New Posts

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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Public Still At Risk of Chemical Plant Attack

The Washington Post reported last week that a previously undisclosed study by the Army surgeon general concludes that as many as 2.4 million people are at risk of being killed or injured in a terrorist attack against a U.S. toxic chemical plant in a densely populated area. This shocking number is twice as high as previous government estimates of possible casualties of a worst-case scenario involving terrorist attacks on chemical plants.

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Coalition Calls for Reduction of Chemical Hazards

The Safe Hometowns Initiative, a coalition of citizen groups, announced yesterday that six months after the Sept. 11 attacks, millions of Americans remain at risk from possible terrorist attacks on chemical storage facilities.

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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.

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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.

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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

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Democracy's Strength -- An Informed Public

Recently, the push has been to exempt Critical Infrastructure information from the FOIA. No one disagrees that there is some information that the public should not have, at least for a specified period of time — although there may be disagreements on the nature of that information and on the length of time. (Keynote address by Patrice McDermott, Senior Policy Analyst, OMB Watch, to US Department of Energy, Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act Conference.) Democracy's Strength—An Informed Public Keynote Address by Patrice McDermott to U.S. Department of Energy

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Sign-On Letter Opposing Leak Statute

OMB Watch and others sign on to letter to White House urging the President to veto the Intelligence Authorization Act because it, for the first time in American history, creates an "official secrets" act. October 30, 2000 John Podesta Chief of Staff The White House Washington, D.C. 20500 Dear Mr. Podesta: We are writing to encourage the President to take the strongest possible action to prevent -- or at the very minimum delay - the implementation of Section 303 of H.R. 4392 "Prohibition on Unauthorized Disclosure of Classified Information." As you know,

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    Official Secrets Act Homepage

    In 2001, Congress passed -- and President Clinton vetoed -- what would have been this nation's first "official secrets act," criminalizing leaks of any "properly classified" information. This web site presents the essential background for the public debate over this "pernicious secrecy bill," sponsored by Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), who will no doubt propose leaks legislation again this year. Official Secrets Act [ OSA Homepage | The Issues | 2001 Attack | Congressional Letter | 2000 Attack | Links ]

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    City E-Gov Evaluations

    San Diego, San Jose, and Seattle are among the best city "e-government" websites in the U.S., according to the August 2001 Civic Resources Group report and Brown University's Taubman Center September 2001 report. The three cities took top spots on both lists.

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    Taking Another Look at the Critical Infrastructure Debate

    On September 12, one day after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, although most hearings were cancelled, the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee convened a hearing on America's critical information infrastructure. The hearing was originally scheduled to examine the security of the critical cyber-infrastructure and to allow the Committee to hear the challenges that remain in government's efforts to secure the critical information infrastructure, which includes telecommunications and transportation, under Presidential Decision Directive 63.

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    Resources & Research

    Living in the Shadow of Danger: Poverty, Race, and Unequal Chemical Facility Hazards

    People of color and people living in poverty, especially poor children of color, are significantly more likely...

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    A Tale of Two Retirements: One for CEOs and One for the Rest of Us

    The 100 largest CEO retirement funds are worth a combined $4.9 billion, equal to the entire retirement account savings of 41 percent of American fam...

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    more resources