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...

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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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In Afghanistan, Non-Combat Troops Out, Contractors In

Sep 2, 2009 by Gary Therkildsen*

The Los Angeles Times reported this morning that as part of Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's effort to turn around the fight in Afghanistan, the U.S. military is planning to replace between 6,000 and 14,000 non-combat troops with contractors. This would allow the Army and Marines Corps to bring in more "trigger-pullers" without increasing the overall number of troops in theater, currently a contentious issue with the American public. With the military having experienced so many issues of waste, fraud, and abuse with contractors in both Iraq and Afghanistan, however, some analysts – including this one – are questioning whether increasing their numbers will not produce more problems than solutions, including the prospect of increasingly jeopardizing soldiers' safety.

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Too Big to Fail Fail

Aug 31, 2009 by Craig Jennings

Since the phrase "too big too fail" entered the fiscal lexicon last year, I've been really curious as to why the anti-trust divisions at the Federal Trade Commission or Department of Justice have not taken a keen interest in the nation's banking system. And much to my chagrin, Congress has yet to hold a hearing entitled "Busting the Banking Trust," or something along those lines.

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House Committee to Investigate Federal Procurement System

Aug 27, 2009 by Gary Therkildsen*

Yesterday, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, chaired by Rep. Edolphus “Ed” Towns (D-NY), announced that it "is conducting a broad investigation of problems with the Federal procurement system." The announcement states that as part of the investigation, the committee is examining the suspicious events surrounding contracts awarded by the Army's Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM) uncovered in a recent Washington Post exposé.

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FDA to Ramp Up Enforcement Efforts

Aug 26, 2009 by Matthew Madia

The Food and Drug Administration is going to toughen some of its enforcement efforts, according to BNA news service ($). In two recent speeches senior FDA officials outlined their plans for increasing inspections and their expectations of the firms FDA regulates.

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Labor Department to Increase Inspection Force

Aug 21, 2009 by Matthew Madia

The Labor Department is planning to hire hundreds of new employees to enforce federal worker protection standards, according to The Wall Street Journal.

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Lead Limits, Tracking Requirements for Toys Take Effect

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) will begin enforcing new regulations on the amount of lead allowed in toys and other children's products, as well as enforcing other measures intended to prevent children's exposure to dangerous goods.

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Obama Administration Seeks to Curtail Award Fee Contracts

During a recent Senate hearing, a top official from President Obama's budget office detailed the administration's plan for curtailing the use of award fee contracts, controversial vehicles that, according to good government groups, are filled with waste, fraud, and abuse. This plan stems from the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) latest release of guidance to federal agencies on reforming the federal procurement process – part of a larger reform effort the administration is undertaking. During the same hearing, however, chief procurement officials from several federal agencies raised concerns over the possible consequences of further regulation.

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Complacency Breeds Corruption in Contracting

Aug 13, 2009 by Gary Therkildsen*

Oh, boy, this one is a doozy. If you haven't seen this yet, a WaPo article from last week detailed the incestuous, often corrupt, relationships that can exist between officials and contractors within the broken culture of government contracting, and highlighted the lengths to which agencies will go to safeguard that decayed culture.

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Redactio Ad Absurdum

Aug 4, 2009 by Craig Jennings

We've been digging through $9.5 million Recovery.gov rewrite contract the Recovery Board has signed with Smartronix, Inc., and it is taking us surprisingly little time...because most of the information has been redacted.

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