Strengthen and Weaken Practice Test

Passage:

Some legal scholars argue that “sunset clauses” in legislation—provisions that cause a law to expire unless renewed—improve democratic accountability by forcing periodic reconsideration. The reasoning is that sunsets prevent outdated policies from persisting by inertia and require legislators to justify continuation in light of new evidence. Proponents also claim that sunsets can reduce the influence of emergency-driven lawmaking by ensuring that extraordinary measures are temporary unless affirmatively endorsed.

Critics respond that sunsets can create uncertainty that undermines long-term planning, especially for regulated industries and public agencies. They also argue that renewal votes can become perfunctory, with legislators extending laws without meaningful review. In addition, sunsets may empower small factions to extract concessions by threatening to block renewal of widely supported programs.

A conditional defense holds that sunsets enhance accountability chiefly when renewal procedures are structured to promote genuine evaluation—for example, by requiring impact assessments, public hearings, and clear criteria for reauthorization. In such cases, the sunset functions as a trigger for deliberation rather than as a mere deadline. Without these procedural supports, sunsets may increase instability without improving oversight.

Thus, the value of sunset clauses depends on whether institutional design transforms renewal into substantive review.

Which one of the following, if true, would most strengthen the author's argument?

A public policy analyst argues that open data portals maintained by municipal governments increase government accountability primarily by enabling independent oversight. The analyst claims that when budgets, procurement contracts, and performance metrics are published in machine-readable formats, journalists, researchers, and civic groups can detect irregularities and publicize them, thereby pressuring officials to correct mismanagement. The analyst concedes that simply posting data does not guarantee use, but maintains that the marginal cost of oversight falls dramatically once data are standardized and accessible. The analyst concludes that cities that implement robust open data portals will tend to experience fewer instances of wasteful spending over time.

Some observers counter that open data initiatives often focus on low-stakes datasets while leaving the most consequential information unpublished or difficult to interpret. The analyst replies that portal quality varies and that robust portals are precisely those that prioritize high-value datasets.

Which one of the following, if true, would most weaken the author's argument?