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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Wyden Targets Over-Classification

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) has successfully attached an amendment aimed at curbing excessive government secrecy to the Senate's intelligence reform legislation. Wyden proposes creating an independent review to provide periodic oversight to the system and limit excessive classification of documents.

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Senate Declines to Act on Corzine's Chemical Security Amendment

In an effort to break the congressional logjam on chemical security, Sen. Jon Corzine (D-NJ) has offered a piece of compromise legislation as an amendment to the intelligence reform bill. Unfortunately, the amendment was ruled non-germane to the bill and rejected from consideration.

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USAID Withholds Whistleblower Information, Legislation Moves Forward

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is accused of firing a whistleblower and withholding from Congress his information on environmental noncompliance in multi-national development bank projects.

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Long-term Fiscal Situation - USA Today Style

Oct 4, 2004 by Guest Blogger

USA Today lays out some of the longer-term numbers on the nation's fiscal health, and what needs to be done to bring the system into long-term balance.

$84,454 is the average household's personal debt. $473,456 is the average household's share of government debt, including Medicare and Social Security. The government isn't asking you to pay it. Yet.

By Dennis Cauchon and John Waggoner USA TODAY

The long-term economic health of the United States is threatened by $53 trillion in government debts and liabilities that start to come due in four years when baby boomers begin to retire.

The “Greatest Generation” and its baby-boom children have promised themselves benefits unprecedented in size and scope. Many leading economists say that even the world's most prosperous economy cannot fulfill these promises without a crushing increase in taxes — and perhaps not even then.

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Deficit Hits All-time High, Many Corporations Don't Pay Fair Share

Washington, DC, Sept. 22, 2004--The result of recent tax policy choices is that the 2004 deficit has reached an all-time high of $422 billion dollars. The Congressional Budget Office reported this month that only 11% of the FY 2004 deficit was due to cyclical factors, while 89% of the deficit was result of federal policy decisions. Not only is the current deficit the highest it has ever been in dollar terms, but in a recent analysis, OMB Watch Staff Economist John Irons projected that the deficit will reach $5.5 trillion over the next ten years. In addition, a new study released today by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) finds that many of the country’s biggest corporations are not paying their fair share of federal income taxes.

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Balanced Budget Amendment Could Destabilize Economy, Tie U.S. Hands

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 20, 2004 -- The House of Representatives is again set to consider an ill-conceived constitutional Balanced Budget Amendment (H. J. RES. 22). The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to address the proposal this Wednesday, September 22. Regardless of one’s opinions about the wisdom of balancing the budget or running massive deficits, the Balanced Budget Amendment is exceptionally bad economic policy.

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Nuclear Commission Avoids Accountability in Secret Rule Change

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission illegally issued new orders, without opportunity for public participation, that secretly change terrorism preparedness requirements for nuclear facilities, according to a challenge filed by two citizen groups and recently argued in a federal appeals court.

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House Committee, Journals Call for More Clinical Trial Data

Members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee blasted the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week for urging drug companies to withhold information on the efficacy of antidepressants used on children. The controversy comes just as patient advocacy groups, the American Medical Association, and a dozen medical journal editors are calling on pharmaceutical companies to register their clinical trials in order to meet increasing public demand for information on the effectiveness and safety of drugs. Lack of Information on Clinical Trials Leads to Use of Ineffective Drugs

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Highlights from the Right to Know Resource Center

Homeland security is the hot issue of the day. So what could be better than to highlight in one place the many resources and groups working to represent the public's interests in homeland security debates? The Right to Know Resource Center, coordinated by OMB Watch for OpenTheGovernment.org, introduces the many facets of homeland security policies, explains the impacts on efforts to undermine the Freedom of Information Act and summarizes restrictions on the free flow of information in our open society that give the biggest opportunities for abuse.

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House Resolution on Energy Task Force Fails

The House Energy and Commerce Committee rejected a resolution last Wednesday that would have sought information on Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force. The resolution sparked a rowdy and highly partisan committee session in which no debate was allowed before the vote. Reps. John Dingell (D-MI), Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Edward Markey (D-MA) introduced House Resolution 745 on July 22. If passed, it would have asked President Bush to provide the House with specified task force information within two weeks. The information would include:

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