justiceships of the United States Supreme Court. (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2019. Pp. xiv, 255. $49.99, ISBN 978-1-61117-987-3.) It is easy to remember the legal groundbreakers who served as chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, such as John Marshall and Earl Warren. More difficult is considering chief justices who made substantial, if not Newtonian-like, contributions to U.S. legal history. In 1970 constitutional scholars and legal historians ranked William Howard Taft, holder of the office from 1921 through 1930, as “near great,” according to Henry J. Abraham (Justices, Presidents, and Senators: A History of the U.S. Supreme Court Appointments from Washington to Bush II [Lanham, Md., [End Page 510] 2008], p. 374). Even so, scholars still tend to see Taft more as the reluctant United States president, not as the surprisingly crafty chief justice. This new book by Jonathan Lurie demonstrates why Taft deserves his judicial reputation, and it strikes an admirable balance between an individual assessment and an explanation of historical context. The two major strengths of The Chief Justiceship of William Howard Taft, 1921–1930 lie in its persuasive demonstration of both Taft’s political shrewdness and his collegial stewardship of his eight fellow justices. Taft not only lobbied his fellow Ohioan and recently elected president Warren G. Harding to appoint him chief justice in 1921, but Taft also influenced Harding’s subsequent Supreme Court appointments, particularly that of Taft’s old friend (and the more legally influential justice) George A. Sutherland. In addition, Lurie shows how Taft crafted a successful strategy for the passage of the Judiciary Act of 1925, or Judges’ Bill, which granted the nation’s highest court its right to determine cases by writ of certiorari. While the bill presented no controversy, Taft carefully relied on a coalition of justices to testify before Congress how the new method could preserve principles of efficiency and equity. Moreover, despite his increasing ill health after the mid-1920s, Taft still played a considerable part in garnering federal appropriations for the current Supreme Court building. Lurie also demonstrates how Taft preserved substantial majorities for Supreme Court decisions through a mixture of outward affability and well-placed pressures. The chief justice tolerated Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.’s penchant for dissent, in return for his colleague’s eagerness to write majority opinions, and Louis Brandeis’s legally scrupulous, if sometimes lengthily written, objections. Taft’s successful relationship with Brandeis becomes more remarkable when one considers Taft’s vociferous opposition to Brandeis’s confirmation in 1916. Taft even maintained civility with the notoriously disagreeable and inept James C. McReynolds. As Lurie shows, Taft’s great administrative successes as chief justice lay partially in his pleasure in serving as a federal judge and partially in a diverse career of legal administrative expertise, including service as the solicitor general of the United States and on a federal appellate court. Despite the overall positive assessment of Taft’s chief justiceship, Lurie also shows how Taft adopted a King Lear–like persona in his later years on the Court, as he sensed future difficulties with his beloved conservative legal classicism. Taft privately denounced Holmes, Brandeis, and new colleague Harlan Fiske Stone in 1929 as “‘Bolsheviki,’” a sad reminder of how personal difficulties can trump professional considerations (p. 208). This reviewer must note two caveats. Epigrammatic Holmes certainly was, but the constant use of the word becomes a bit wearying. Additionally, while the explanations of the Taft Court’s jurisprudential breakthroughs are enlightening, one sometimes feels lost in the sea of details. Still, The Chief Justiceship of William Howard Taft is an exemplary effort that demonstrates how Taft made his mark as an excellent, if not great, chief justice of the United States. [End Page 511] John Thomas McGuire Siena College Copyright © 2020 The Southern Historical Association

Political Entrepreneurs and Pork-Barrel Spending

Pork-barrel spending is the use of federal money for localized projects that yield only a narrow geographic benefit. It is a commonly held belief that politicians use this spending to improve their chances of re-election. One way that an incumbent can increase their chances of re-election is through increased fundraising. Political entrepreneurs see this opportunity and attempt to benefit from these projects in exchange for campaign contributions. This paper investigates whether incumbents are able to use their position to bolster their campaign contributions. I find pork-barrel spending and political contributions to be positively related, but this effect is only present when the incumbent properly times the project. I also find that general federal appropriations do not have the same impact. This supports the claim that pork-barrel spending can be used as a currency in the marketplace for political capital.

Addressing Declining Appropriations for Bureau of Reclamation Infrastructure: Policies Needed for Enabling Private Finance

AbstractWestern water infrastructure was funded in the early and mid‐20th Century through federal financing through the Bureau of Reclamation. Over the past 30 years, federal financing has been less forthcoming, which has been commensurate with an increase in the need for financing rehabilitation and replacement of western irrigation infrastructure. As federal appropriations have declined, there has been increased interest in alternative approaches to infrastructure including public–private partnerships (P3s), loan guarantees, or title transfer of federal infrastructure. However, two of these approaches — P3s and loan guarantees — are precluded by existing federal budgetary policies, particularly Office of Management and Budget (OMB) scoring practices. If the OMB changed its policies for P3s or loan guarantees, private capital could play an important role in recapitalizing aging Reclamation infrastructure.

The 1974 Budget Act and Federal Grants: Exploring Unintended Consequences of the Status Quo

In passing the 1974 Budget Act, Congress fundamentally reshaped the federal budgeting and appropriations process for generations to come, but along with this change came several related, unintended consequences that continue to have an impact today. The Act asserted Congressional power and independence from the Executive after a history marked with piecemeal decision-making and overriding Presidential power. Part I of this study suggested that the 1974 Budget Act decreased federal spending the years immediately following the passage – after which federal spending increased, but by less than it would have otherwise. In this paper, we consider another potential outcome: Whether the new power structure made federal grantmaking more partisan. In other words, was the Executive branch incentivized to use these grants to curry favor and encourage passage of Presidential budget priorities? We find evidence that having both Senators or the Governor in the same political party as the President has increased grants given to states after the 1974 Budget Act.

Feeding the Tribe: The Role of Soft Infrastructure in Addressing the Root Problems of the Navajo Nation San Juan River Irrigation System

Small-scale Navajo farms in northwestern New Mexico have water rights to surface water from the San Juan River, which flows through two main canals to individual farms. The potential of this irrigation system to meet the food security needs of the nation’s residents are undermined by fifty years of deferred maintenance that have left the system in disrepair and led to farm abandonment. Federal appropriations have been made and environmental approvals are nearing completion to address the physical infrastructure needs of the system. However, attention is also needed to rehabilitate the soft infrastructure to ensure timely delivery of irrigation water and allow future generations of farmers to move into farming. This article outlines the root problems of the irrigation system decline, provides a historical and institutional summary of the system, and makes suggestions for addressing the systemic problems, focusing on soft infrastructure issues. Specific soft infrastructure needs include an information system to map and track land-use permits, organization of a maintenance system, revision of governance mechanisms, and creation of academic programs targeted to meet the needs of small-scale Diné farmers.

Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM) position statement: restore CDC funding for firearms and gun violence prevention research.

The Society for Behavioral Medicine (SBM) urges restoration of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) funding for firearms and gun violence prevention research. Gun violence in the United States is an important and costly public health issue in need of research attention. Unfortunately, there have been no concerted CDC-funded research efforts in this area since 1996, due to the passage of the Dickey Amendment. To remedy the information-gathering restrictions caused by the Dickey Amendment bans, it is recommended that Congress remove 'policy riders' on federal appropriations bills that limit firearms research at the CDC; expand NVDRS firearms-related data collection efforts to include all fifty states; fund CDC research on the risk and protective factors of gun use and gun violence prevention; fund research on evidence-based primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention and treatment initiatives for communities that are seriously impacted by the effects of gun violence; and support the development of evidence-based policy and prevention recommendations for gun use and ownership.