Senate Food Safety Compromise Would Require Fewer Inspections

Yesterday, I blogged about a bipartisan compromise reached in the Senate on pending food safety legislation. Over at Food Safety News, reporter Helena Botemiller has an overview of what’s in the compromise, which takes the form of a managers’ amendment, as described by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA).

read in full

Opening Access to Federal Reports

Each year, Congress requires thousands of reports from federal agencies, containing information on nearly every conceivable aspect of government. In fact, merely the list of those reports is over 200 pages long. But there is no organized method for the public to access those reports. A new bill would change that.

read in full

Senate Leaders Strike Deal on Food Safety; Commence Breath Holding

Leading Democrats and Republicans in the Senate came to an agreement today on pending food safety legislation, Congress Daily (subscription) reports. The compromise will be introduced on the floor as a managers’ amendment to replace the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510) which was approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee in November 2009. The managers’ amendment has not yet been released, but presumably, it largely resembles S. 510.

read in full

Standard Coding Next Big Step in Contracting Oversight

A Scanner Darkly

Testifying before a Senate subcommittee last week about efforts to deploy a sophisticated fraud-prevention tool developed through the Recovery Act across all federal agencies, a government official told senators that the "biggest impediment" to successful utilization of the technology is "the lack of a...governmentwide award number system." Adoption of such a system, which would provide a universal code to government contract awards, could transform federal contracting oversight.

read in full

CBO Monthly Budget Review, July 2010

We don't have two nickels...

On Friday, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its Monthly Budget Review (MBR) for July. The review provides an assessment of the federal budget through the first ten months of fiscal year 2010. According to the CBO, we have racked up a roughly $1.2 trillion deficit so far, which is about $90 billion less than the deficit last year at this time.

read in full

Overdue OSHA Rule Will Improve Safety Conditions for Crane Workers

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is finally setting new safety standards for cranes and derrick use in the construction industry. OSHA estimates the new standards will save 22 lives and prevent 175 injuries every year.

read in full

Expiration of High-Income Tax Cuts Probably OK for the Economy

As the months slide by and the sun begins to set on the Bush Tax Cuts, a feisty debate in Congress is ensuing on which tax cuts should be kept and which should be left to expire. Although there seems to be universal support for maintaining the middle class tax cuts, there are proponents of retaining the tax cuts for those earning more than $250,000 (i.e. the 33% and 35% brackets). They allege that letting these cuts expire would stifle job creation.

read in full

Is Ben Nelson this Confused on Other Policy Issues?

'Can you tell me where I'm going?'

Connor Kenny, an editor at OpenCongress, put a great piece up on the Huffington Post yesterday. It was an analysis of the nonprofit's recent scorecard on how each senator has voted on extending unemployment benefits over the past two years. Along with discovering "a few head scratchers," the report finds "at least one irrefutable truth": "[Sen.] Ben Nelson [D-NE] has a whacked-out definition of 'fiscal responsibility.'"

read in full

FAPIIS Coming Soon to a Computer near You

Old Computer

When President Obama signed this year's supplemental appropriations bill, he delivered a big win for the good government community, as a little known transparency amendment attached to the bill became law. The amendment, introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), will require the General Services Administration (GSA) to make most of the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS) publically available.

read in full

Big Upgrade for Federal Register Online

The Federal Register unveiled a slick new website last week that should allow the public to find proposed and final rules more easily.

read in full

Pages

Subscribe to The Fine Print: blog posts from Center for Effective Government