The Department of Justice (DOJ) is seeking retroactive immunity for the telecommunications companies that cooperated with the National Security Agency's (NSA) warrantless surveillance program, utilizing power granted in the FISA Amendments Act of 2008.

In a Sept. 24 congressional hearing, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defended its proposal to exempt factory farms from reporting on airborne and chemical emissions from animal waste, even though the agency has no reliable information on public health impacts of the pollution. Without the reports, communities would not know when potentially dangerous animal waste releases occur. Emergency responders would also have less information when responding to citizens' reports of noxious odors.

After two years, numerous protests by the public, a formal grievance from a government employee union, a critical governmental report, and congressional intervention, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reopened agency libraries it closed as a purported cost-saving measure. The libraries generally are smaller and open fewer hours than before, are now controlled by a political appointee, and may have lost materials in the interim, but they are open to the public.