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...

read in full

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

more news

EPA Plans Early Release of Some TRI Data

EPA recently held a meeting with interested stakeholders to explain its intention to release 2002 Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) data much earlier than in recent years. Under EPA's current plans the 2002 TRI would be available on the agency's website in February or March, several months ahead of the recent release times of May or June.

read in full

Government Web Pages Altered to Hide Information

The recent takedown of a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) web page and a new Department of Defense (DoD) memo provide two more examples of the Bush administration’s penchant for altering information to fit its interests.

read in full

FBI Marks Almanacs as Terrorist Tools

Almanacs may assist potential terrorists in selecting targets and planning attacks, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The agency sent a message to roughly 18,000 law enforcement agencies on Dec. 24, 2003 urging police to keep alert of anyone carrying almanacs, especially if they contain notations. The alert did acknowledge almanacs could be used for legitimate reasons.

read in full

Groups Asks High Court to Open Unusually Secret Case

Public interest and media organizations this week appealed to the Supreme Court to stop the near-total secrecy surrounding the five-month detention of a Florida waiter as part of what the federal government claims to be a terrorism-related investigation. They did this through a friend of the court or an amicus brief. The case has been handled with unusual secrecy (see Watcher, Nov. 17). The existence of the case is known outside the court system only because documents identifying the case were inadvertently and temporarily filed in the public docket and a reporter discovered the case.

read in full

Needs UP, Services DOWN

Today, more Americans are looking to the government for help, yet the budgets of government-funded social service programs are dwindling.

read in full

Longer-run Economic Performance

Jan 6, 2004 by Guest Blogger

Sustained Budget Deficits: Longer-Run U.S. Economic Performance and the Risk of Financial and Fiscal Disarray Robert E. Rubin, Peter Orszag, and Allen Sinai

read in full

OMB Watch Submits Comments on EPA's Report on the Environment

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) engaged in an ambitious undertaking when it published it's Draft Report on the Environment (ROE). While we support EPA’s intentions for the report and understand the difficult task they undertook, OMB Watch believes that a great deal of work is needed to make the ROE a truly useful tool. The EPA fails to provide enough information on the methodology and indicators used in the report. The report would also benefit from a more objective tone. Numerous information gaps also detract from the comprehensiveness of the report.

read in full

Arizona Charities and the Estate Tax

Dec 22, 2003 by Guest Blogger

A story from the Arizona Republic

read in full

Watcher Newsletter: Dec 17

Dec 17, 2003 by Guest Blogger

OMB Watch - The Watcher - December 15, 2003 Vol.4 No.25 -

Federal Budget
The Omnibus Spending Bill and the Budget Process A Call to Action! A Long-Term Tax and Budget Plan The Bush Tax Economy and Jobs Watch: Employment and Output Data

read in full

Another Lawsuit Filed Under the Data Quality Act

The Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) filed a lawsuit Dec. 9 against the Army Corp of Engineers alleging the Corp released a status report that violates the Data Quality Act. The Corp failed to respond to a request for correction under the Department of Defense’s data quality guidelines filed by PEER on Aug. 20.

read in full