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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Paranoia Strikes Deep

Jul 26, 2007 by Rick Melberth*

The Associated Press (AP) published a story today noting the decline in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) criminal enforcement of polluters. According to the article, "The number of the Environmental Protection Agency's criminal investigators has dropped this year to 174, below the 200-agent minimum required by Congress, even as the EPA's overall criminal enforcement budget rose nearly 25 percent over three years to $48 million, according to EPA records." Civil settlements, however, which require spending on pollution controls, are increasing.

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Rep. Young, Sen. Stevens Under Criminal Probe

Jul 25, 2007 by Craig Jennings

Allegations of $$ for Earmarks, Contracts The Wall Street Journal reports today that "Federal investigators are examining whether Rep. [Don] Young [R-AK] or Sen. [Ted] Stevens [R-AK] accepted bribes, illegal gratuities or unreported gifts from VECO Corp., Alaska's largest oil-field engineering firm."

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Another Attempt at Ending IRS Privatization Program Moves Forward

Both the House and Senate have taken important steps toward ending the wasteful and risky Internal Revenue Service (IRS) private tax collection program. The House Ways and Means Committee approved a bill (H.R. 3056) that would repeal the program, and the Senate Appropriations Committee cleared a bill (H.R. 2829) that would tightly limit the funding available at the IRS to administer the program.

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Amidst Increased Scrutiny, FDA Wants to Shut Testing Labs

Amidst increased scrutiny by the public and Congress of the problems with food imports and instances of bacterial outbreaks in the domestic food supply, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to close 7 of 13 laboratories that test for food safety.

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Ethics & Lobbying: Novak Op-Ed in a (Time) Warp

Jul 23, 2007 by Dana Chasin

Bob Novak writes in today's Washington Post that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), is "plotting to strip anti-earmark transparency from the final version of ethics legislation passed by the Senate and House." While Novak does not identify -- and it is impossible to guess -- what earmark provision he has in mind, he nevertheless chastizes Reid, warning that frayed Senate relations "may get worse if plans to eviscerate ethics legislation are pursued."

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Is SCHIP the Opening Salvo in the Great Health Care Debate?

Jul 23, 2007 by Matt Lewis

President Bush, as you probably know, says he's gonna veto any SCHIP expansion, the principle rationale being that government doesn't belong in health care. My hunch is that this won't carry the day. SCHIP's focus on kids is its trump card. But Bush is right that SCHIP is only the beginning of the policy fight over health care, and when the focus isn't on kids or some other sympathetic demographic group, the arguments being made today could win out by tapping into public distrust of government, which the Bush administration has deepened.

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Putting the Public Back in Public Education

Jul 23, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Dianne Ravitch, an NYU education professor, has an interesting article summing up the state of public education policy. She makes the argument that market-oriented reforms of the school system, like charter schools and vouchers, are no magic bullet.

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Taxpayer Advocate's Office: Help Us Help U.S.

Jul 20, 2007 by Dana Chasin

The Taxpayer Advocate's office of the IRS released its mid-year report yesterday -- see: Fiscal Year 2008 Objectives report; IRS press release ($). The report's focus is on improving taxpayer services, ensuring that taxpayer rights are protected in the Internal Revenue Service's private debt collection initiative, and making the offer-in-compromise program accessible for taxpayers.

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Lobbying and Ethics -- a Conference-Free Zone?

Jul 19, 2007 by Dana Chasin

The Congressional Democratic leadership, no doubt exasperated over GOP holds blocking the lobbying and ethics bill from going to conference -- months after overwhelming passage by both houses -- now apparently plans to circumvent the bill's conference process entirely. Said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV): "I've done everything but get on my knees and beg for [a conference]."

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Walker, Contracting Sage

Jul 19, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Regular readers of this blog may recall a time when I really didn't like GAO chief David M. Walker. He has a strange understanding of the long-term fiscal challenge. His speeches on the matter caused me to call him a nutcase.

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