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

2005 Federal Budget Continues Fiscal Decline

This Tax and Budget Staff Note examines the impact of the President’s budget on federal revenue and on the longer-term fiscal situation. The final section offers some of the implications of the recent fiscal decline. Download full report (.pdf)

read in full

Estate Tax Lobby Day

Feb 4, 2004 by Guest Blogger

Americans for a Fair Estate Tax in partnership with United for a Fair Economy and the Fair Taxes for All coalition is working to organize people throughout the country to come to Washington DC on March 9-10 to speak out against permanent repeal of the estate tax.

Nonprofits have a special interest in the estate tax, since a full repeal would mean the removal of an important incentive to give to charity. The Brookings/Urban Tax Policy Center recently estimated that a repeal of the estate tax would lead to an estimated $10 billion annual reduction in charitable giving.

read in full

$1.3 trillion revenue reduction

Feb 2, 2004 by Guest Blogger

Looks like the administration is pushing for yet another trillion dollar reduction in revenue...

read in full

January 29 Watcher Newsletter

Jan 29, 2004 by Guest Blogger

OMB Watch - The Watcher - January 26. 2004 Vol. 5 No.2 -

Federal Budget Articles:

read in full

Estate Tax - Cost of Repeal

Jan 26, 2004 by Adam Hughes*

The CBO today released its baseline budget estimates for 2005-2014. Included in the document is the cost of extending the repeal of the estate tax.

For the 2005-2014 period, an extension of the repeal would cost $205.6 billion. See page 93 for details. The yearly breakdown is below.

read in full

Avoiding Shame Through Secrecy Puts Lives At Risk

No one wants to be embarrassed, especially the folks working on the taxpayer’s dime under the harsh lights of public scrutiny. But when people in high places in government try to keep embarrassing information out of the public eye, the results can be high-profile scandal. Just ask Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. Most government efforts to keep unnecessary secrets, however, never reach the front pages of the New York Times but still put lives in danger and waste taxpayer dollars. Two recent news stories make this point. One deals with the question of whether the Sept.

read in full

10 trillion dollar turnaround

Jan 26, 2004 by Guest Blogger

The Century foundation has just released a report entitled "How the Federal Budget Forecast Went From $5 Trillion in the Black to $5 Trillion in the Red In Just Two and a Half Years," by Bernard Wasow.

The report shows how we went from record surpluses to massive deficits.

read in full

Pressure Continues to Mount Against OMB's Peer Review Plan

Many recent news stories and editorial pieces from around the country are critical of the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) draft bulletin on peer review, thereby maintaining pressure on the agency to either drastically alter the policy proposal or withdraw it entirely. OMB’s Data Quality Guidelines, the information policies that the peer review bulletin builds upon, received little media criticism or even attention during development. However, the peer review bulletin seems to be garnering much more interest, in part because so many scientists are rejecting this “scientific” policy.

read in full

Time Remains to Comment on EPA's Burden Reduction Plans for TRI

OMB Watch encourages interested individuals to take part in the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Stakeholder Dialogue Phase II that focuses on burden reduction options for the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) program. The TRI is a flagship database that contains information about releases and transfers of toxic chemicals from manufacturing facilities. Since the establishment of TRI, the simple act of publicizing the amount toxic chemicals that facilities release has pressured companies to reduce these releases by more than half.

read in full

U.N. Report Compares Freedom of Information Laws

A new report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) examines freedom of information policies across several governments and non-governmental organizations. Over the past 10 years, the importance of freedom of information has been acknowledged throughout the world, and the report stresses the importance of free flowing information to democratic governments, human rights, and other issues. An overview of the international base for freedom of information is given.

read in full