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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Public Being Shut Out of Environmental Right-to-Know Hearings

House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (R-CA) has established a congressional task force to review and make recommendations on how to 'improve' the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). As the task force holds hearings around the country, however, environmentalists and ordinary citizens are finding it difficult to participate.

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New Jersey Attorney General's Office Scraps Proposed Secrecy Rule

New Jersey's Office of the Attorney General has announced the state will abandon plans to establish controversial restrictions to its Open Public Records Act (OPRA). The restrictions, proposed in a state rule change, would have required requesters to prove a "need-to-know" before the state would release information about chemical hazards. The added burden on the public could have severely limited access to toxic-chemical inventories and other records widely used to monitor public health and safety, workplace conditions, and environmental quality.

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Congressional Action on Pensions More Likely Than SS

Sep 1, 2005 by Guest Blogger

Congress is more likely to act on pension reform than social security reform this year, according to today's BNA: "Congress ultimately may fail to find accord on Social Security reforms and instead pass more targeted pension reform legislation when it returns from its summer recess, sources who follow the issue told BNA Aug. 31." Michael Tanner, director of the Cato Institute's Project on Social Security Choice, told BNA Aug. 31 that Congress is likely to pass a pension bill, even if it fails to muster support for Social Security changes. "You could get a decent pension bill regardless of what happens with Social Security," Tanner said. Jason Furman, a senior fellow with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, rarely agrees with Tanner, a proponent of Social Security payroll tax-financed individual investment accounts. But Furman also said he expected Congress to act on pensions. "Something on the defined benefit [pension plan] side has to happen," Furman told BNA Aug. 31. Furman said he anticipated that Congress would feel compelled to pass provisions aimed at strengthening the funding of defined benefit pension plans and measures aimed at bolstering the federal pension insurer, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. "On Social Security, it is extremely unlikely that anything will be enacted by Congress. What the Republicans are trying to do is retreat from this issue," Furman said.

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Census Data Shows American Continue to Struggle

Aug 30, 2005 by Adam Hughes*

The Census Bureau released its annual report on poverty, income, and health insurance in the United States and the news is not good. The number of Americans living in poverty rose for the forth year in a row as 1.1 million more Americans were officially poor in 2004 than the year before. The data shows almost 1 in 5 American children live in poverty. In additon, almost 1 million more Americans lacked health insurance, primarily due to a decrease in employer-provided health care. Unfortunately for working families, total household income remained stagnant and income for men and women employed in full-time jobs decreased significantly. This is the first time ever that household income has failed to increase for five straight years. The Census data give just a glimpse of the reality being faced by more and more working Americans who are being forced to live without health insurance and have less money with which to purchase their own as employers increasingly focus on their profit margins at the expense of their workers. The current economic policies are not working for most Americans - only those already well-off. The decline in indicators of poverty and income for the fourth straight year should be a wake-up call for members of Congress and the administration who are seeking to make those policies permanent. It is time for a change. Read More: > Census Data Full Report> Income Stagnated and Poverty Rose in 2004, Census Shows > Coalition on Human Needs Release on Census Poverty Data > Economic Recovery Failed to Benefit Much of Population in 2004

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MEDIA ALERT: Media Call for Release of 2005 Secrecy Report Card

OpenTheGovernment.org will hold a call for reporters and editorial board members for the release of its second annual Secrecy Report Card on Thursday, September 1, 2005 at 12:30pm EST. This year's report card features an encyclopedia of government restrictions on "sensitive but unclassified" information, plus all-new reporting on "patent secrecy orders," state-level legislation, and closed advisory committee meetings. Examined alongside updated figures on classification, whistleblowers, and information requests under the Freedom of Information Act, these findings point to unprecedented levels of government secrecy.

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Economy and Jobs Watch: Continuing Bad News for Americans

Last month's economic news has been far from encouraging for most Americans, with a continuation of an uneven and unpredictable job market, rising consumer prices, and declining earnings. Yet, despite the grim realities faced by most working families in the U.S. the recovery period has been very good to business, with corporate profits up over 15 percent since it began. A survey of indicators shows the Bush administration's economic policies, specifically how they value profits for corporations over the bottom line for average Americans, have further eroded the country's economic health.

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Industry Misuses Data Quality Act to Challenge EPA Choices

Two industry groups recently filed challenges, under the Data Quality Act, against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) methodological choices. Both challenges focus on evaluations of human health risks from specific chemicals. The petitions specifically question documents that address emissions of Metam Sodium, a pesticide, and Dioxin/Furan, used to produce cement. The petitions challenge EPA procedures, however, which are policy decisions made within the agency -- and not data -- and as such lie outside the scope of the Data Quality Act (DQA).

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Minnesota Considers 'Biomonitoring' to Protect Public Health

Minnesota lawmakers are considering biomonitoring legislation that would test Minnesota citizens to determine their exposure levels to a variety of toxic chemicals. The proposed law seeks to better gauge health risks currently posed by such chemicals, as the first step toward controlling and reducing those risks.

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Open-Government Activist Seeks to Recover Legal Fees from FOIA battle

After winning a four-year legal battle for access to county documents concerning the Seahawks Stadium, a Seattle resident has returned to court seeking greater financial compensation for his efforts. King County Superior Court Judge Michael Hayden heard arguments on August 19, during which Armen Yousoufian sought an award of more than $1 million in compensation for his legal fees and as a deterrent to prevent other agencies from stonewalling citizen requests of public information.

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Town Seeks to Keep Secret Maps, Images

Officials in the town of Greenwich, Connecticut are compiling a list of vulnerable public buildings and utilities and plan to withhold aerial images and maps of these sites from the public, despite having been ordered by the Connecticut Supreme Court to disclose them. Mapping information has been a continual target for proponents of increased government secrecy, even though little evidence supports their claims that such information is too dangerous to remain public.

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