I'm spending the summer in Washington, DC, which makes sense for someone interested in administrative law.  I'm a DC veteran, too; before I went into academia, I litigated on behalf of DOJ.  DC is a great place for lawyers and people interested in law ... but it is different than the city you live in.

• Last night and the night before that I found myself talking about the energy bill on the floor of the Senate (surprisingly efficient overview here, given that it's an editorial from the Post, the big money issue is the likely increase in fuel efficiency standards through the CAFE process to fleet averages of 35 mpg).  Once to a reporter on its prospects for passage, and once for a "blue-green" (that means union-environmentalist) coalition lobbyist on a part of the bill of particular interest to them.
• I also met someone recently back from Guantanamo, who is keeping an eye on the sputtering military tribunal process there.
• And I'm getting into the feverish interest by trade-related businesses in the House and the Senate's competing bills authorizing (in a likely WTO-inconsistent way) countervailing measures  (i.e., tariffs) against countries with "misaligned" currencies.  This began with China, but now, much to the consternation of many a well-heeled lobbyist, the legislation might apply to Japan as well.  The bills both follow the traditional trade paradigm: a Congress that is more protectionist than the President, as my inside-baseball tip sheet notes: 
<>

to the     surprise of no one, Treasury this morning refused, again, to "cite"     China     for the currency misalignment the Administration has been complaining about     for the past several years. Treasury says it is "unable to     determine that China's     exchange rate policy was carried out for the puspose of preventing     effective balance of paymentsd adjustment or gaining unfair competitive     advantage in international trade."... USTR this afternoon rejected the     House Ways & Means petition (signed by 42 lawmakers) to go after the     RMB with a 1988 Trade Act Section 301 case. "We do not believe that this     Section 301 petition is likely to be the most productive way to secure     Chinese movement towards currency flexibility,'' U.S. Trade     Representative Susan Schwab said in a statement.

Only in DC, kids, only in DC. Yesterday, I was learning some of this from an impromptu workspace in the young adult section of the Cleveland Park branch of the DC public library.  Does that sound weird?  It was the only part of the building with free outlets.  Perhaps next week I'll seek advice about how to be productive when one's office is more virtual than tangible - say, when one is on the road for the summer. 

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