Privatization

Feb 8, 2016

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

As Americans were gathering party supplies to greet the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service released their annual report of cumulative tax data reported on the 400 tax r...

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Feb 4, 2016

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

Chlorine bleach plants across the U.S. put millions of Americans in danger of a chlorine gas release, a substance so toxic it has been used as a chemical weapon. Greenpeace’s new repo...

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Jan 25, 2016

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for 2014 is now available. The good news: total toxic releases by reporting facilities decreased by nearly six percent from 2013 levels. Howe...

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Jan 22, 2016

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

UPDATE (Jan. 22, 2016): Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its proposed rule to reduce methane emissions...

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more news

The Search Engine That Couldn't

Aug 25, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

If it weren't for its direct impact on national security, we could all enjoy a hardy guffaw at the $500 million mess that is supposed to tie the nation's intelligence data together. The anti-terror intelligence database, known as Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE), is the subject of recent House Science and Technology Committee's Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee report. The report found that "Railhead," the $500 million project that was supposed to tie together the intelligence data of the nation's 16 separate intelligence agencies. Instead:

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A Billion Here, A Billion There

Aug 25, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

Last week I wrote on the BudgetBlog about a new Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS) analysis detailing the status of earmark in the FY 2009 House and Senate appropriations bills to date. I wrote at the end of the post that cutting earmarks does not save "any" money, which as it turns out, isn't exactly true. Steve Ellis from TCS wrote a helpful email I'm republishing here with his permission. Steve helps to clarify where/when savings are possible from cuts in earmarks. Hey Adam,

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Maybe It's the Money

Aug 21, 2008 by Craig Jennings

In an otherwise thoughtful column on the role of government in society, the WaPo's Steven Pearlstein throws out a pair of claims that chap my hide.

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More Secrecy Won't Help David

Aug 21, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

Over the last few weeks, there have been a smattering of reports about a modern-day David vs. Goliath struggle in federal contracting. In this saga, large government contractors are winning bids for contracts that are designated by the government for small businesses. At the end of July, the Small Business Administration (SBA) Inspector General released a report that found Blackwater USA may have won numerous contracts (39 in fact) set aside for small businesses.

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McCain and Obama on Outsourcing Government

Aug 20, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

The Federal Diary column in the Washington Post this week asked each of the presidential candidates a series of questions related to the federal workforce. Both columns are worth a quick read if you want to learn more about the candidates (see McCain and Obama), but I wanted to highlight one question in particular. Joe Davidson asked each candidate, "Federal labor leaders complain that outside contractors perform jobs that should be done by government employees. Do you favor any suspension of contracting out activities?

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Effective Government

Aug 14, 2008 by Craig Jennings

I'm going to reproduce the following post by Think Progress's Matthew Ygelsias, because he's right on about the effectiveness of government per se: some agencies/departments carry out their mission better than others. One of Megan McArdle's correspondents rants against the evils of the DC Department of Motor Vehicles before snarking " I can't wait for the government to take over our healthcare system."

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Looking for Top Notch Interns!

Aug 13, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

The OMB Watch Fiscal Policy Program is looking for an intern for the fall of 2008. Yup, that's right. This is your chance to get in on the ground floor at one of the most dynamic nonprofit watchdog groups in Washington, DC. We're looking for energetic undergraduate or graduate students who have excellent writing, critical thinking, and communications skills, and who are dedicated to public policy and government accountability (see current intern Josh at right for example).

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CBO Report Tallies Expenditures on Contracting in Iraq

Aug 12, 2008 by Craig Jennings

In response a requrest from the Senate Budget Committee, CBO has a issued a report on contractors working in Iraq. From 2003 to 2007, the federal government awarded over $85 billion in contracts, and with a burn rate of $17-21 billion per year, it's likely that $100 has been doled out to private contractors since the start of the war.

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Red Light, Green Light, One, Two, Three

Aug 11, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

It's been a slow day here at the Budget Brigade, so I thought I'd bring your attention to the lastest round of quarterly "scores" agencies receive on the President's Management Agenda (PMA) scorecard. These scores measure the implementation of the PMA, or how well the major agencies are "executing the five government-wide management initiatives." Robert Brodsky from Government Executive Magazine has a rundown of the latest scores, which are not too good:

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FedSpending.org Reaches 10 Million Searches

Jul 30, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

OMB Watch released new federal spending data on contracts and assistance spending on FedSpending.org yesterday. The site now has full spending data for federal contracts from FY 2000 through the first two quarters of FY 2008 and federal assistance data (grants, loans, and related spending) from FY 2000 through the first three quarters of FY 2007. The FedSpending.org database currently contains over $18.7 trillion in federal spending dating back to FY 2000. This update also made minor site improvements, including added advanced search functionality and bugs fixes.

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