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

Specter's Bill Remains a Threat to Civil Liberties

Legislation introduced by Sen. Arlen Specter's (R-PA) that would retroactively legalize the president's NSA wiretapping program will be the focus of a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing scheduled for July 26. The National Security Surveillance Act (S. 2543) would also create a legal framework for future surveillance of American citizens.

read in full

Chemical Security Debate Continues in House

The House Homeland Security Committee is scheduled to mark up chemical security legislation later this week. The Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006 (H.R. 5695), introduced by Rep. Daniel Lungren (R-CA) last month, currently has ten cosponsors. Critics of the bill, including a number of environmental and public interest groups, charge that it would actually lead to less security for our nation's chemical plants.

read in full

PRA Hearing Features Industry Anti-Reg Wish List

Testimony in a House hearing on the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) revealed industry groups' intentions of using PRA reauthorization to push an anti-regulatory agenda.

read in full

Testimony on Reauthorization of the Paperwork Reduction Act

Testimony of J. Robert Shull, Director of Regulatory Policy, before the Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs of the House Committee on Government Reform

on "The Paperwork Reduction Act at 25: Opportunities to Strengthen and Improve the Law"

Mar. 8, 2006

Read the press release

Download the prepared statement and appendix.Testimony of J. Robert Shull, Director of Regulatory Policy, before the Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs of the House Committee on Government Reform

on "The Paperwork Reduction Act at 25: Opportunities to Strengthen and Improve the Law"

read in full

More than Paperwork

Despite its name, the Paperwork Reduction Act concerns much more than paperwork: it is a comprehensive law for management of information resources. Find out more with this backgrounder and this at-a-glance summary of the major parts of the PRA.

read in full

GAO Reports: Paperwork Reduction Act

A compendium of GAO Reports related to the Paperwork Reduction Act and information management policy.

read in full

Risk Bulletin Advances Graham Anti-Reg Agenda

From cost-benefit guidelines to the new draft policy on risk assessments, White House regulatory czar John Graham has steadily proceeded with a long-range plan laying the groundwork for dramatic limits on public safeguards.

read in full

White House Proposes Guidelines to Control Agency Risk Assessments

When it rains, it pours: the same day the White House closed the comment period on its proposed bulletin to govern agency guidance practices, the White House Office of Management and Budget released a proposed bulletin to govern agency risk assessments.

read in full

White House 'Guidance' to Burden Agencies, Delay Information

A White House proposal will hinder federal agency efforts to provide important information to the public by opening guidance documents to politicization and industry influence, according to comments filed by Citizens for Sensible Safeguards.

read in full

White House Asserts Authority Over Agency Guidance Documents

The White House released a draft bulletin on the day before Thanksgiving that establishes new guidelines for non-rulemaking agency guidance documents.

read in full