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

Questionable Contracts Are Up and Information About Contracts Is Down

The House Committee on Government Reform's Minority Office recently released a report done for Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-CA) examining current trends in the government's use of noncompetitive contracts. The report discovered that under the Bush administration the amount spent on these questionable contracts increased $40 billion compared to Clinton's final year.

read in full

Park Service Superintendents Gagged by Agency

National Park Service (NPS) superintendents now must adhere to agency-prescribed "talking points" when speaking with the media. According to a May 12 press release by the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), the talking points try masking budget cutbacks by painting a rosy picture of national parks under the Bush administration.

read in full

TSA to Expand "Sensitive Security Information"

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) plans to expand the amount of information it can withhold from the public disclosure, according to a May 18 Federal Register notice.

read in full

Comments on OMB's Revised Peer Review Bulletin

OMB Watch submitted detailed comments to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on its Revised Peer Review Bulletin, published in the Federal Register April 28, 2004. The revised bulletin continues to propose a uniform standard of peer review for all federal agencies with strict requirements for agencies conducting peer review. OMB has made significant revisions to the bulletin after its initial draft bulletin received strong opposition from scientists, environmentalists, and public interest groups.

read in full

Bill to Extend Patriot Act Is Quietly Introduced

Secrecy News reported the next salvo in the debate about the Patriot Act: On May 21, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) [and others] introduced a bill to make the Patriot Act permanent. S. 2476 would repeal sunset provisions of the most controversial sections of the Patriot Act, which are set to expire in 2005. Speaking of Secrecy News, its editor, Steve Aftergood, was recently awarded a prize from the Playboy Foundation and the Creative Coalition for defending the first amendment with his unrelenting and undernoticed efforts to combat government secrecy.

read in full

Mistakes and Terrorism Fears Jail the Innocent, Miss Employee Misconduct

When authorities in Philadelphia found a motion sensor along some railroad tracks, they worried terrorists might be installing triggering devices to launch an attack against trains along the busy eastern rail corridor between Boston and Washington. But they soon found out terrorism concerns overshadowed the real problem of employee misconduct.

read in full

Economy and Jobs Watch: Major Cuts to Domestic Services are on the Horizon

The White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has instructed government agencies to plan for cuts to a wide range of domestic programs. In a memo dated May 19, 2004, (download pdf), the White House told agencies to prepare their budgets for fiscal year (FY) 2006 consistent with the FY 2005 budget proposal -- specifically, to "[a]ssume accounts are funded at the 2006 level specified in the 2005 Budget database." The database refers to the

read in full

Critical Infrastructure Information Rule Needs Additional Improvements

OMB Watch filed additional comments to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recommending additional improvements in the interim final rule for Critical Infrastructure Information (CII) program. The interim final CII rule still requires significant revisions to create an efficient program that ensures the protection of citizens and infrastructure, does not interfere with the operations of other agencies, and prevents misuse by corporations.

read in full

OMB Fast-Tracks Revised Peer Review Policy

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) appears unwilling to allow a sober and unhurried review of their revised proposal for government-wide peer review requirements. The revised proposal was published in the Federal Register April 28 with only a 30-day public comment period that is scheduled to end May 28. OMB rejected a request from various public interest groups for a 60-day extension to the public review period.

read in full

eRulemaking Workshops

The School of Public Policy and Public Administration at the George Washington University will host a series of half-day workshops on the federal eRulemaking Initiative June 2 to 4. The purpose of the workshops is to solicit input from various end-user communities with a stake in eRulemaking.

read in full