Center for Effective Government | Because government matters

Questionable Contracts Are Up and Information About Contracts Is Down

The House Committee on Government Reform's Minority Office recently released a report done for Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-CA) examining current trends in the government's use of noncompetitive contracts. The report discovered that under the Bush administration the amount spent on these questionable contracts increased $40 billion compared to Clinton's final year.

OMB Fast-Tracks Revised Peer Review Policy

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) appears unwilling to allow a sober and unhurried review of their revised proposal for government-wide peer review requirements. The revised proposal was published in the Federal Register April 28 with only a 30-day public comment period that is scheduled to end May 28. OMB rejected a request from various public interest groups for a 60-day extension to the public review period.

eRulemaking Workshops

The School of Public Policy and Public Administration at the George Washington University will host a series of half-day workshops on the federal eRulemaking Initiative June 2 to 4. The purpose of the workshops is to solicit input from various end-user communities with a stake in eRulemaking.

One Week Remains for Comments on Critical Infrastructure Information Rule

Only a single week remains to submit comments to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on the highly controversial Critical Infrastructure Information (CII) rule. DHS published an interim final rule in the Federal Register Feb. 20 with a 90-day public comment period that ends May 20. Even though the agency continues to accept comments on the CII program, the rule went into effect upon publication. DHS has reported to Congress that it has already received several submissions for the CII program.

OMB's Peer Review Proposal Improved But Still Flawed

After receiving strong opposition for its peer review proposal from scientists, environmentalists, and public interest groups, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released a massively revised version of the guidance and is seeking public comment on the new version. While many of the changes are significant improvements over OMB's initial policy, the new proposal fails to address some of the most fundamental complaints.

White House Denies Meddling with Science

John H. Marburger III, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released a detailed rebuttal to a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) that accuses the administration of manipulating scientific information for political purposes.

Government Web Secrecy Doesn't Provide Security

A recent report by the RAND Corporation reveals that information scrubbed from government websites after the Sept. 11 attacks were unnecessary and unproductive in protecting against terrorism. Many government agencies have removed extensive amounts of information from their websites on the remote chance it could be misused by terrorists. The RAND report establishes that the agencies' approach of viewing information only as a threat and not considering the benefits is erroneous.

Court Orders Release of Additional Energy Task Force Documents

U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman ordered several federal agencies to release documents related to Vice President Cheney's energy task force April 1. The administration previously withheld the documents under the guise that agency employees could claim special confidentially privileges while working for the task force. The court order represents another victory for right to know and government accountability.

The Bush Administration's Openness Policy Serves Self Interests

The Bush administration is using classification selectively for political purposes evidenced by its inconsistent decisions on declassifying documents, according to a recent Washington Post article. In the article, critics outline a pattern of document classification that supports the administration's positions and the inappropriate classification of information that contradicts the President's positions.

Bush Administration Surpressing Documents in Classification Frenzy

The Bush administration is classifying documents at nearly twice the rate of the Clinton administration, according to statistics compiled by the Information Security Oversight Office, an arm of the National Archives and Records Administration. The current administration has classified 44.5 million records and documents in two years, roughly the same number of records classified during the final four years of Clinton’s administration.

EPA Chided by Senate Environment Committee

A letter from the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Mike Leavitt has urged the agency to respond to requests for information from both Democrats and Republicans on the committee.

DOJ Explains CII's Impact on FOIA

The Department of Justice (DOJ) released a memo explaining the impacts of a new Critical Infrastructure Information (CII) rule on the implementation of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) throughout the federal government. The rule DOJ refers to was an interim final rule published by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which restricts public disclosure and government action on voluntarily submitted information about infrastructure vulnerabilities and problems.

U.S. Wearing Blinders on Global Warming

Ironically, just months after the business-friendly Bush administration squelched the climate change section of the Environmental Protection Agency’s report on the environment, the world’s second largest insurer released a report revealing how climate change is rising on the corporate agenda.

FERC Claims CEII Not A Problem for Public Access

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) quietly issued a Feb. 12 notice soliciting public comments on the functions and procedures of the agency’s new restrictive information rule, Critical Energy Infrastructure Information (CEII).

DHS Releases CII Rule

Months after receiving comments on the proposed rule, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) finally published the interim final rule for Critical Infrastructure Information (CII) in the Feb. 20 Federal Register. Although an interim final rule with a public comment period open until May 20, the rule went into effect immediately.

EPA Reviews TRI Burden Reduction Comments

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to review the hundreds of comments it received on burden reduction proposals for the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) program. EPA outlined the proposed changes in a 2003 white paper in Phase II of the TRI Stakeholder Dialogue.

Court Rules Portion of Patriot Act Illegal

A federal judge has ruled that at least one provision of the USA Patriot Act is unconstitutional. A U.S. District Judge in California ruled that the U.S. Patriot Act’s ban on providing "expert advice or assistance" to foreign terrorist groups is unconstitutionally vague, in violation of the First and Fifth Amendments. This is the first federal court decision finding any portion of the Patriot Act illegal. The judge’s decision did not include a nationwide injunction on the provision as sought by the plaintiffs.

Budget Increases Funds for OSHA Whistleblowers

The myriad of numbers in the recent proposed federal budget included a surprising change in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)—an increase of funds to investigate whistleblower claims.

EPA Gags Regional Staff on Perchlorate

EPA has prevented regional offices from speaking to congressional staff about perchlorate contamination. Perchlorate is found in rocket fuel and has contaminated drinking water near Department of Defense (DoD) sites in at least 22 states.

Pressure Continues to Mount Against OMB's Peer Review Plan

Many recent news stories and editorial pieces from around the country are critical of the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) draft bulletin on peer review, thereby maintaining pressure on the agency to either drastically alter the policy proposal or withdraw it entirely. OMB’s Data Quality Guidelines, the information policies that the peer review bulletin builds upon, received little media criticism or even attention during development. However, the peer review bulletin seems to be garnering much more interest, in part because so many scientists are rejecting this “scientific” policy.

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