New Posts

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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New Policy Recommendations Aim to Empower Americans and Strengthen Environmental Right to Know

WASHINGTON, May 10, 2011—112 organizations have endorsed a 102-page set of environmental right-to-know recommendations, which OMB Watch presented to the Obama administration on the groups' behalf. The recommendations, collaboratively drafted by advocates from across the country, aim to expand access to environmental information, equip citizens with data about their environmental health, and empower Americans to protect themselves, their families, and their communities from toxic pollution.

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Yes, Speaker Boehner, There is a Revenue Problem

Yesterday, after a speech on his preferred course of action on raising the debt ceiling, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said that "We do not have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem." Actually, the Speaker has a math problem.

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An Agenda to Strengthen Our Right to Know: Empowering Citizens with Environmental, Health, and Safety Information

Public engagement and access to environmental and public health information are vital democratic tools. A lack of government openness impairs everything from preventing – and cleaning up – oil spills to protecting children from toxic chemicals. The need to break down information barriers and bring the public back into the policymaking process is greater than ever. A lack of access to quality information – and to policymakers – hurts people and the landscapes we cherish and depend on. This report includes a comprehensive set of recommendations that are aimed at filling critical data gaps and empowering the American people to protect themselves, their families, and their communities from toxic pollution and other environmental health hazards.

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Commentary: Playing Chicken with the Debt Ceiling

Though it may be difficult to believe, Congress's budget trials and tribulations continue. While members of both parties are sorting through the details of April's fiscal year (FY) 2011 spending deal and sparring over the FY 2012 budget, the deadline to raise the nation's debt ceiling is fast approaching. Though the consequences of failing to increase the debt ceiling would be serious, some members of Congress have decided that they would rather play a game of "chicken" than address the issue in a responsible way.

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Senators Seek Medicare Transparency

A long-running dispute about access to Medicare claims data could be resolved by bills pending in the Senate. Proponents assert the measures could combat fraud and abuse in one of the federal government's most expensive programs and might also help improve health outcomes and consumer decision making.

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States Lead the Way on Contract Disclosure

Citizens have a right to know whether their tax dollars are being spent wisely. Unfortunately, the terms of government contracts are not routinely disclosed. A recent audit of ten federal agencies found that none of the agencies comprehensively posted contract information online. States, on the other hand, have begun innovating on contract disclosure.

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White House Visitor Disclosure is Commendable, But More Left to be Done

A House hearing on White House transparency and visitor logs could be an opportunity to focus on an important transparency issue if Congress decides not to play political games instead. Americans deserve to know who influences the government. The records of who meets with top government leaders should be open to the public.

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Forcing America to Choose Between Clean Air and a Stable Economy

The debate over raising the debt ceiling has become the latest front for the battle over the power of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to protect the public from dirty air and climate change by setting standards for greenhouse gases.

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Bad Idea

"I thought it over, and putting the American at economy in grave peril once a year would solve all my issues, so I figure, let's do it six times a year."

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The False Sense of Balance of a Balanced Budget Amendment

With federal borrowing rapidly approaching its statutory limit, Washing politicians are falling all over themselves to figure out how to extract more budget concessions from President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) in exchange for not throwing the world's financial markets into a panic.

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Resources & Research

Living in the Shadow of Danger: Poverty, Race, and Unequal Chemical Facility Hazards

People of color and people living in poverty, especially poor children of color, are significantly more likely...

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A Tale of Two Retirements: One for CEOs and One for the Rest of Us

The 100 largest CEO retirement funds are worth a combined $4.9 billion, equal to the entire retirement account savings of 41 percent of American fam...

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