Journalist Glenn Greenwald, who along with other journalists at The Guardian and the Washington Post was recently awarded the Pulitzer Prize for their reporting on the National Security Agency, visited the Cato Institute to record an extended podcast and videocast about his new book, No Place to Hide:  Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State. The book and podcast recount his meetings with Edward Snowden, the broader implications of the NSA’s surveillance, and offers new information on the NSA’s unprecedented abuse of power.

President Obama on Wednesday visited the Tappan Zee Bridge in New York as part of an effort to get Congress to approve billions of dollars in new infrastructure spending to avoid a “transportation cliff.” However, Cato scholars Randal O’Toole and Chris Edwards suggest that new spending will do little for citizens and commuters, and instead argue that the government should reduce spending and downsize the federal role in transportation.

• “The Right Way to Avoid the Transportation Cliff,” by Randal O’Toole
• “Rethinking Federal Highway and Transit Funding,” Testimony by Chris Edwards
• “More Infrastructure? Cut Business Taxes,” by Chris Edwards

Despite the fact that many states have passed bills banning the implementation of the 2005 REAL ID Act, the federal government continues to fund the program each year in the Department of Homeland Security appropriation bills. In a new paper, Cato scholar Jim Harper reviews state-by-state implementation of the United States’ national ID law. “Federally, REAL ID is moribund, if not dead,” says Harper. “However, the state-by-state status check reveals that it is by no means dead at the state level, and so opponents of a U.S. national ID system must remain vigilant.”

• “REAL ID: State-by-State Update,” by Jim Harper

In the United States, parents send about 10 percent of elementary and secondary school-age children to private schools. By paying out of pocket for their children’s private education, these families relieve a financial burden on local, state, and federal taxpayers, who would otherwise have to fund the public education of these children. In a new brief, Andrew Samwick examines one way to offset this externality: allow a tax deduction for parents who send their children to private schools, in the amount of the per pupil expenditure in their local public schools.

• “Donating the Voucher: An Alternative Tax Treatment of Private School Enrollment,” by Andrew Samwick