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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Speaker-Elect Pelosi to Push Worker Rights in '07

Dec 8, 2006 by Craig Jennings

Tracking inversely with income inequality over the past 20 years has been the rate of union membership among American workers. From a peak of 20.1% in 1983, the unionization rate has fallen to 12.5% in 2005 (the latest year for which the latest data are available). In addition to this correlation are empirical data which show that declining union membership explains 15-20% of the increase in income inequality for males.

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Perverse Priorities in the Tax Extenders Package

Dec 8, 2006 by Matt Lewis

Though popular, the tax extenders package that seems headed for approval today is not without its perverse aspects. For instance, a funding patch for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) was stripped out of the package, at the same time that funding for Health Savings Accounts (HSA) was added. SCHIP benefits low-income children- HSAs the wealthy and privileged. For more, see this statement by Robert Greenstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorites. It has been known all year that without additional SCHIP funding, 17 states would face SCHIP

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CBO Directors Gloomy about Health Care

Dec 6, 2006 by Matt Lewis

CongressDaily AM($) picked up a meeting of three former CBO directors who aren't very optimistic about the nation's fiscal health. Pessimistic about Congress' willingness to address looming fiscal shortfalls in federal healthcare and Social Security programs, three former CBO directors said Tuesday the outlook is bleak for heading off the problems.

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EPA Drops Plan to Change TRI Reporting Frequency, Major Flaws Remain

In light of the midterm elections and ongoing pressure from the current Republican controlled Congress, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is changing its views on some plans for the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), the nation's premiere environmental right to know program. EPA has announced it will retain annual reporting of toxic pollution, dropping its proposal to shift reporting to every other year.

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Terrorism Information Sharing Initiative Faces Several Hurdles

The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) submitted the Information Sharing Environment (ISE) Implementation Plan to Congress in November. Through changes in policy and technology, the plan articulates a multi-year vision for improving terrorism information sharing across the federal government and between foreign, federal, state and local governments, as well as key members of the private sector.

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Pelosi and Reid Promise Increased Congressional Transparency

The new Democratic leadership in Congress is urging transparency as a primary tool to reform the legislative process. According to statements from incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), the leadership is planning several new rules and pieces of legislation on tracking earmarks, requiring time to read proposed legislation, and media access to conference committee activities - all with a central theme of increased congressional transparency.

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Not a Happy Anniversary

Dec 4, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

ThinkProgress notes that, as of Saturday, the current minimum wage has gone the longest without an increase since its inception in 1938.

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The 110th to Protect Credit Consumers?

Dec 1, 2006 by Craig Jennings

With the bursting of the real estate bubble and increases in interest rates, access to cheap home equity loans is drying up and adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) are taking up larger portions of homeowners’ take home pay. As household finances begin tightening, consumers will be increasingly reaching for their credit cards, and not just for big-ticket purchases like plasma TVs, but for more everyday expenses like food and utility bills.

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Medicaid Costs Stablizing

Nov 28, 2006 by Matt Lewis

USA Today reported yesterday that Medicaid costs have been decreasing over the last year, and editorializes (opinionates?) on the subject today. Like other social welfare programs, Medicaid has been a victim of its own success. It will cost taxpayers $300 billion this year (about 70% of the Pentagon's budget) and serves 56 million poor Americans. It has been the fastest-growing expense for states over the past decade, threatening to break budgets and force service cuts. Until now.

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Supreme Court May Hear Secret Regulation Case

Several groups are appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on a secret Transportation Security Administration (TSA) regulation. The regulation requires airlines to check the identification of passengers. The Ninth Circuit held that, even though the rule is not publicly accessible, it does not violate the Constitution's protection of due process.

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