How Government Works

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

Sen. Coburn Wants You to Examine His Records

Jul 6, 2009 by Gary Therkildsen*

As members of Congress trickle back from the July Fourth recess, senators will continue debating the FY 2010 Legislative Branch spending bill. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) has offered an amendment to the bill that would require senators to disclose their official expenditures online in a publicly searchable format. Members of the House are already required to post their expenses online.

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Senate Quietly Passes Bill to Hide Torture Evidence

Jun 18, 2009 by Roger Strother*

On Wednesday night, the Senate quietly passed legislation to exempt photographs of detainees being tortured by U.S. personnel from the Freedom of Information Act. Further stunning the spirit of open government, they did so by unanimous consent.

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CIA Attempts to Block Release of Torture Report

Jun 17, 2009 by Chris George*

The Central Intelligence Agency is attempting to prevent the Obama administration from releasing a May 2004 Inspector General's report describing and evaluating the agency's treatment of detainees and interrogation practices, according to today's Washington Post. A redacted version of about 12 paragraphs of text was released in May 2008 as a result of an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit. The Obama administration promised a review of the IG report last month after the ACLU appealed the decision in that case.

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Torture Photo Disclosure Ban out of War Spending Bill but Still Possible

During the week of June 8, an amendment seeking to block disclosure of photos of abused detainees in U.S. custody was removed from the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2009 (H.R. 2346). However, Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and Lindsay Graham (R-SC), sponsors of the amendment, have pledged to insert the language into other legislation. Moreover, the release of the torture photos is the subject of a lawsuit that may reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Obama Administration Moves to Block Visitor Logs - CREW Takes Legal Action

Jun 16, 2009 by Roger Strother*

Like the Bush administration, the Obama administration has taken the unpopular stance that it does not have to release its visitor logs to the public. This is an incredibly disappointing move that casts doubts on Obama’s rhetoric of increased executive branch transparency & accountability. Hiding these logs prevents the public from better knowing who is lobbying the president.

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Pelosi Moves to Make House More Transparent - Revisiting the Subject

Jun 4, 2009 by Roger Strother*

Since my last post on this issue, I’ve discussed the topic with a few different people and wish to clarify some things. I think that Congressional transparency is a good thing, currently anemic, and that efforts such as this one by Pelosi represent positive positioning by Congress on the subject. However, there is little information concerning the form the data from the government will be released in and I’m sure those who received Pelosi’s letter are figuring out that process now.

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Pelosi Moves to Make House More Transparent - Will it Screw Up?

Jun 4, 2009 by Roger Strother*

On June 3, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ordered the House’s administrative manager to put Congressional quarterly expense reports online as soon as possible. These reports, traditionally available only in the form of three-volume bound sets, contain expense data for member spending. The letter from Pelosi can be found on the Speaker’s blog, The Gavel, and represents an unprecedented level of Congressional transparency…if they do it right.

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OMB Watch Analysis Of Open Government Initiative Phase I

Jun 3, 2009 by Roger Strother*

On June 3, OMB Watch has produced its analysis of the public comments sent to the NAPA website as part of the first phase in the government's Open Government Initiative. You can find the 14-page analysis here. The product is in addition to NAPA's own analysis of the data produced on June 1.

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Administration Seeks Public Input on Open Government

Starting May 21, the Obama administration began to make good on the president's goal of "work[ing] together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration," as expressed in his Jan. 21 memorandum on transparency and open government.

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USAspending.gov Adds Recovery Act Spending Data Months before Recovery.gov

In late May, USAspending.gov started posting data that identified grants and contracts given out under the Recovery Act. This is in addition to the regular data on government spending on the site. Up until now, there has been a disappointing lack of specific data made available about Recovery Act spending, particularly on the Recovery.gov website – the main vehicle created for information on implementation of the act.

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