Press Room
ACLU and Diverse Coalition of National Nonprofits Challenge Misguided Government Watch List Policy
Nov 10, 2004 by Guest Blogger
WASHINGTON, Nov. 10, 2004 -- The American Civil Liberties Union today joined forces with 12 national nonprofit organizations in challenging the Office of Personnel Management's Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) requirement that all participating charities check their employees and expenditures against several government watch lists for "terrorist activities."
read in fullIRS Investigation of NAACP Is Only Latest Administration Attack on Nonprofit Speech
Oct 29, 2004 by Guest Blogger
OMB Watch Analysis Cites Many Examples of Intimidation
The election-eve IRS investigation regarding the nonprofit status of NAACP, the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization, is part of a growing pattern of intimidation and suppression of free-speech and advocacy rights of charities and other nonprofits. That trend was documented in a new analysis, Continuing Attacks on Nonprofit Speech: Death by a Thousand Cuts II, published this week by OMB Watch, a Washington-based watchdog group.
Continuing Attacks on Nonprofit Speech: Death by a Thousand Cuts II
Oct 26, 2004 by Guest Blogger
Government agencies and officials and conservative allies are increasingly targeting nonprofit organizations for their free speech activities, according to an analysis released Oct. 26, Continuing Attacks on Nonprofit Speech: Death by a Thousand Cuts II. Leaders of several affected organizations joined the authors in describing its findings and their experiences in an audio news teleconference at OMB Watch, the publisher of the report.
read in fullRelease: nonprofitadvocacy.org Calls for Congressional Hearings on Need for 527 Bill
Oct 19, 2004 by Kay Guinane
An alliance of five national organizations supporting the rights of nonprofit organizations today called for congressional hearings on the need to limit soft money contributions to "527" independent political committees. The complete statement follows.
read in fullLetter to the Editor and Response Regarding Aug. 9 Article on New CFC Rules
Oct 4, 2004 by Guest Blogger
To the Editor:
During my last few years on active duty service, I watched the number of charities registered with CFC [the Combined Federal Campaign] grow dramatically. And many of them sounded dubious. Yet we were encouraged to donate, even at our meager wages. This applied to federal civil service employees as well. However, I fully support the new CFC rule that charities have to certify that they don't support terrorism or organizations that do. It's already been proven in the national media that many benign-sounding charities were actually funding groups that continue terrorism worldwide. This has been forced on Corporate CEOs and was the same policy forced on South Africa. The policy is not misguided, but long overdue.
read in fullDeficit Hits All-time High, Many Corporations Don't Pay Fair Share
Sep 22, 2004 by Guest Blogger
Washington, DC, Sept. 22, 2004--The result of recent tax policy choices is that the 2004 deficit has reached an all-time high of $422 billion dollars. The Congressional Budget Office reported this month that only 11% of the FY 2004 deficit was due to cyclical factors, while 89% of the deficit was result of federal policy decisions. Not only is the current deficit the highest it has ever been in dollar terms, but in a recent analysis, OMB Watch Staff Economist John Irons projected that the deficit will reach $5.5 trillion over the next ten years. In addition, a new study released today by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) finds that many of the country’s biggest corporations are not paying their fair share of federal income taxes.
read in fullBalanced Budget Amendment Could Destabilize Economy, Tie U.S. Hands
Sep 22, 2004 by Guest Blogger
WASHINGTON, D.C., September 20, 2004 -- The House of Representatives is again set to consider an ill-conceived constitutional Balanced Budget Amendment (H. J. RES. 22). The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to address the proposal this Wednesday, September 22. Regardless of one’s opinions about the wisdom of balancing the budget or running massive deficits, the Balanced Budget Amendment is exceptionally bad economic policy.
read in fullAdministration Obstructs Regulation Across Agencies, Fails to Complete 70% of Goals
Sep 15, 2004 by Guest Blogger
WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 15, 2004, Noon -- An analysis of four key federal agencies charged with safeguarding the public's air, water, food, health, transportation and workplaces reveals consistent and widespread obstruction, neglect and weakening of protections. The report attributes the pattern to a pro-corporate bias of the Bush administration and appointed agency heads favoring narrow special interests over the public good. Download Report
read in fullReport Card Finds Secrecy Rose 60% at Rising Cost of $6.5 Billion Last Year
Aug 25, 2004 by Guest Blogger
RELEASED 10 A.M., AUG. 26, 2004 Washington, D.C.
Government data confirm what many have suspected: secrecy has increased dramatically in recent years under policies of the current administration, which classified 14 million new documents last year. For every $1 the federal government spent last year releasing old secrets, it spent an extraordinary $120 maintaining the secrets already on the books, according to an analysis by OpenTheGovernment.org.
2003 Op-eds on Government Secrecy and Freedom of Information
Aug 15, 2004 by Guest Blogger
Read the best published op-eds on the need for open government and threats to information access collected by OMB Watch, OpenTheGovernment.org, and our allies. Permission is granted for free reprinting of any of these articles, provided it credits the author and includes this attribution: "© 2004, distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services."
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