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

Smoking Grassley

Aug 23, 2006 by Matthew Madia

In a memo to reporters and editors , Senate Finance Committee chair Charles Grassley (R-IA) hailed last week’s CBO report, The Budget and Economic Outlook: An Update — which projected an FY2006 federal deficit of $260 billion -- thusly:

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Katrina and Welfare Links

Aug 23, 2006 by Matt Lewis

The Coalition for Human Needs just put up an excellent database of links to resources on Katrina and welfare reform issues. Take a look if you're interested in learning the latest about these milestones in the fight against poverty.

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More on Marron

Aug 22, 2006 by Matthew Madia

As reported here, last week’s description of this year’s federal deficit by CBO Acting Director Donald Marron’s as “sustainable” provoked the ire of Kent Conrad (D-ND), the ranking Senate Budget Committee member, and John M. Spratt Jr. (D-SC), the ranking House Budget Committee member. Maron became Acting director when Douglas J. Holtz-Eakin left at the end of 2005, roughly halfway through his term. Amid the stir raised last week by Marron’s comments, the question was raised regarding the tenure of a CBO acting director.

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Despite Short-Term Gains, CBO Forecasts Grim Long-Term Fiscal Outlook

On Aug. 17, The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released the annual summer update to its Budget and Economic Outlook report. In it, CBO lowers its estimate of the Fiscal Year 2006 budget deficit by 30 percent from its March analysis and now projects the year-end deficit at $260 billion. The rosy news, however, did little to assuage analysts' concerns over fiscal challenges looming on the horizon.

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Open Government Rising Issue for 2006 Elections

With November--and its many state, local and midterm Congressional elections--just around the corner, candidates are promising citizens a more open government in exchange for their vote. Access advocates believe that recent revelations about government secrecy (such the National Security Administration's covert warrantless spying program) and Washington corruption scandals have boosted public support for more democratic and less secretive government at the national, state and local levels, and campaigns are picking up on it.

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Federal Court Finds NSA Eavesdropping Program Unconstitutional

In a ruling last week, the U.S. Court for the Eastern District of Michigan found the National Security Agency's (NSA) warrantless domestic spying program to be in violation of the First and Fourth Amendments and the separation of powers. The decision came on a case filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) challenging the legality of the NSA program by arguing that the rights of several journalists and academics had been violated.

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New Official Secrets Law?: Case Threatens Open Government and Freedom of Press

On Aug. 9, a federal district court ruled that use of the Espionage Act to prosecute private citizens for receiving and transmitting national security information is constitutional. The decision to extend the Espionage Act to non-governmental employees has sweeping implications for open government and freedom of speech and the press, and raises the prospect of the U.S. adopting an Official Secrets Act similar to that of the UK.

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CBO's Marron says deficit "sustainable," sparks spat with Spratt & Conrad

Aug 18, 2006 by Matthew Madia

This week, CBO released its initially cheery-sounding report that the federal deficit for 2006 would shrink to $260 billion, from $318 billion last year, the lowest level since 2001. Of course, the gloomier long-term fact is that extending President Bush’s tax cuts beyond 2010 and accounting for war and other hidden costs would add $1.75 trillion in debt over the next 10 years and widen annual deficits by about $250 billion from 2011 through 2016.

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CBO Releases Economic Outlook

Aug 17, 2006 by Matthew Madia

CBO has released its full report on the state of the deficit. It's worth taking a look at.

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Pension Bill=Tax Cut

Aug 17, 2006 by Matthew Madia

Today, President Bush will sign another regressive tax cut into law. Yes, ladies and gentleman, I'm talking about the pension reform bill, which happens to not only fix some problems with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, but also makes permanent a handful of the temporary tax cuts passed in 2001. The Tax Policy Center, a joint project of the nonpartisan Brookings Institute and Urban Insitute, estimates that the tax cuts will save people in the top income quintile about $368 a year, while people in the bottom quintile get $8.

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