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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Congress Attempts to Restore Teeth to Whistleblower Protections

On May 14, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing on H.R. 1507, the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2009. The bill is Congress’ most recent attempt to reform whistleblower protections after failing to pass substantively similar bills in the previous two sessions and abandoning a bipartisan whistleblower amendment to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

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Congress Seeks Hidden Truth on Torture

On May 13, a Senate Judiciary subcommittee led by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) held a hearing on the treatment of terrorist suspects in the custody of U.S. government personnel. The hearing was the first to formally discuss torture after the release of four key Bush administration memoranda that established broader interrogation policies. The hearing prompted the Justice Department to release two additional documents concerning internal Bush administration deliberations over policy.

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Agency Plans Add Another Element of Accountability to Recovery Act Spending

On May 17, the Obama administration released the next wave of Recovery Act information, this time by posting Agency Recovery Plans on Recovery.gov. These plans, which are mandated by the Recovery Act, include broad, agency-wide plans and program-specific plans on how each federal agency intends to expend its appropriated Recovery Act funds. Like other Recovery Act-related data dissemination, this latest phase in Recovery Act spending transparency marks another move in the right direction but needs some refinement.

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Quid Pro Quo at the Department of Energy?

May 18, 2009 by Adam Hughes*

The Washington Post ran an article this morning about Recovery Act funding for environmental clean-up being given to contractors with less than stellar performance records. On the surface, this is yet another example of the desperate need for a fully public contractor misconduct database to help prevent awarding contracts to bad actors. But something else jumped out at me from the article that points to a larger problem that I don't think a misconduct database would solve: contractors and executive branch staff are far too cozy.

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Earmark Transparency Takes a Step Backwards

May 13, 2009 by Adam Hughes*

I came across an article ($) in Roll Call this morning detailing the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's plans for submitting and posting earmark requests for the next transportation reauthorization bill, which is likely to be worked on this fall. The Committee, under the now suspect leadership of Rep. James Oberstar (D-MN), will roll back earmark transparency protocols adopted by the House and Senate Appropriations committees in January this year. Hasn't Oberstar gotten the message? Transparency is all the rage these days.

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EPA Back in the "Fishbowl"

In a recent memorandum to employees, the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) outlined broad principles of transparency that will govern the agency's interactions with the public. By promising to operate EPA as if it were "in a fishbowl," Administrator Lisa Jackson reinstated a principle many considered ignored by the previous administration. Jackson also announced measures to promote transparency in EPA's economic stimulus activities.

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Recovery Act Transparency in 51 Flavors: A Sample of State Recovery Act Websites

An informal OMB Watch survey of eight state-level Recovery Act websites reveals that the access to and quality of information on Recovery Act expenditures varies widely from state to state.

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Gary Bass Testifies Before House Committee on Recovery Act

May 5, 2009 by Adam Hughes*

OMB Watch's Gary Bass testified this afternoon at a Committee on Science and Technology Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight hearing, "Follow the Money Part II: Government and Public Resources for Recovery Act Oversight."

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Do-It-Yourself Government?

Apr 30, 2009 by Gary Bass*

According to reporting by Aliya Sternstein at National Journal’s NextGov, Macon Phillips, the White House director of new media, has a new idea when it comes to government soliciting public input on government policy: Do it yourself.

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RAT Board and NAPA Host Recovery.gov Dialogue

Apr 27, 2009 by Craig Jennings

The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, the Office of Management and Budget and the National Academy of Public Administration are hosting a week-long, online dialogue around the question "What ideas, tools, and approaches can make Recovery.gov a place where all citizens can transparently monitor the expenditure and use of recovery funds?"

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