Open, Accountable Government

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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Tools You Can Use - Links to Various Resources

Listing of useful federal budget and tax resources for nonprofits. Prepared for the Federation for Community Planning's "Federal Budget Training Academy" held in DC September 21-24, 2003.

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Administration Hid Number of Detainees in Iraq

U.S. officials have been hiding the actual number of prisoners in Iraq for months, after a news report last week placed the new number at 10,000. Of these prisoners, 3,800 are considered “security detainees” and went unreported for months. Officials said they previously did not have a proper category for the prisoners, therefore leaving them out of the actual count.

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Ashcroft Budges Slightly on Patriot Act Secrecy

After receiving sharp criticism, Attorney General John Ashcroft has decided to release a fragment of information available on how the USA Patriot Act is being used in libraries. This follows pointed words by Ashcroft, characterizing the concern voiced by those worried about library surveillance as “hysterics.”

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DHS CII Docket Published, Not User-Friendly

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) finally published public comments to the proposed Critical Infrastructure Information (CII) rule on its website. OMB Watch published the comments on our site Sept. 3 after DHS failed to post them according to its timeline. Although the comments are now publicly available through DHS, the entire dissemination process DHS followed has been poor and could set a bad precedent for the agency's future rulemakings.

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Buzzflash interviews Krugman

Sep 11, 2003 by Guest Blogger

Paul Krugman talks about the deficit and economic policy in an interview with Buzzflash.

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Cost of War

Sep 9, 2003 by Guest Blogger

Cost of War .com

The President is asking for an additional $87 billion for Iraq. 87 billion is in some ways an inconceivably large number. CostofWar.com is tracking the ongoing cost of war/reconstruction in Iraq and translating the numbers into forgone opportunities. For example - well over 1 million four-year college scholarships could be funded with the current war costs.

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Administration Gains New Power to Withold 'Sensitive' Information

Following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Bush administration moved to broadly restrict public access to information in the name of security. Federal agencies began summarily removing tens of thousands of documents from their web sites, purportedly because they might be useful in preparing another attack.

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New Watcher Articles

Sep 9, 2003 by Guest Blogger

OMB Watch - The Watcher - September 8, 2003 Vol.4 No.18 -

Federal Budget Watcher Articles:

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Foundation Expenses, Charitable Giving to be Debated in the House

Should foundation administrative expenses count toward their required annual 5 percent “payout,” or should only grants count? A controversial provision of the Charitable Giving Act (H.R. 7) eliminates all administrative expenses from the payout requirement, and will be debated at a mark-up scheduled for Tuesday, September 10 in the House Ways and Means Committee.

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Industry and Nonprofits Divided In Support for Proposed CII Rule

Comments submitted on the proposed Critical Infrastructure (CII) Rule by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) indicate disagreement between public interest groups and the private sector. OMB Watch posted the docket online last week when DHS failed to make them publicly available.

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