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

Hold-Up in the Senate: Transparency Mugged Again

Sep 10, 2007 by Craig Jennings

The elimination under cover of darkness of that magnificent institution, the secret senatorial hold, is, apparently, a baleful "connivance" snuck into the lobbying and ethics bill, catching "rank-and-file" senators unawares and opening up the floodgates for "special interest measures," spoiling a "historic opportunity to expose secretive pork-barrel spending." If you doubt me, maybe you will believe Robert Novak?

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College Access Bill To Be Enacted

Sep 6, 2007 by Matt Lewis

CongressDaily (subscription required) reports that the President will sign the Higher Education Access Act of 2007- a revenue-neutral bill that will give more help to students to pay for college.

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Another Strike Against IRS Private Debt Collection

Sep 6, 2007 by Adam Hughes*

Does anyone really like the IRS' private debt collection program except the folks who are making money off of it? Apparently not. Yesterday, the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel, an independent federal advisory panel made up of taxpayers from every state, released recommendations that the IRS "abandon all plans to outsource any taxpayer debts and restrict collection activities to properly trained and proficient IRS personnel." It's pretty clear where they stand on the program.

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Earmarks Disclosure: Grandstanding vs. The Standard

Aug 27, 2007 by Dana Chasin

In his discussion of earmarks on the NYT op-ed page last Friday, Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus argues that not all of them are nefarious. Echoing an observation we made last year, he cites the Iraq Study Group as an example of an earmark who made good. Emanuel then goes on to indulge in a little modest horn-tooting about earmarks disclosure:

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TCS's Earmark Database

Aug 23, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Taxpayers for Common Sense's analysis of the FY08 appropriations bills deserves a look, if you're interested in what exactly is being funded through the earmark process. There's a list of the earmarks in all the bills, and a few of the more ridiculous ones are highlighted. Take a look through some of them and you'll forget what exactly the rationale is for allowing this practice to continue.

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Latest Watcher

Aug 22, 2007 by Matthew Madia

Be sure to check out the latest issue of our biweekly newsletter, The Watcher. Regulatory policy articles this time: Crandall Canyon Mine Collapse Implicates MSHA Procedures Bush Administration Skirts Broad Environmental Law New Report Examines Agency Review of Regulations

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Links

Aug 22, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Lots of good stuff came out today.

A Congressional Research Service (CRS, aka the super-authoritative researchers who members of Congress ask to do reports for them, but typically the reports aren't available to the public) comparison of the House and Senate SCHIP bills
The House Budget Committee's breakdown of how some of Bush's proposed budget cuts would impact each state
A knowledgeable article in the Washington Post about the

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Private Spies

Aug 21, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Walter Pincus had a story last weekend about a huge new batch of contracts being issued by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)- the Pentagon's not-so-mini CIA. Definitely worth a read, but before you do, take a look at this June article in Salon.com about intelligence agencies and their increasing use of contractors.

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Not That Crazy: Bush to Sign Lobbying/Ethics Bill

Aug 21, 2007 by Dana Chasin

White House officials confirmed yesterday that President Bush now plans to sign the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007. The confirmation ends several weeks of speculation about his intentions, with some observers (my colleagues among them) expressing bewildered disbelief at Bush's repeated references to his "serious concerns" about the bill and his unwillingness to rule out a pocket veto of it.

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The Year in Fiscal Policy...So Far

After the elections in November 2006, with a new majority and low public confidence in Congress following multiple lobbying and ethics scandals, members vowed to restore integrity and responsibility to the legislative process, particularly in fiscal policy. Congress pledged it would prioritize funding for domestic needs and abide by pay-as-you-go rules for new mandatory spending and taxes. It would shed light on the earmarking process and spend more time minding the people's business in Washington.

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