OMB Watch submitted comments to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) yesterday, criticizing its Feb. 11 proposed rule on sensitive but unclassified information. The agency's proposed amendments for 'Safeguards Information' and 'Safeguards Information-Modified' are extremely vague and would hide vast amounts of information from public purview, reducing access and accountability at the already secretive agency.

The House of Representatives voted to attach H.R. 418, the REAL ID Act — a bill that includes a dangerous provision empowering the Secretary of Homeland Security to waive all law when securing the nation’s borders — as a rider to the Iraq war supplemental, which passed the House and now is moving to the Senate. The House decided on March 16 to attach H.R. 418 as a rider by voice vote and subsequently voted out the must-pass supplemental with a vote of 388-43.

On Feb. 25, the U.S. Department of Justice joined the rail company CSX in litigation to derail a new Washington, DC, law which bans hazardous cargo shipments through the district. In a brief filed with the Federal District Court, DOJ asserts that hazardous chemical shipments are part of interstate commerce and therefore may only be regulated by federal law.

Almost a full year ago OMB Watch filed a request, under the Freedom of Information Act, to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for information on their Critical Infrastructure Information (CII) program. The request sought an accounting of how the program was used thus far including the number of submissions, rejections, and communications, as well as program procedures for handling information. Unfortunately, DHS was not very prompt with answers. In fact, it took a summons filed in the DC Circuit Court to get even a few pieces of basic information about the CII program.