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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Poor Contractor Performance Hampers Government

Jan 24, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

The past few weeks have seen a flurry of stories about the ineffectiveness of government contractors government mismanagement. While I'd like to go into detail on each one (they are definitely worth a closer look), the stories are starting to pile up. Instead, a summary round-up of some of the contracting screw-ups that appeared so far in 2008. ** The Washington Times reported today that an investigation that lead to the conviction of a former GSA procurement official (Dessie Ruth Nelson) and two top executives at a private security company (Holiday International Security, Inc.) is being widened to include other "unrelated contractors" who may have bribed Nelson or other procurement officials. Nelson pleaded guilty in early January to accepting over $100,000 in bribes in exchange for steering contracts to the private security firm founded by Michael Holiday. Nelson received, among other things, a shopping bag filled with $35,000 in cash, an envelope containing $10,000, and a $7,000 Caribbean cruise. ** The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released a report on Jan. 11 that found a web site created for the Transportation Security Administration to address grievances from travelers incorrectly flagged by the government's no-fly list was poorly constructed and vulnerable to hackers. The report, covered in the Washington Post, Government Executive Magazine, and other tech blogs, concluded that cronyism and a lack of oversight exposed thousands of site visitors to identity theft. In this case, the contract was awarded without competition and the TSA official in charge of the contract was a former employee and good friend of the CEO of the contractor. ** Federal Times reports today that the top official at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is alleging that "poor contractor performance is delaying a new satellite that will monitor global environmental conditions." The contract in question was given to Raytheon (FedSpending Profile) and Northrop Grumman (FedSpending Profile), which have been slow to solve problems with a key instrument for the National Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS). ** Finally, the Washington Post also has an article today about a recent Government Accountability Office report that found a defense contractor hired to repair combat equipment "routinely failed to do the job right and then charged the government millions of dollars for the extra work," according to the WP. The contractor, ITT Industries (FedSpending Profile) apparently received $4.2 million for additional labor, according to the GAO report.

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Earmarks '08: Congressional GOP v. Bush

Jan 24, 2008 by Dana Chasin

What a Difference a [Y]ear Makes The coverage of yesterday Congressional GOP retreat in Roll Call make clear the about-face that party leaders are making on earmarks. Republican leaders ... made it clear during the retreat that they would not support any effort by President Bush to strip earmarks from this year's omnibus bill and saw no need to overhaul the practice... arguing any move [by Bush] to eliminate the earmarks would be an inappropriate infringement on Congress' authority to appropriate funding.

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Workers Threatened by Decline in OSHA Budget, Enforcement Activity

The consolidated appropriations bill passed by Congress and signed by President Bush in December 2007 cuts the budget of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for Fiscal Year 2008. OSHA, like many other federal agencies, already faces budget constraints that make it more difficult for the agency to achieve its mission. Over the past three decades, OSHA's budget, staffing levels, and inspection activity have dropped while the American workforce has grown and new hazards have emerged.

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The Blind Leading the Blinder

Jan 17, 2008 by Craig Jennings

The Washington Post reported this morning that congressional leaders have asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate the use of no-bid contracts to hire businesses and corporations to oversee and monitor other businesses and corporations. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) apparently thought something smelled fishy when a federal prosecutor steered a no-bid, 18-month contract worth between $28 million and $52 million to his old boss, former Attorney General John Ashcroft. The contract is for overseeing an out of court settlement the Justice Department reached with a knee and hip replacement company called Zimmer Holdings, Inc. from Warsaw, Indiana. Apparently Zimmer Holdings was accused of bribing giving kickbacks to doctors who used their knee and hip implants. Now the way these types of settlements work is that the monitoring company is paid directly by the offending business that it is supposed to be monitoring. Therefore, Ashcroft's consulting firm will be paid directly by Zimmer Holdings - the very entity he is supposed to be overseeing to make sure, if you can believe this, they don't make more illegal payments or bribes. It's hard for me to even begin to describe the gut-wrenching, mind-boggling irony of this situation. First off, how can Mr. Ashcroft be expected to monitor a company in an independent manner that is paying him directly? Second, it's not like Zimmer Holdings was accused of union-busting or providing unsafe working conditions for its employees. They were accused of bribing doctors! Wouldn't it be reasonable to believe they could continue to attempt to offer illegal bribes? And how would the public know if they were doing that? Because the monitor company's bills are not subject to an independent review, are we just supposed to take Mr. Ashcroft's word for it?

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New OMBW Report Exposes Poor Tax Enforcement Policies

Jan 15, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

OMB Watch released a new report today examining the IRS budget and enforcement policies and their impact on the tax gap. The report, Bridging the Tax Gap: The Case for Increasing the IRS Budget, focuses on three key areas in need of reform at the IRS: auditing, tax collection, and services for low-income taxpayers claiming the EITC. This report comes at the start of a new budget cycle after the IRS was given too little money to accomplish its mission of enforcing the nation's tax laws and collecting federal revenues in 2007. Because of insufficient resources and inefficient (and sometimes dangerous) policies at the IRS, over $300 billion in federal income taxes goes uncollected every year. It's time for Congress to step up: Congress has given considerable lip service to doing something about the tax gap for years but has done little to actually give the IRS the tools to make significant progress in closing it. Despite this fact, Congress has demanded the IRS close the tax gap without making more resources available for the agency to do so. Thus, the IRS has been forced to make difficult choices as to how to use the limited resources it has been allocated. As a result, at the very least, the tax gap remains a large problem, and most experts believe it has probably increased in size as the IRS has largely scaled back tax law enforcement over the last ten years. We believe its time for Congress and the IRS to get their collective acts together and make some long-overdue changes to the IRS' budget and tax enforcement policies. This report gives some first steps in how this can happen. Bridging the Tax Gap: The Case for Increasing the IRS Budget OMB Watch Press Release for Report

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Contact Us!

Jan 11, 2008 by Craig Jennings

Questions, comments, suggestions, and glad tidings can now be directed to the BudgetBlog inbox at: (In an effort to prevent spam, our contact address appears as an image and without a link to the address.)

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Coconut Road Earmark Defies Laws of Physics

Jan 9, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

There was a great post yesterday on the NY Times editorial blog about the so-called "Coconut Road" scandal from the 2006 transportation reauthorization bill (for details on the scandal, see the Times coverage from June and October.) The long and short of it is that a questionable earmark was removed from the final version of the transportation reauthorization bill by vote and then, magically it seems, appeared in the text of the bill anyway. From the Times yesterday: Congress rejected [the] Coconut Road [earmark] in the final legislation. But then it resurfaced — apparently via some congressional staffer's clerical sleight of hand — in the suspiciously altered final law. The mystery is how the will of Congress came to be so thwarted, and it deserves solving. The appearance of this earmark after it was struck from the final version of the transportation bill is a violation of congressional processes and horrendously unethical to say the least. And as the Times correctly points out, the fact that nobody except Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) really cares about this is probably even worse. Congress needs to do better.

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Congress Limps Toward Product Safety Reform

Despite a record number of consumer product recalls in 2007, Congress adjourned in December without agreeing on legislation to restore the federal government's safety system. The House passed new legislation that would vastly improve the Consumer Product Safety Commission's (CPSC) ability to regulate unsafe products. Weaker Senate legislation was blocked by a lack of bipartisan agreement.

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Stickler Sticking around at MSHA

Jan 7, 2008 by Matthew Madia

Richard Stickler, head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, will remain in his post even though his 2006 recess appointment has expired. Late Friday, President Bush announced Stickler would remain on the job as an acting administrator. Stickler may continue in the interim role for another 210 days, according to the Associated Press.

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Congress Demands Investigation of Overuse of Contractors

Dec 19, 2007 by Adam Hughes*

Walter Pincus reported in the Washington Post on Monday that the fiscal 2008 intelligence authorization bill includes a requirement that Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell produce a report by March concerning the "activities performed by contractors" in all 16 intelligence agencies and how the outsourcing process at those agencies is overseen. Apparently Congress is concerned the intelligence community does not understand which functions can appropriately be outsourced and which should be handled by government employees. Perhaps they are also concerned about one estimate showing a core government worker, on average, costs about half as much ($126,500) as a average contracted employee ($250,000). That fact alone is cause for concern. How are contractors supposed to be saving the government money when they are charging twice as much as it would cost the government? Tom Shoop, who blogs over at Government Executive magazine, quoted another blogger who focuses on the intelligence community who correctly points out the funding structure Congress has implemented has lead to increased levels of outsourcing: By limiting the number of positions within the Intelligence Community while adding funds for services, Congress set the stage for the wide scale outsourcing we see today, with some 70% of the de facto workforce of the CIA's National Clandestine Service made up of contractors. After years of contributing to the increasing reliance upon contractors, Congress is now providing a framework for the conversion of contractors into federal government employees--more or less. An interesting aspect to this issue is that Congress has allowed Mr. McConnell the leeway to automatically change positions held by contractors into full-time government positions. McConnell has the authority to increase the size of the intelligence agencies by up to 10 percent. This approach might be one way to fight back against the raft of outsourcing that has accelerated during the Bush presidency - by giving executive branch personnel the authority to expand government positions automatically rather than having to pound a higher appropriations number through Congress every year for staff increases. I'm curious to see if this tactic will work, and if so, if it will be tried elsewhere in the Federal government. Stay tuned...

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