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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House Questions Future of Government Printing Office

On July 22, the House passed an appropriations bill that makes deep cuts and policy changes to the Government Printing Office (GPO), an agency that plays an important role in current information dissemination for all three branches of the federal government. The bill raises troubling questions about Congress's understanding of and commitment to GPO’s primary responsibility for making public documents available to the American people.

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New Open Government Partnership Could Drive U.S. Commitments

A new global initiative could drive additional improvements to U.S. transparency policies. Launched on July 12, the Open Government Partnership (OGP) asks participating countries to make concrete commitments to increase transparency within the next year. Initial participants, including the U.S., are scheduled to announce their commitments in September.

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Administration to Revamp Federal Web Strategy

The Obama administration announced on June 13 a plan to retool its approach to federal websites, with an emphasis on consolidating or eliminating sites. Although the plan has the potential to increase transparency, open government advocates are concerned that important information could end up on the chopping block.

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House Oversight Committee Moves Troublesome DATA Act to Floor

Jun 22, 2011 by Craig Jennings

This morning, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform unanimously approved the DATA Act (PDF). And that's a problem, because now it's headed to the House floor with a number of provisions we have serious concerns about.

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DATA Act Would be a Setback for Spending Transparency

Jun 21, 2011 by Craig Jennings

It has been a whirlwind 8 days since Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) introduced a bill to reform federal spending transparency. On June 13, Issa introduced the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA Act), held a hearing the next day, and will mark up the bill tomorrow in his Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

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DATA Act Scheduled for Markup in House

Jun 21, 2011 by Sam Rosen-Amy

Tomorrow morning the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will markup the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA Act). The DATA Act seeks to expand upon the Recovery Act by turning the temporary Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board into a permanent “Federal Accountability and Spending Transparency Board” (FAST Board), which will have authority over all federal spending transparency and will administer USAspending.gov. The bill also expands upon the Recovery Act’s recipient reporting model, bringing it to the entire federal government.

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Spending Bill Would Hide Consumer Safety Risks, Money in Politics

Jun 16, 2011 by Gavin Baker

Consumer product safety risks would be concealed and influence peddling in government contracting would remain out of public view under the provisions of the fiscal year (FY) 2012 spending bill approved today by the House Financial Services and General Government appropriations subcommittee.

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CIO Vivek Kundra to Resign in August

Jun 16, 2011 by Gary Bass*

The White House today announced that federal Chief Information Officer (CIO) Vivek Kundra will resign in August to accept a fellowship at Harvard University. We offer our most sincere congratulations to Vivek on the new position and wish him the very best of luck in the future.

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House Subcommittee Moves to Slightly Increase Funding for Transparency Projects, but More Resources Needed

WASHINGTON, June 16, 2011—The House Financial Services and General Government appropriations subcommittee today approved its fiscal year 2012 spending bill. The legislation would slightly increase funding for critical government transparency projects, but the full ramifications of the subcommittee’s actions are unclear.

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EPA Continues to Improve Chemical Transparency under TSCA

On June 8, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unveiled the identities of more than 150 chemicals that had previously been claimed as confidential by industry. The EPA's action was the latest step in the agency's initiative, announced in 2010, to disclose more chemical information to the public.