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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Congress Works to Improve Legislative Transparency

At the outset of the 112th Congress, both the House and Senate have adopted new rules to increase the transparency of their activities. The Senate will end its practice of "secret holds," where one senator could anonymously forestall proceedings on a bill. Meanwhile, the House adopted a variety of transparency reforms, including posting bills online for three days before voting on them and disclosing more information about committee actions.

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Administration Looks to Build New Participation Website

Jan 25, 2011 by Gavin Baker

A government proposal would develop a new public participation website, with the working title "ExpertNet." OMB Watch filed comments responding to a request for information on the proposal from the General Services Administration, the White House Open Government Initiative and the Office of Management and Budget.

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In WikiLeaks' Wake, Administration Tightens Information Security

A new memo from the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) details a new requirement for all federal agencies to assess aspects of their information security in the wake of a series of embarrassing disclosures by WikiLeaks. The memo directs agencies to consider 11 pages of questions relating to information security procedures, including whether employees are required to report contacts with journalists. Transparency advocates have criticized some aspects of OMB's strategy as potentially damaging to open government.

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Obama and Open Government: Turning Vision into Reality

Jan 5, 2011 by Gary Bass*

On his first full day in office, President Obama promised an administration premised on transparency, participation, and collaboration. If Obama is successful in transforming government in this way, what does that mean for you?

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Get Ready for a Lot More Information on Government Performance

Dec 23, 2010 by Gavin Baker

The Government Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Performance Improvement Act, now awaiting President Obama's signature, will significantly expand the amount of information available to the public about government performance.

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Science Package Addresses Access to Federally-Funded Research, Scientific Collections

Dec 21, 2010 by Gavin Baker

The House today approved the Senate's amendments to the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act (HR 5116). The bill now heads to President Obama for his signature. Among a variety of science-related topics, the COMPETES reauthorization contains two provisions about public access to federal science.

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Government Launches New Tool to Improve Transparency of Foreign Aid Spending

Dec 16, 2010 by Gavin Baker

Today, the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) launched the Foreign Assistance Dashboard, a new tool to shed light on U.S. foreign aid spending.

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The Teas of Transparency

2010 was a banner year for government transparency, with many significant advances and only a few disappointments. However, there were other events outside the world of government openness that seeped into the collective consciousness, and one of the most notable was the rise of the Tea Party in American politics. For this year-in-review article, we decided to take a somewhat tongue-in-cheek approach to assessing and commenting on events in government openness, playing off the theme of tea. Thus, we present to you … the Teas of Transparency.

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Public Database of Product Safety Complaints Coming Next Year

Nov 24, 2010 by Gavin Baker

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) voted today to create a public database of product safety complaints. The database, which will be located at SaferProducts.gov, is scheduled to launch in March 2011.

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Three Months Later, Missing "Oil Budget" Methodology Released

Nov 23, 2010 by Gavin Baker

The government responders to the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill today released its report on the "oil budget" tool used to calculate what happened to the spilled oil. Unlike the version of the report released on Aug. 4, this one comes peer-reviewed and with methodology.

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