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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more news

Sunshine Week Arrives

The week of March 17 marks the third annual national Sunshine Week, a nonpartisan campaign to promote openness in government and access to public records.

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Democrats Pass Budget in House & Senate

Mar 14, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

The House and Senate successfully passed their versions of the FY 2009 budget resolution yesterday. The House passed their spending outline on a mostly party-line vote 212 - 207 and the Senate passed their version early this morning 51 - 44 (roll call not available yet). Sixteen Democrats in the House opposed the budget along with all Republicans and in the Senate, Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Susan Collins (R-ME) supported the budget, while Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) opposed it.

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Saxton: Top 1% Pay Too Much in Taxes

Mar 13, 2008 by Craig Jennings

Joint Economic Committee ranking member Rep. Jim Saxton (R-NJ) wants us to know what a soul-crushing burden of taxes the richest one percent of income earners shoulder. The share of federal income taxes paid by the top 1 percent of households ranked by income increased from 36.5 percent in 2000 to 38.8 percent in 2005, recent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) data show. ... "Despite the contention that the tax cuts would unfairly reduce the tax burden of the rich, their share of taxes has in fact gone up," Saxton concluded.

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Estate Tax Madness

Mar 13, 2008 by Craig Jennings

The Senate has officially gone over the the bad place. Three out of the first seven amendments to the FY 2009 budget resolution propose to make costly changes to the estate tax. While only one of them was adopted, unfortunately the breakdown of the votes showed less support for a rational, fiscally responsible reform to the estate tax. Here's a quick summary of the amendments:

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Private Sector Bleeding Jobs Since December

Mar 10, 2008 by Craig Jennings

Friday's job figures - a 63,000 job loss - are further evidence that the economy is taking a downward turn, but the private sector has been cutting jobs since December. The real story, however, is in the private sector, which took a 101,000 job hit in January. (click to enlarge)

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Senate Budget Committee Approves FY 2009 Budget Resolution

Mar 6, 2008 by Craig Jennings

Voting along party lines - 12-10 -, the Senate Budget Committee has approved its FY 2009 budget resolution. The $3.1 billion resolution includes a one-year, non-offset $62 billion AMT patch. And at $472 billion, its non-defense, domestic top line is 2.2% more than Bush's $462 billion proposal.

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DAILY FISCAL POLICY REPORT -- Mar. 6, 2008

Mar 6, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

The House budget resolution, legislation and statements

Legislation

Chairman's Mark
Chairman's Mark Summary
Budget resolution funding levels by function

Statements

House Budget Committee Chairman Spratt
House Minority Leader Boehner
Blue Dog Coalition

The Senate budget resolution, legislation and statements

Legislation

Chairman's Mark
Chairman's Mark Summary

Statements

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New Medicaid Rules May Cost States Triple Administration Estimate

Mar 4, 2008 by Craig Jennings

Yesterday, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Democrats released a report detailing the effects of the Bush Administration's Medicaid rule changes (one went into effect on Monday while several others are pending). According to the report, the new rules would cost state governments a total of $50 billion over five years - over three times the administration's $15 billion estimate. The report is the product of the House committee's request to states to estimate their expected federal funding losses due to the proposed Medicaid rule changes.

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Inspectors General Need More Independence

A new study by the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) found that many Inspector General (IG) offices do not have sufficient independence to effectively discharge their responsibilities to investigate agencies for possible mismanagement, waste, fraud, or abuse.

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EPA Releases 2006 TRI Data

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the 2006 Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data on Feb. 21. This is the fastest data release in the history of the program, although it still constitutes more than a year of lag time from the period the data refers to, and it still takes four months longer than Canada's National Pollutant Release Inventory. The 2006 data, which marks the first year that facilities are allowed to stop detailed reporting on chemical waste of less than 5,000 pounds, indicates that nationwide, 4.25 billion pounds of toxic pollution were released, which was a two percent decrease from 2005.

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