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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EPA Likely to Require "Terror Checks" at Chemical Plants

According to Associated Press reports last week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may finally begin to require chemical plants to assess their vulnerabilities to a terrorist attack, and then take measures to reduce those risks. While chemical plants have always posed significant risks to communities from “routine” accidents, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 prompted a reassessment of these threats and greater sense of urgency in addressing these risks, and as OMB Watch previously reported here, chemical plants have failed to effectively address the threats on their own.

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Estate Tax Briefings

A successful nonprofit briefing on the estate tax was held on June 6. A press briefing to release the results of a nationwide poll by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research will be held Wednesday, June 12.

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House Passes Permanent Repeal of the Estate Tax (Again)

The House wanted its vote on Thurs. June 6th on permanent repeal of the estate tax (H.R. 2143) to send a signal to the Senate showing widening support for repeal. The vote did send a signal, though not the one the House had intended.

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Estate Tax Repeal Advocates Up the Stakes in Estate Tax Debate

In an effort to re-emphasize their dogged commitment to tax breaks for the very wealthy, House Republicans announced last week that they would bring up the issue of permanent estate tax repeal for a vote shortly after they return from their Memorial Day recess - on June 5 or 6.

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House-Passed Superwaiver is Even Worse Than Earlier Versions

The Administration's "superwaiver" proposal that passed the House on May 16 as part of welfare reform (H.R. 4737) would provide cabinet secretaries with new, far-reaching authority to approve state applications to waive federal laws and regulations affecting a number of programs -- even more than earlier versions indicated.

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House Passes $29.6 Billion Supplemental

Before adjourning for its week-long Memorial Day recess, the House passed the President's emergency supplemental appropriations bill on May 24, in a 280-138 vote. Supplemental appropriations bills, such as this one, are common tools to bridge the gap between one fiscal year's appropriations and the next. This $29.6 billion supplemental, $2 billion more than the President's initial $27.1 billion request, will provide added funding for this fiscal year, which ends September 30.

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New Work on Data Quality

Data Quality Efforts OMB Watch has been extremely active on the Data Quality guidelines that have recently been drafted by most federal agencies. This article summarizes the main efforts OMB Watch has been involved in and the key documents and analysis we have produced. Background

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Principles for Agency Data Quality Guidelines

Federal agencies are currently seeking public input on their proposed data quality guidelines, which raise a number of significant concerns. Specifically, agencies should address the following areas as they finalize their guidelines:

Judicial Review. Agencies should clearly state that the guidelines do not provide any new adjudicatory authority. Nor are agencies legally bound by the guidelines and should reserve the right to depart from them when appropriate.
Administrative Mechanisms.

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EPA Turns Over Documents on Information Removal, Yet Questions Remain

Soon after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, EPA began combing its web site for any information that could potentially be used to stage another attack, according to internal agency documents and emails obtained by OMB Watch through a Freedom of Information Act request -- and almost immediately, information began coming down on a scale much larger than previously reported, as this inventory shows.

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OMB Watch Freedom of Information Act Request to EPA

On December 20, 2001, OMB Watch submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) -- as well as several other federal agencies -- for information removed from its web site post September 11th, and any guidance or criteria used for the removal. The following is a copy of the letter sent to EPA. December 20, 2001 Betty A. Lopez Associate Director, FOIA Operations EPA 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20460 Dear Ms. Lopez: Re: Freedom of Information Request

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