This "Washington Insider" column first appeared in the March/April 2012 edition of The Maritime Executive. As the buildup to a full-fledged presidential campaign dominates the nation’s media, lawmakers and policymakers in the nation’s capitol returned
to the nitty-gritty details of governing. Having achieved bipartisan agreement on the overall level of federal spending, the intricate decision-making of actually implementing fiscal restraint has begun
in earnest. Meanwhile, debate also swirls around controversial regulatory initiatives advanced by the Obama Administration.