Congress

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

House, Senate Pass E-Government Act

On November 15, the House and Senate unanimously passed a modified version of the E-Government Act, which President Bush is expected to sign. While the bill remained mostly intact as it moved through the House and Senate, there were a few significant changes from the original Senate version, which the Senate passed on June 27:

The Office of E-Government within the Office of Management and Budget will be run by an administrator appointed by the president, but will not require Senate confirmation, as in the original Senate version of the bill. (Title I)

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OMB to Launch Centralized Online Rulemaking Portal

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is planning to launch a web site on December 18 that will allow users to view and submit comments on any federal regulation.

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Internet Society Chosen as New .org Registry Operator

On October 14, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Board of Directors voted 11-1 to appoint the Internet Society (ISOC) as the new operator for the .org domain name registry-- currently the fifth most popular domain space, encompassing over 2 million registered domain names

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Commerce Department and ICANN Extend and Amend MOU

On September 20, the Commerce Department announced its intention to extend its memorandum of understanding for management of the Internet domain name system with the nonprofit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for another year until September 2003. ICANN's arrangement with the Commerce Department dates back to November 1998, but has long been fraught with dissatisfaction and contention around issues of accountability, scope of governance, and representation of public and public interest perspectives within in ICANN.

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Third Annual US State and E-Government Study Released

Darrell West and his team of researchers at the Brown University Center recently published the third annual U.S. federal and state e-government survey for Public Policy. The survey looked at 1206 state government websites, in addition to 45 federal legislative executive branch websites, and 13 federal court websites. The full report is available online: www.insidepolitics.org/Egovt02us.html (HTML) www.insidepolitics.org/egovt02us.PDF (PDF)

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OMB Changes Difficult to Document

Over the course of the Bush administration, OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), which reviews and must approve all major regulatory proposals, has changed 53 out of 85 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules, 100 out of 157 rules from Health & Human Services (HHS), and 24 out of 30 Dept. of Labor (DOL) rules.

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FirstGov Folded Into New GSA Office

On July 23, the General Services Administration (GSA) announced the creation of a new Office of Citizen Services and Communications that will incorporate the Office of FirstGov, which oversees the federal government’s web portal, the Information Technology Office and the Intergovernmental Solutions Office. GSA Administrator Stephen Perry promised that the new office will serve as a "single front door to the services and information" the public requires in the medium it prefers.

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Section 508 One Year Later

On the first anniversary of the implementation of a key federal law designed to improve technology access for all persons with, and within, federal agencies, questions and concerns about the level of compliance continue to loom.

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"A People Armed?" Agency E-FOIA Implementation

On October 2, 1996, President Clinton signed the Electronic Freedom of Information Act (E-FOIA) Amendments into law. These new provisions of the thirty-year-old Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) are the first to guarantee public access to federal government information electronically. The intent was that by agencies making records, record indexes, and a FOIA guide available online to fulfill these amendments members of the public could easily find and obtain access to records regarding federal government projects and policies. Can they?

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Summary of E-Government Act (S. 803)

By unanimous consent, on June 27, the Senate passed the E-Government Act (S. 803), which seeks to promote greater use of Internet-based information technology across the federal government. The administration opposed the bill as originally introduced by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), but following negotiations over the last year, Sen. Fred Thompson (R-TN) became a cosponsor and a compromise agreement was eventually struck, clearing the way for passage.

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