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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OMB Watch Tells Congress PART Should Remain Insignificant

OMB Watch told Congress today that the Bush administration's Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) draws biased conclusions about federal program efficacy and should thus continue to be largely ignored by Congress. Adam Hughes, OMB Watch's director of federal fiscal policy, testified on PART before a Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Subcommittee, during a hearing held by Committee Chair Tom Coburn (R-OK) to investigate why PART is not more widely used by Congress.

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Hearing on PART This Afternoon

Jun 13, 2006 by Matthew Madia

OMB Watch's own Director of Federal Fiscal Policy, Adam Hughes, will be testifying this afternoon in front of the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, and International Security. The hearing is looking at the PART (Program Assessment Rating Tool) and how systematic performance reporting of government agencies helps taxpayers get better services as well as whether Congress can better utilize the report cards to inform their annual budgeting. You can read his full testimony on the OMB Watch website.

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Support Creation of Federal Contracts and Grants Database

May 31, 2006 by Matthew Madia

Last fall, the OpenTheGovernment.org coalition assembled a lengthy list of organizations and individuals, both liberal and conservative, who wrote to President Bush to urge him to put information about how Hurricane Katrina relief funds were being allocated (read the letter). This year, a new effort for increased transparency of federal funds spearheaded by four Senators is making its way through Congress. This effort will make all federal grant and contract information available to the public free of charge in a searchable, downloadable online format.

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White House Misleads Public, Congress on PART Results

In each of the past two years, President Bush has publicly cited a group of 100-plus federal programs in his State of the Union address that he wishes to eliminate or drastically reduce because they are "not getting results." Yet, over two-thirds of these programs have not even been reviewed by the administration's own tool for determining results: the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART).

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Spring 2006 Unified Agenda Now Available

Apr 25, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Agencies released their Spring 2006 regulatory agendas on Monday, April 24. To get the low-down on the agencies’ plans for the coming six months and what they accomplished in the last six month period, go to the Federal Register.

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More Bad News For Private Tax Preparers

Apr 5, 2006 by Craig Jennings

On the heels of some negative publicity private companies have received in the aftermath of two controversial issues over at the IRS - regarding a decision to change the rules governing the privacy rights of citizen's tax return information and a new program outsourcing collection of overdue taxes - more bad news came out of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) yesterday for paid tax preparation companies such as H&R Block.

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Outsourcing of IRS Creates Private Company Infighting

Apr 4, 2006 by Craig Jennings

Following up on a previous posting from last week, an article that ran yesterday in govexec.com reported that two private collection companies have filed a complaint with the General Accountability Office (GAO) protesting the selection of a third firm (Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson) to receive a contract to collect outstanding taxes owed to the IRS.

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OSHA Continues Block Respirator Fit-Tests for TB

Mar 31, 2006 by Guest Blogger

OSHA is continuing to advise its field officers not to enforce the annual respirator fit-test for tuberculosis that has been blocked in the FY 2004 and FY 2005 appropriations bills in a rider offered by Rep. Roger Wicker (R-MS.). This latest advisory is in conflict with a recent CDC report that recommended periodic fit-tests. While the language of the legislation itself blocked the fit tests, the accompanying text said OSHA should wait for the CDC report to decide. Two months after the report, in a memo published on the agency website Mar.

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Talk About Waste, Fraud, and Abuse...

Mar 31, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

Here's an item that, unfortunately, won't get mentioned at the next Republican-sponsored "waste, fraud, and abuse in government" hearing on Capitol Hill. IRS Commissioner Mark Everson testified before Congress this week that it will cost significantly more money to use private companies to collect outstanding taxes than it would to hire additional IRS agents.

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Conservative Republican Defends Earmarks

Mar 27, 2006 by Matthew Madia

Interesting article on the position of a conservative Republican House Member - Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID) - supporting the earmarking process in Congress. Simpson even goes so far as to say outlawing earmarks may be unconstitutional.

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