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

DHS Fails in Contracting Oversight Efforts

Sep 17, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

The Washington Post has an article this morning that details severe contracting problems at the Department of Homeland Security. The Post describes the agency's efforts to oversee $15 billion in contracts over the last six years as having "failed."

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Dept. of Interior: Worst Misconduct Ever!

Sep 16, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

There has been some pretty eye opening stuff going on over at the Department of the Interior's Mineral Management Service (MMS). The Department of the Interior Inspector General released the results of three separate investigations into allegations of misconduct among dozens of employees and managers at the MMS. And the pretty shocking results would even make Lurita Doan blush (or maybe take out her pen and pad and take notes?). The IG report described the MMS as having a "culture of ethical failure" and details some ridiculously arrogant and decrepit behavior.

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Shocking Developments at the IRS

Sep 15, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

I came across more good news from the IRS today (well, Friday actually) and I'm not really sure what to do with myself. BNA reported late on Friday afternoon that Lisa McCaughey, a senior tax analyst with the Small Business/Self-Employed Division reported that the IRS is reducing the staggering number of audits they conduct each year of taxpayers who claim the earned income tax credit (EITC). Woohoo!

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Government Performance Workshop

Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute and Accenture's Institute for Public Service are working together in 2008 to host a series of panel events on issues of national importance affecting the U.S. federal government. The first panel was held in March, 2008 and dealt with performance measurement in government. The panel resulted in a plan to explore the topic in more depth.

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IRS Decides to Abandon Contract

Sep 12, 2008 by Craig Jennings

Great news reported today by Joe Davidson at the Washington Post (Joe has taken over the Federal Diary column from Stephen Barr, who retired earlier this year). Davidson reports that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has decided to discontinue contracting out the management of tax return files at seven regional IRS centers. More details from the Federal Diary column: For most of the past two years, that work has been done by IAP Worldwide Services.

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Why Pay Full Price

Sep 11, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

There have been lots of stories today I was thinking about throwing up on the blog (DCAA shenangians, Interior Department MMS shenangians), but I "http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122109613823821913.html">settled on an article you might have overlooked in the Wall Street Journal about the continuing investigations Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) and the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) have been conducting on offshore tax evasion. I've posted a few times (see href="/article/blogs/entry/5326/49" target="_blank">here and here too) over the last few

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Defense Department Punts on Air Force Tanker Deal

Sep 10, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

I came across another delay in a federal contracting effort to report today. Seems the Department of Defense, and more specifically Secretary Robert Gates, feels it will not have sufficient time to complete the re-competition for the contract to build the next generation of mid-air refueling tankers. Gates announced this morning during testimony before the House Armed Services Committee that DoD has decided to cancel the competition and leave the issue for the incoming administration to figure out.

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Senate Committee Hearing Exposes Systemic Problems at DCAA

Sep 10, 2008 by Craig Jennings

The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee held a hearing today to listen to witnesses describe systemic mismanagement and corruption at the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA).

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Virtual Border Fence Still Just...Virtual

Sep 10, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

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Who Is Standing in the Way Of Reform?

Sep 9, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

Elizabeth Newell wrote an good summary last week in Government Executive magazine of the state of a handful of reforms to the federal contracting process that have been stalled in the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

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