June 2016

A new report from Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy analyzes news coverage of the 2016 presidential candidates in the year leading up to the primaries. This crucial period, labeled “the invisible primary” by political scientists, is when candidates try to lay the groundwork for a winning campaign—with media exposure often playing a make or break role. The report shows that during the year 2015, major news outlets covered Donald Trump in a way that was unusual given his low initial polling numbers—a high volume of media coverage preceded Trump’s rise in the polls. Trump’s coverage was positive in tone—he received far more “good press” than “bad press.” The volume and tone of the coverage helped propel Trump to the top of Republican polls.

The Democratic race in 2015 received less than half the coverage of the Republican race. Bernie Sanders’ campaign was largely ignored in the early months but, as it began to get coverage, it was overwhelmingly positive in tone. Sanders’ coverage in 2015 was the most favorable of any of the top candidates, Republican or Democratic. For her part, Hillary Clinton had by far the most negative coverage of any candidate. In 11 of the 12 months, her “bad news” outpaced her “good news,” usually by a wide margin, contributing to the increase in her unfavorable poll ratings in 2015.

The Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Modernization Act of 2016 (HR 5312) would amend the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991 to rename the National High-Performance Computing Program as the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Program (NITRD). That program is a multiagency research and development program dedicated to advancing information technologies, high-performance computing, and software. The legislation would direct agencies participating in NITRD to focus on further development of high-performance computing and networking.

Based on budgetary information from the agencies participating in NITRD, it appears that the program’s research focus is already shifting to those areas specified in the legislation. Therefore, CBO estimated that implementing the bill would not have a significant effect on the federal budget (In 2015, agency budgets for those activities totaled about $4.3 billion.) Enacting HR 5312 would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply. CBO estimates that enacting HR 5312 would not increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2027. HR 5312 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments.