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

Justice Nominee May Bring Sunlight to Office of Legal Counsel

On Jan. 5, President-elect Obama nominated Dawn Johnsen as Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). Johnsen has written articles advocating for restrained executive power and increased government transparency, in particular at OLC. The office issued several secret and controversial opinions during the Bush administration.

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Department of Energy Proposes Eliminating 20-Year-Old Disclosure Test

On Dec. 9, 2008, the Department of Energy (DOE) published a proposed rule that would revise its official Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) regulations to remove a 20-year-old requirement for weighing the public interest in records disclosure decisions. In the same rulemaking, DOE also proposed to raise FOIA copying fees from five cents to 20 cents a page.

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Hiccup in Plan to Pass SCHIP Expansion

Jan 13, 2009 by Adam Hughes*

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CBO 2009 Deficit Projection Tops $1 Trillion

Jan 7, 2009 by Craig Jennings

The Congressional Budget Office released its annual report on the ten-year budget and economic outlook. In 2009, CBO projects that the federal budget deficit will be $1.2 trillion. At 8.3 percent of GDP, that number would "shatter the previous post-World War II record high of 6.0 percent" And, that doesn't include a economic rescue package that will likely be well over $700 billion.

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Details of New House Rules Package

Jan 6, 2009 by Adam Hughes*

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Douglas Elmendorf Tapped as CBO Chief

Jan 5, 2009 by Craig Jennings

While we were glad to see Peter Orszag tapped to head OMB, we were equally sad to see the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) robbed of such an outstanding leader.

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Commission Proposals Being Pushed From Day 1

Jan 5, 2009 by Adam Hughes*

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We Wish You a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

Dec 23, 2008 by Craig Jennings

The Budget Brigade would like to wish you all a great holiday season and a super New Year. We would also like to thank all of our readers for following our work supporting us in 2008. We will be on vacation until January, but will return in 2009 to continue keeping an eye on things.

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Christmas Comes Early to Wall Street

Dec 22, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

We're on the verge of the holidays this Monday and the Associated Press reported yesterday that bank executives around the country received an early present this year, courtesy of Joe and Jane Taxpayer:

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Joe the Discloser -- Government Transparency in 2008

This year's historic presidential campaign introduced the country to a plethora of vocational symbols. It not only featured Joe the Plumber, but also Tito the Bricklayer, Rose the Teacher, and more. There were also a few Joes and Janes who had prominent roles in the restriction — and in a few cases, the expansion — of public information that may have gone unnoticed during the year. Hopefully for the last time in the life of our Republic, the government transparency events of 2008 are presented below according to vocational nomenclature.

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