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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more news

OMB Watch Questions GSA's Approach to Accountability

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14, 2006—According to recent news reports, the new administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA), Lurita Doan, has made some questionable decisions that will reduce contractor accountability and oversight at an agency needing much more of both. These decisions to undermine independent oversight and accountability mechanisms in the federal government are unwarranted and unacceptable.

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Katrina Recovery Stagnating?

Dec 14, 2006 by Matt Lewis

The Brookings Institute's Katrina Index, which is still performing the invaluable task of tracking the Gulf Coast recovery, reports today that inadequate public services seem to be slowing down the pace of the recovery in New Orleans. Bad public services have may caused stagnation in the housing market particularly, as former residents have been reluctant to move back to neighborhoods that lack adequate sanitation, electricity, gas and water services.

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Spring House Cleaning: an Independent Ethics Board?

Dec 13, 2006 by Dana Chasin

The establishment of an independent, outside Office of Public Integrity to review and investigate ethics charges against members of Congress is "definitely on the table," Democratic leadership aide told Congress Daily ($$) today, confirming a report in today's New York Times that "House Democrats are seriously exploring the creation of an independent ethics arm to enforce new rules on travel, lobbying, gifts and other issues."

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A Few Loose Ends

Dec 13, 2006 by Matt Lewis

On Monday, Paul Krugman wrote a good column ($) on government outsourcing. A key point: It's now clear that there's a fundamental error in the antigovernment ideology embraced by today's conservative movement. Conservatives look at the virtues of market competition and leap to the conclusion that private ownership, in itself, is some kind of magic elixir. But there's no reason to assume that a private company hired to perform a public service will do better than people employed directly by the government.

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Oversight of Iraq Reconstruction Funds Sill Needed

Dec 11, 2006 by Craig Jennings

On Friday we posted on a House vote to extend the term of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR). Keeping tabs on how the $38 billion pledged by the United States for Iraq Reconstruction is spent is the job of the SIGIR. Released over the weekend, this CBO report delves into the ins-and-outs of Iraq reconstruction finances, and on page 5 the CBO references the work of the SIGIR:

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Congress Questions GSA's Anti-Oversight Plans

Dec 11, 2006 by Matt Lewis

GovExec reported that new GSA chief Lurita Doan, who's had it out for the GSA's Inspector General office, got two serious letters from Congress last week. One of the letters, from Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA), James Oberstar, (D-MN), and Eleanor Holmes Norton, (D-DC), questioned Doan's plan to hire contractors to conduct "pre-contract award audits" that the Inspector General's office has been doing for quite some time. The letter says the move raises conflict of interest and privacy concerns. Rightly so.

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House Extends Oversight of Iraq Reconstruction Funds

Dec 8, 2006 by Craig Jennings

In a stroke of good judgment, the House has decided that oversight of $38 billion in Iraq reconstruction funds is, in fact, something that should be conducted beyond next year. CQ (no link): The House by voice vote cleared S 4046, to extend the term of a special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction until 10 months after 80 percent of Iraq reconstruction funding has been spent -- a threshold expected to be reached in late 2008. A provision of the fiscal 2007 defense authorization law set Oct. 1, 2007, as the end of the inspector general's term.

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"Anything Goes" at Interior Department. Anything.

Dec 7, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

Back in September, you may recall a series of reports based on an internal investigation of the Interior Department that, essentially, showed that gas and oil companies were getting away with skimping on royalty payments. Interior just wasn't auditing these companies enough to compel the royalties they owed for extracting natural resources from public property. Now, CBS News reports that not only were they not auditing enough, they didn't actually do the auditing they said they did. Interior misrepresented the number of audits they had been doing all along!

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Iraq Study Group: President Should Cease Emergency Funding Requests for War

Dec 7, 2006 by Craig Jennings

The Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan panel convened to ascertain the Iraq war and recommend courses of action, released its report yesterday. Recommendation 72 of the ISG is that:

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From Earmark to Earful: the Iraq Study Group

Dec 6, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

This morning, we witnessed a remarkable moment in American history: a sitting President's policy castigated and condemned in person by members of a highly-respected bipartisan group -- including a former Supreme Court Justice, former Secretaries of State, and former Presidential Chiefs of Staff -- over military policy relating to one of the five or six major wars ever undertaken by this country. And to think, that group, the Iraq Study Group, was created by a tiny earmark inserted into a war supplemental bill by a rank-and-file Republican member of the House. As the New York Times put it:

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