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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Senate Subcommittee Approves Bill to Partly Defund OVP, Private Tax Collection

Jul 11, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The Senate Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee, a part of the Senate Appropriations Committee, passed its version of the FY 2008 Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill (HR 2829) by a party-line vote of 5 to 4.

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Love That Market- Education Edition

Jul 10, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Prof. Martin Carnoy, who does research on school vouchers, on how experience in education policy has not borne out the theoretical superiority of the market:

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U.S. Ability to Regulate Chinese Imports in Question

The United States government is struggling to ensure the safety of consumer products and food imported from China, as evidenced by a recent spate of controversies involving dangerous Chinese-made products. While America's consumer product safety net is relatively strong, China's young market economy is largely unchecked by government regulators. Subsequently, dangerous Chinese products are finding their way to American shores where federal agency officials are unable to monitor the volume of imports.

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Up With Bureaucrats

Jul 6, 2007 by Adam Hughes*

EPI's Max Sawicky on why fewer bureaucrats isn't more: We always celebrate the sacrifices and contributions of our military men and women, and rightly so. But why not the less dangerous but often saintly deeds of the rest of our public servants? If you favor less government, maybe you enjoy excoriating "government bureaucrats," but are you cutting your nose to spite your face?

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The Capuano Coma -- No Act of Commission

Jun 29, 2007 by Dana Chasin

For several months, Rep. Michael Capuano (D-MA) has been responsible for leading the task force charged with reporting a recommendation to Speaker Pelosi about creating an independent commission to hear and advise on ethics complaints against members of the House. The Capuano task force has stopped meeting, according to Congressional Quarterly ($). Apparently, "some Democrats ... fear that a change in the current ethics process would leave them vulnerable to politically motivated complaints." As opposed to the status quo?

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Emanuel Amendment Voted Down

Jun 29, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The Emanuel amendment to the Financial Services/General Government appropriations bill, which would have defunded part of the Office of Vice President, failed by a vote of 209 to 217 (roll call). The amendment was an attempt to get the OVP to comply with a request for information regarding the US attorneys scandal (See this Think Progress post for more). Correction: Vice President Cheney's claim was about classified material, which, under an executive order, a National Archives offices oversees (link).

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Private Tax Collection Program Remains

Jun 29, 2007 by Matt Lewis

BNA ($) on how the private debt collection program wasn't killed yesterday:

The House passed the Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill (H.R. 2829) June 28 on a vote of 240-179 after House Democrats yielded to concerns about plans to shut down the Internal Revenue Service's private debt collection program.

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GOP Sen. on WH Earmarks: "Hypocrisy? No, Duplicity"

Jun 28, 2007 by Dana Chasin

An article in The Hill this morning quotes GOP Sen. Larry Craig (ID), responding to a question about whether President Bush was being hypocritical for requesting hundreds of earmarks even while criticizing them and vowing to cut the number of earmarks in half this year: "Hypocrisy? No, but one might call that duplicity."

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The Long and Winding Road ... to Conference

Jun 27, 2007 by Dana Chasin

On May 24, the House adopted H.R. 2316, the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 (aka, the lobbying and ethics bill), in a lop-sided 396-22 vote. The Senate passed S. 1, its own version of the bill back on January 18 almost unanimously, 96-2.

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New Data on Contracting

Jun 27, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has updated its database of government contracting (you can also check out fedspending.org to search through contracting data). The House's website has interesting profiles of cases where contracting went wrong, and there's a very comprehensive report on contracting. What it doesn't have is a good narrative to explain why all this stuff matters.

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