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...

read in full

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

more news

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1998

(Reported in the Senate) SEC. 508. ELECTRONIC AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY REGULATIONS.

read in full

Attorney General Reno's speech on Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1998

SECTION 508 Remarks of ATTORNEY GENERAL JANET RENO FOSE 2000 Washington D.C. Convention Center, Room 32 Washington, D.C. 11:45 a.m. Tuesday, April 18, 2000 P R O C E E D I N GS

read in full

Cyber Security Information Act, HR 4246

106TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. ll IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Mr. DAVIS of Virginia (for himself and Mr. MORAN of Virginia) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on lllllllllllllll A BILL To encourage the secure disclosure and protected exchange of information about cyber security problems, solutions, test practices and test results, and related matters in connection with critical infrastructure protection.

read in full

New Disability Access Standards for Federal Government Technology

On March 31, the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (Access Board) proposed new standards that would require the government to ensure that information provided through government use of electronic and information technology (E&IT) is accessible to both federal employees and private citizens with disabilities. For example, multimedia presentations that contain video programs also would have to provide closed-captioning for the deaf and would have to convert visual information to speech for visually-impaired users.

read in full

FERC Proposes Changes to Public Access Policies

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) seeks public input on “changes that should be made to its regulations to restrict unfettered general public access to critical energy infrastructure information, but still permit those with a need for the information to obtain it in an efficient manner.” The request for public input was published Jan. 16, 2002 by FERC and appeared in the Jan. 23, 2002 Federal Register. Read the press release on FERC's site.

read in full

John Graham Advises EPA to Improve Information Policies

John Graham, administrator of OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, today released a “prompt letter” to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) urging the agency to take three steps to improve public access to its information. Graham’s top priority is to have EPA establish an identification number for each facility reporting information to the agency.

read in full

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.

read in full

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.

read in full

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

read in full

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.

read in full