The Recovery Act is Working

Thirty-eight of fifty-four economists can't be wrong. That's the number of economists who, in a recent survey by the Wall Street Journal ($), said that "the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act boosted growth and mitigated job losses." In other words, 70 percent of economists think that the Recovery Act has helped the nation. Looks like somebody's been reading the many, many official reports which have repeatedly said the exact same thing. But I guess something just isn't true until a majority of randomly selected Ph.Ds say it, right?

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Sunshine Week 2010 Webcast TODAY @ Noon

On his first full day in office, President Obama committed his Administration "to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government." To help meet that goal, the Administration has issued an Open Government Directive and a new Memorandum on Freedom of Information Act and Attorney General Guidelines. The Administration has also launched an expansive effort to open up data to developers, advocates, and the public via Data.gov. Join OpenTheGovernment.org for this three panel event to hear our panelists -- transparency experts from inside and outside government-- discuss these initiatives and their effect on the public. Panelists will also take questions from the live and viewing audience.  Watch live here.

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Senate Rejects Arbitrary Budget Caps

Thanks in no small part to the 1,146 emails you sent in the past 48 hours, the Senate just voted down the Sessions-McCaskill amendment, which would have instituted draconian discretionary budget caps for the next three fiscal years. The amendment lost on a 56-40 vote, failing to reach the 60-vote margin it needed by only four votes.

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White House Increasing Pressure over Invalid Rules

Federal rulemaking agencies continue to fail to submit new regulations to Congress, potentially invalidating them, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Congressional Research Service (CRS).

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Boeing Border Fence on Indefinite Hold

The Wall

The political circus pamphlet the POLITICO recently reported that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has halted development of Boeing's disastrous and budget-bloated Southwest border fence project known as SBInet. Napolitano noted in a press release on the matter that the fence project, which uses an intricate system of sensors and cameras, "has been plagued with cost overruns and missed deadlines."

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Rulemaking and the Open Government Agenda

It’s Sunshine Week, which means it’s as good a time as any to talk about rulemaking transparency.

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Keep the Pressure on the Senate

We're hearing that the vote on the Sessions-McCaskill amendment will happen today at 5 (EDT). If you haven't done so yet, send a letter to your Senators and tell them that arbitrary limitations on federal spending is terrible budget-making. Take action now!

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Who's Answering the Phones at the IRS?

Hello...is anybody In There...Just Nod if You Can Hear me

Have you recently tried calling the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to ask a question about your taxes? If you have, there's a good chance that the IRS never picked up. If you were lucky enough for your call to go through, you likely spent about 12 minutes on hold before you spoke to an IRS representative. National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson highlighted these and other problems faced by taxpayers when she testified at a hearing this afternoon in front of the Oversight Subcommittee of the House Committee on Ways and Means.

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Tell the Senate to Vote No on Disastrous Discretionary Spending Caps

In what looks like an attempt to out-fiscal-hawk President Obama, Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) have introduced an amendment that would impose strict limits on discretionary spending for the next three years. The amendment sets limits far lower than Obama's already low budget proposal, and it even includes a cap on defense discretionary spending, something the President's proposal does not do. Such caps would result in drastic cuts to many vital economic safety net programs and public protection agencies, negatively impacting the lives of millions of Americans. And while the two senators claim that the amendment will reduce the deficit, in reality, because discretionary spending is so little of the federal budget, the amendment's deficit-reducing effects will be minimal.

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President Obama's Forecast - Sunshine with More to Come

President Obama just made a statement on Sunshine Week applauding the work done so far to make the government more transparent and recommitting his administration to be the most open and transparent.  The statement highlights some of the accomplishments the administration has already racked up in this area including Data.gov, Recovery.gov and Executive Order on Classification.  The President also states that while they "are proud of these accomplishment" that the "work is not done." This reality of progress being made but more still being needed is reflected in two reports released for Sunshine Week. 

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