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

Bush to Seek Massive War Supplemental - Congress Should Demand Explanation

Nov 20, 2006 by Craig Jennings

About a month after signing a defense appropriations bill containing $70 billion extra-budgetary "bridge fund" to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, President Bush may request yet more funding for the conflicts. The next request could be an eye-popping $130 billion.

BNA ($):

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Is NASA's Oversight Chief the Next Michael Brown?

Nov 20, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

Another Bush administration official is in hot water today after documents related to an internal government investigation into NASA Inspector General Robert Cobb were leaked to the Orlando Sentinel. The Sentinel has a must read, detailed review of the investigation, conducted by the Department of Housing and Urban Development on behalf of the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency (PCIE).

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Hope for Iraqi Reconstruction Oversight Office

Nov 17, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

Good news this morning for oversight of government contracts that might be a precursor to a more vigilant Congress in 2007. After Democrats recently vowed to pass legislation to save oversight of Iraqi reconstruction efforts, Susan Collins (R-ME) and Joe Lieberman (D-CT) have unanimously passed a bill (S. 4046) out of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that would retain the Office of Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction through most of 2008, according to BNA ($$).

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State Medicaid Directors Balk at Backdoor Cuts to Program

Nov 16, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

State Medicaid directors from around the country gathered this week in Washington, D.C. for their annual meeting and continued to express frustration and displeasure with the Bush administration's plans to continue to stick it to the states through the Medicaid program.

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House Majority Leader: Hoyer Hired

Nov 16, 2006 by Dana Chasin

By a nearly 2-to-1 margin, Steny Hoyer (D-MD) prevailed over Jack Murtha (D-PA) today in the race for House Majority Leader. The result was "a blow to incoming Speaker of the House" Nancy Pelosi, who endorsed and campaign for Murtha. Some in the House charged that Pelosi was "undercutting her pledge to clean up corruption by backing a veteran lawmaker who they say has repeatedly skirted ethical boundaries."

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House Majority Leader's Race: A "Total Crap" Shoot

Nov 16, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

As of this writing, the House Democratic Caucus is holding its leadership elections for the 110th Congress, with the Majority Leader's race between Reps. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Jack Murtha (D-PA) still up in the air. In the balance is the leadership tone on Congressional ethics standards. This is no idle matter: to the surprise of both most observers, midterm election exit polls cited corruption in Congress as one of the most important issues motivating citizens to vote.

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Congress to Restore Oversight Office

Nov 14, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

Democrats may try to pass a bill reinstituting an Iraqi reconstruction oversight office, which Congress recently abolished, as early as this week. From the NYT: Congressional Democrats say they will press new legislation next week to restore the power of a federal agency in charge of ferreting out waste and corruption in Iraq and greatly increase its investigative reach. The bills, the first of what are likely to be dozens of Democratic efforts to resurrect investigations of war profiteering and financial fraud in government contracting, could be introduced as early as Monday morning.

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Something Stinks at the IRS

Nov 9, 2006 by Matthew Madia

We have previously reported (see here, here, and here) on the IRS's bizarre plans to outsource some of its tax collection responsibilities to private companies.

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Congress Continues Insufficient Oversight of Federal Contracts

Even as reports of contracting fraud and contractor malfeasance continue to stack up, Congress has taken steps to reduce the federal government's capacity to investigate and oversee how government contracts are awarded and administered.

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Spending Investigators Speak After Dismissal

Nov 3, 2006 by Craig Jennings

You may recall that the House Appropriations Committee decided that the sixty-year-old team in charge of conducting oversight of government spending was no longer "good." CQ reports today that some of those fired investigators are now defending themselves from Committee spokesperson John Scofield’s charge that "the work [they’ve] been getting as of late has not been that good." CQ ($):

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