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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Bush Administration?s E-Government Strategy Released

Vice President Cheney recently (February 27) unveiled the administration’s plans to harness the Internet to make government more responsive and accessible, focusing mostly on transactions, such as the filing of taxes, while giving little attention to the dissemination of information.

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House Prohibits Internet Access Charges

The House passed a bill that would prohibit the Federal Communications Commission from imposing on Internet service providers the access fees to support the Universal Service Fund that are imposed on telephone companies — if the "contribution" would be based on a measure of the time that telecommunications services are used in the provision of Internet access service. The Universal Service Fund is used to help local telephone carriers provide telephone services in rural areas and other hard-to-serve areas, and to assist low-income users with local service.

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Testimony on Implementation of the E-FOIA Amendments of 1996

Statement of Patrice McDermott, Ph.D., Information Policy Analyst, OMB Watch, before the Subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology of the House Committee on Government Reform on The Implementation of the Electronic Freedom of Information Amendments of 1996. Spoken Statement of Patrice McDermott, Ph.D. Information Policy Analyst OMB Watch Before the Subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology of the House Committee on Government Reform On The Implementation of the Electronic Freedom of Information Amendments of 1996 June 14, 2000

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New Online Portal for Government Information

The President announced on June 24 that within 90 days, the government will create a new web site, FirstGov, that will serve as a portal to government information. The web site is based on web.gov, a project conceived of by the General Services Administration (GSA), but FirstGov will be powered by a search engine designed and donated by a private citizen.

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FirstGov Information Portal Falls Short

OMB Watch's letter to Sally Katzen of the Office of Management and Budget expresses disappointment in the mock-up of the FirstGov online portal to government information, and includes suggestions for improvement. The site falls far short of the objectives identified by the President: "to help our citizens gain one-stop access to existing Government information and services, and to provide better, more efficient, Government services and increased Government accountability to its citizens." July 24, 2000 Ms. Sally Katzen Counselor to the Director Office of Management and Budget

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Testimony on FirstGov Web Portal

The FirstGov web portal is a major accomplishment and the Clinton Administration should be justifiably proud of it. At the same time, there are major policy issues created by FirstGov that have been left unattended. (Statement of Patrice McDermott, Senior Policy Analyst, OMB Watch before the Subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology of the House Committee on Government Reform on FirstGov.) Statement of Patrice McDermott, Ph.D.Senior Policy AnalystOMB Watch Before the Subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology of the

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What is E-Gov't ? How Will It Affect Us?

E-Government is an exciting frontier. But technology alone is not going to get us there. What it is going to take to move to the kind of government that uses technology as a tool to provide greater accountability through better and more meaningful public access to government information is not bigger and faster servers or more powerful search engines. It is going to take the federal government – both government-wide and agency by agency – to get its information under control and begin to manage it so it can be identified, located and used over time.

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S. 803 - The E-Government Act of 2001

Click here to view a printer friendly version of S. 803, The E-Government Act of 2001.

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City E-Gov Evaluations

San Diego, San Jose, and Seattle are among the best city "e-government" websites in the U.S., according to the August 2001 Civic Resources Group report and Brown University's Taubman Center September 2001 report. The three cities took top spots on both lists.

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