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

Notes from the Economy: There's a Deeper Problem than Housing

Aug 5, 2008 by Craig Jennings

Former Clinton Labor Secretary and current UC Berkeley professor Robert Reich really nails it on his blog today:

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Pesticide Problems Go Unnoticed by EPA

The Center for Public Integrity (CPI) has discovered that two groups of common pesticides, generally considered to be "safer" chemicals, are responsible for one quarter of reported human pesticide poisonings, based on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) own data. CPI spent several years demanding the release of the data through repeated Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. A trade association representing the interests of the consumer specialty products industry denounced the report.

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State Secrets Problems are No Secret to Congress

On July 31, the House Judiciary Committee heard testimony concerning the State Secrets Protection Act (H.R. 5607), sponsored by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), which would grant the judiciary greater authority to question executive branch secrecy. The act would establish a set of procedures and standards for assessing executive branch claims to the state secrets privilege.

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Bills to Reign in Controlled Unclassified Information Fly through House

A bill to reduce and standardize Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) designations moved quickly through the House in July, passing in both committee and on the House floor just a single week after it was introduced by Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Tom Davis (R-VA). This bill, along with a similar piece of legislation that focuses solely on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), now goes to the Senate where it may have a tougher time given the limited amount of legislative time left in this congressional session.

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Notes from the Economy: Employment

Aug 1, 2008 by Craig Jennings

Jobs data released this morning show that the economy continued to a seven-month trend of shedding jobs. July's bottom-line job-loss number was mitigated by an increase of 25,000 government jobs; private sector employment dropped by 76,000. Since January, the economy has lost 463,000 jobs. The unemployment rate also moved upward from 5.5 percent to 5.7 percent. In the past year, the unemployment rate has rise 1.0 percent as 1.6 million workers have become unemployed. (click to enlarge)

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The Blind Leading the Blinder?

Jul 31, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

Yesterday, the Senate voted once again against beginning debate on a package of tax cuts called the "extenders" for the fourth time this year. The vote was 51-43, and will put off any consideration of the legislation until Congress returns from their August recess on September 8.

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FedSpending.org Reaches 10 Millionth Search; Additional Data Now Available

WASHINGTON, July 29, 2008—In June 2008, the groundbreaking FedSpending.org website reached another milestone — the site saw its 10 millionth search by a person since its launch in October 2006. In that time, FedSpending.org has grown to process more than 1 million searches from approximately 400,000 unique visitors each month. On July 1, Alexa.com ranked FedSpending.org 32,259 in traffic among websites on the Internet.

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Senate Republicans Remain Mighty Stubborn

Jul 29, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

Last night, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) filed a motion to proceed to a package of tax cuts commonly called the "extenders" for the third time this year. Senate Republicans have blocked consideration of the proposal twice before, insisting that the Senate continue to debate an energy market speculation bill until lawmakers add something dealing with gas prices. While it isn't clear if the Senate will reach the 60 votes necessary to begin debating the bill (the vote is this afternoon), it is certain that time is running out.

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FY 2009 Deficit Projection Revised Upward to $482 Billion

Jul 28, 2008 by Craig Jennings

OMB released the FY 2009 Mid Session Review (MSR) today, and the headlines are blaring that the document revises the White House's projected

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Swing and a Miss on Canceling SCHIP Cuts

Jul 25, 2008 by Craig Jennings

The Senate missed an opportunity this week to beat back a Bush administration policy that will keep low-income kids from receiving government insurance.

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