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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IRS Privatization Debate Heats Up

May 1, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-SD) and Patty Murray (D-WA) released a "Dear Colleague" letter, or a message between representatives, in favor of S. 335, a bill that would end the IRS private debt collection program. The letter is part of the congressional war of words over the bills that would end the IRS program. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN) have sent letters defending the program. Here's Grassley's letter, and here's the first and second part of Gordon's letter.

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Preview of House Hearing on USDA Security Breaches

May 1, 2007 by Adam Hughes*

As we reported last Friuday, the House Agriculture Committee is holding a hearing tomorrow on security breaches at the Department of Agriculture. This hearing is a follow-up to reports earlier in April of personally identifiable information being contained within USDA data that is widely available on the internet. This security issue was discovered on April 13 by a user of our FedSpending.org website.

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House to Investigate Security Breaches at USDA

Apr 27, 2007 by Adam Hughes*

In response to the disclosure of personal information and other security problems at the United States Department of Agriculture recently, the House Agriculture Committee is holding a hearing next week to review the USDA's release of program beneficiaries' Social Security numbers and other problems with the agencies information systems. The hearing will be on Wednesday, May 3, at 1:00 pm in the Longworth House Office Building, room 1300.

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Winners and Losers in Earmark Dollar Distribution

Apr 26, 2007 by Dana Chasin

Top Five Over- and Under "Earmarked" States (Rank of Earmarked Dollars Received/Population, 2005) Over-Earmarked

1 Alaska (6/47)
2 Hawaii (14/42)
3 West Virginia (10/37)
4 Alabama (9/23)
5 Maryland (8/19)

Under-Earmarked

1 Georgia (24/9)
2 Indiana (30/15)
3 Colorado (36/22)
4 North Carolina (21/10)
5 New Jersey (22/11)

Earmark Rankings: USA Today, 4/26/07

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OMB Watch Statement on Privacy Violation in Government Data

Apr 20, 2007 by Adam Hughes*

Earlier this afternoon, the New York Times published information about Social Security numbers being disclosed for many years by the government in unique identifiers for certain financial transactions (Read the NYTs story). This was discovered by a user of our FedSpending.org, an online service providing information about government spending that includes a government database that had the personally identifiable information.

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Breaking - Doolittle Steps Down from Approps Committee

Apr 19, 2007 by Craig Jennings

Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA), whose home was recently raided as part of an FBI investigation to his ties to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, has resigned his seat on the House Appropriations Committee. AP: Rep. John Doolittle, whose house was searched by the FBI in an influence-peddling investigation, said Thursday he will step down temporarily from the House Appropriations Committee.

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Requiem for Departing IRS Commissioner Mark Everson

Apr 19, 2007 by Matt Lewis

While at his new job with the Red Cross, may he find redemption for the following:

Implementing a program to privatize tax debt collection
Privatizing regulations
Offering early retirement to estate tax auditors
Potentially politicizing tax collection (see OMB Watch's

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Tax Gap Fever

Apr 19, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson thinks we have no choice but to let people evade taxes, apparently. Having just paid my taxes, I find that a little annoying. In testimony before Congress yesterday, Paulson made a case for restraint in closing the the tax gap, which is a sanitized way of putting the annual total of tax evasion, avoidance and errors (noncompliance, in tax speak). IRS estimates the tax gap to be at $353 billion a year, or about 16 percent of total taxes owed. So why can't we go after this money? Here's Paulson:

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More on the Politics of IRS Privatization

Apr 18, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The American Prospect has posted an excellent article on the IRS privatization program- particularly all the shady and suspicious political donations that seem -but have not been proven- to be the driving force behind the program. Also, the article sheds some light on one of the mysteries of the privatization program- that it's found a staunch supporter in Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN) (emph. mine).

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Byrd Adopts DeMint Earmarks Rule for Approrpriations

Apr 17, 2007 by Dana Chasin

This morning, Senate Appropriations chair Robert Byrd (D-WV) announced that his committee would immediately adopt the earmark disclosure rules advocated by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) in S. Res. 123 that we reported on last week. Under the new committee rules,

all earmarks in appropriations bills and reports would be identified, with the amount, the sponsor and the recipient of the earmark; the committee bill and report will be published on the Internet

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