Government Performance

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

more news

Appropriations Committee Slashes Oversight Contracts

Oct 20, 2006 by Matt Lewis

CQ reports ($$) that the House Appropriations Committee Chairman -Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA)- did not renew the contracts of 60 investigators who examined federal spending. About 16 investigators remain on staff, but given the contractor reduction, no investigations will be going forward any time soon. Committee spokesman John Scofield said Thursday that the contracts were not renewed because the panel is conducting a “bipartisan review” of the unit’s staff. “Frankly, the work we’ve been getting as of late has not been that good,” Scofield said. “There is nothing sinister going on.”

read in full

Broder Moderately Displeased with Fiscal Policy

Oct 19, 2006 by Matthew Madia

David Broder today gives this year's Congress and the Bush Administration bad marks for fiscal policy. His bottom line: the economy isn't growing enough. Still, a chart that is part of the National Journal story gives pause. It compares the economic performance of the first 5 1/2 years of this Bush administration with identical periods under Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Personal income after inflation and taxes rose 22.7 percent under Reagan, 20.4 percent under Clinton and only 14.1 percent under Bush.

read in full

EPA May Cut Enviro-Justice Program

Oct 18, 2006 by Matthew Madia

Budget pressures may lead to the elimination of an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) program for low-income people and minorities. From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: A federal program to safeguard poor and racially diverse communities from pollution and other environmental harm is at risk of being dissolved, activists say. The Environmental Protection Agency's Northwest regional office has proposed reassigning members of its environmental-justice program to new divisions and eliminating its director's position, according to government officials.

read in full

The FY 2007 DoD Approps Bill, Deconstructed

Oct 13, 2006 by Matthew Madia

In a brilliant analysis of the FY 2007 DoD appropriations bill, Winslow T. Wheeler, Director at the Straus Military Reform Project of the Center for Defense Information based in Washington, D.C., exposes the bill's budget gimmicks, misleading program labeling, and meaningless dollar figures. The lead-in for Wheeler's article:

read in full

OMB Watch Launches FedSpending.org

For the first time, itemized information on the more than $12 trillion disbursed by the federal government between FY 2000 and FY 2005 is now available to the public on a user-friendly, searchable Web site. FedSpending.org, a project of OMB Watch launched Oct. 10, provides citizens with a detailed look at how the government sets national priorities and allocates federal resources.

read in full

FedSpending.Org Released!

Oct 10, 2006 by Matt Lewis

FedSpending.Org is now online! Check it out!

read in full

Why Presidents Matter in Tax Policy

Oct 10, 2006 by Matt Lewis

Cactus of the econo-blog Angry Bear looks for a connection between who's President and tax enforcement rates. A few interesting results: Ronald Reagan was a strict tax enforcer in his second term, while George W. Bush's first term saw the largest decline in the tax enforcement rate in the last 50 years.

read in full

Roll-Out of Federal Spending Oversight Tools Next Week

Oct 3, 2006 by Matthew Madia

The launch of OMB Watch's powerful new Web-based tool for tracking government spending and congressional accountability will be held at 9:30 a.m.next Wednesday Oct. 10, in the Lisagor Room of the National Press Club. Update: The press conference in Washington on Tuesday, October 10 will also be webcast - so you can join in on the excitment from anywhere. Sign up for a reminder from OMB Watch by email on Tuesday morning about the event.

read in full

The Do-Nothing 109th Congress, Pt. 1

Oct 2, 2006 by Matthew Madia

Now that only a lame-duck portion of it remains, we are now in a position to begin to assess the 109th Congress. Per the Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein article that my colleague Matt points out below: “with few accomplishments and an overloaded agenda, [the 109th Congress] is set to finish its tenure with the fewest number of days in session in our lifetimes, falling well below 100 days this year.” At the same time, as the Washington Post reports today, the House passed 165 bills… in the last week alone. That’s more than one for every threatened incumbent, and then some.

read in full

Congress: Doing Bad Things Badly

Oct 2, 2006 by Matt Lewis

The House adjourned on Saturday, setting a record for the fewest days in session since the "do-nothing" Congress of 1948. The total for the entire year will most likely fall far below 100 days, depending on how long they stay during the November lame-duck session. (For perspective, Congress has spent an average of 152 days in session since 1985). Norm Ornstein and Thomas Mann have that story and more on this Congress's procedural improprieties.

read in full