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

StateSpending.Org

Nov 15, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The latest Progressive States dispatch highlights a fascinating report on transparency in state government spending. The report, by Good Jobs First, evaluates each state's websites and their disclosure of subsidies, contracts, and lobbying. Each state gets a ranking- check out the report to see where yours ends up. The report shows that there's a big need for more disclosure on the state level. Hopefully sites like FedSpending.org, which will soon have a government-run counterpart, can serve as a model for states to follow.

read in full

Bush Attempts To Secure His Legacy

Nov 15, 2007 by Adam Hughes*

The Bush administration is up to some of its old tricks this week. After the Washington Post reported at the end of October of a movement within the administration to implement as much policy as possible through administrative functions rather than convincing Congress to adopt its policies, we are beginning to see some specific instances of their plan. In September, the White House issued new principles for agencies in conducting risk analysis that could impact agencies ability to protect the public. Then on Tuesday this week, Bush signed a new executive order (EO #13450) that attempts to "improve government program performance." Sounds like a good thing, no? let's look a bit deeper.

read in full

Earmarkwatch.org

Nov 14, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Ever wanted to do some investigative reporting on earmarks, but you just didn't know how to get started? Well, earmarkwatch.org is the site for you! You can dig into thousands of identified earmarks, with the help of research resources and relevant questions, to see if they're good public policy, or just pork barrel politics.

read in full

Congress Told of FDA's Lax Inspection of Foreign Drug Makers -- Again

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently told Congress that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspects an estimated seven percent of foreign drug manufacturing facilities. GAO can only provide an estimate because FDA doesn't know how many foreign facilities are subject to inspection due to inaccurate and uncoordinated databases that have vastly different estimates of the number of drug makers subject to the foreign drug inspection program. At this inspection rate, it would take FDA more than 13 years to inspect all existing facilities one time, assuming no additional facilities were added to the list.

read in full

CPSC Reform Efforts Progress as Agency Woes Continue

Congress is working toward passage of legislation that would expand the resources and regulatory authority of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). The bill would also address the continuing problem of lead-contaminated children's products by effectively banning the heavy metal's presence in toys and other goods. Senior administration officials are working to derail the legislation.

read in full

Do Budget Cuts Lead to Excessive Contracting?

Nov 6, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Among the many interesting points in Stan Collender's column today (subscription only), there's this one about contracting and budget cuts:

read in full

TheMiddleClass.Org

Oct 31, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The Drum Major Institute has an intriguing new website up- themiddleclass.org- where you can basically track legislation that matters to the "current and aspiring" middle class, and get a reliable perspective on what it's all about. Its unveiling is a good opportunity to rundown a couple other really useful sites that help everyone -myself included- hold the government accountable.

OpenCongress.Org- like Thomas, but understandable.
OpenSecrets.Org- complete records of campaign donations.
Congresspedia- a wiki site on Congress that anyone can update.

read in full

IRS Private Tax Collector Bill To Move in AMT Patch

Oct 31, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The AMT patch package will probably include a repeal of the IRS private debt collection program, according to BNA. We'll have more when the bill is marked up by the Ways and Means committee tomorrow.

read in full

Outsourcing Foreign Policy

Oct 30, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Most major news outlets are reporting today that some Blackwater guards involved the Sept. 16th shooting have been given immunity under strange circumstances. The State Department investigators from the agency's investigative arm, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, offered the immunity grants even though they did not have the authority to do so, the officials said. Prosecutors at the Justice Department, who do have such authority, had no advance knowledge of the arrangement, they added.

read in full

The Chutzpah Of The Privatizer

Oct 29, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Tyler Cowen attempts to minimize the difference between contractors and government in a piece in the Sunday New York Times. A few selected paragraphs from it: ALLEGATIONS of misbehavior by employees of Blackwater USA in the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqis have brought the military's use of private contractors into question. But whatever the possible sins of the Blackwater firm, the overall problem is not private contracting in itself; contractors do not set the tone but rather reflect the sins and virtues of their customers, namely their sponsoring governments...

read in full