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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Congress Pulls Chair Up to NSA Spying Table

The Senate has continued its efforts to establish some level of oversight of the National Security Administration (NSA) warrantless spying program. The Senate Judiciary Committee held another hearing on the program, while three Senate bills have been introduced to establish congressional control over the program.

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There's a New Chemical Security Bill in Town

On March 30, Sens. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Barack Obama (D-IL) introduced a new bill on chemical plant security, The Chemical Security and Safety Act, with a major improvement over current chemical security proposals: it includes a requirement that chemical plants consider inherently safer technologies. The bill also establishes a more active role for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the implementation of chemical security requirements.

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Krugman Responds to Secretary Snow's Assertions

Mar 24, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Following up on yesterday's post regarding income inequality, Paul Krugman has an op-ed in today's NY Times in which he challenges Secretary Snow's recent comments on income inequality going down between 2000 and 2003. As Krugman points out, even though the economy grew fast in 2004, few families saw the benefits of this growth. Instead, the rich got richer. As he says, "Forbes tells us that the compensation of chief executives at the 500 largest corporations rose 54 percent in 2004." Most others he says, have not seen their incomes rise. He says:

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The Debate on Income Inequality

Mar 23, 2006 by Guest Blogger

The Treasury has measured that the income gap has grown narrower between 2000 and 2003, with Secretary John Snow telling reporters yesterday, "There has been a decline in the inequality." This statement is based on the fact that in 2003, the top 5 percent of Americans earned earned 15.4 percent of the nation's after-tax income in 2003, down from 19 percent in 2000. The bottom 20 percent earned 2.5 percent of all U.S. after-tax income, up from 2.3 percent in 2000. The Treasury data also shows, however, that the gap was larger in 2003 than it was in 1990.

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Income Inequality Has Intensified Under Bush

Though the Bush administration continues to laud the strength of the economy and the success of its economic and tax policies, a large percentage of Americans are continuing to struggle to make ends meet as income growth has become increasingly concentrated at the top of the income scale. Income inequality, in fact, is at an all-time high, illustrating that current tax, budget, and wage and employment policies are all not working in favor of average American families.

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Sunshine Week Marked by National Discussion, News Coverage

The public is growing weary and distrustful of burgeoning government secrecy--that's the message brought to the public last week during Sunshine Week (March 12-18th), an effort by the media, civic groups, libraries, universities and others to highlight the importance of open government.

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Spotlight on Secrecy and Overclassification

Testifying before the House Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, representatives from the National Archives, the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Energy (DOE) received harsh questions regarding a secretive, multi-agency reclassification program, as well as unclear sensitive but unclassified (SBU) policies.

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Court Rejects Data Quality Act Case Brought by Industry

A recent appeals court decision has dealt a blow to what many consider frivolous challenges to sound science made under the Data Quality Act (DQA). On March 6, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Salt Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce under DQA, when judges found that the act does not allow for judicial review and that the plaintiffs had not show injury and thus lacked standing.

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Louisville Air Quality Program Threatened

Kentucky state lawmakers are considering a bill that would threaten the future of a fledgling air pollution program in Louisville. The program, called the Strategic Toxic Air Reduction (STAR) program, was passed unanimously by the Louisville Air Pollution Control Board in June 2005, and requires industrial facilities in the area to reduce emissions of 18 hazardous air pollutants.

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House Bill to Roll Back Food Safety

The "National Uniformity for Food Act" (H.R. 4167) that would preempt nearly 200 food safety laws and affect state law in all 50 states, passed out of the House on March 8, to ire of consumer advocates. The legislation was introduced by Reps. Mike Rogers (R-MI) and Ed Towns (D-NY).

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