White House Influence and Interference

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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OMB Proposed Bulletin on Risk Assessment

Download OIRA's Proposed Risk Assessment Bulletin (Jan. 9, 2006).Download OIRA's Proposed Risk Assessment Bulletin (Jan. 9, 2006).

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Comments on OMB's Proposed Bulletin on "Good Guidance Practices"

Download comments filed by Citizens for Sensible Safeguards

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White House 'Good Guidance' Proposal Threatens Agencies, Vital Public Information

Washington--January 9, 2005--A recent White House proposal threatens federal agency efforts to provide important information to the public and stakeholders, by opening guidance documents to politicization and industry influence, a coalition of public interest groups told the White House today.

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An Unacceptable Power Grab

The Proposed Bulletin represents an unacceptable power grab by the White House. The principles and traditions of the American political order abhor the excessive centralization of authority that OMB would win with the Proposed Bulletin, which contravenes Congress’s role in delegating responsibility and discretion to the agencies and assumes the right to amend the Administrative Procedure Act by executive fiat.

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Making the Government Less Effective

OMB claims that it seeks to make agency guidance practices “more transparent, consistent, and accountable,” but the Proposed Bulletin fails to serve those goals and is, instead, a roadmap for government that is less responsive to the public’s needs.

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A Solution in Search of a Problem

OMB claims that agencies are using general policy statements, handbooks, manuals, compliance guides, nonlegislative rules, and other informal matter as a vehicle for policy edicts that should go through the APA’s notice-and-comment rulemaking process. Instead of addressing what could be the underlying causes of resorting to subterfuge rulemaking, OMB throws the baby out with the bathwater by adding new burdens to the production of information that the public needs.

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Clash Is Latest Chapter in Bush Effort to Widen Executive Power

Dec 21, 2005 by Guest Blogger

The Washington Post is putting the revelation that Bush authorized spying on the American people into the bigger picture: Clash Is Latest Chapter in Bush Effort to Widen Executive Power The clash over the secret domestic spying program is one slice of a broader struggle over the power of the presidency that has animated the Bush administration. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney came to office convinced that the authority of the presidency had eroded and have spent the past five years...

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e-Rulemaking Development Suspended

Dec 20, 2005 by Guest Blogger

The following letter circulated to agencies in the wake of the Transportation/Treasury approps (text courtesy of Harvard's Cary Coglianese): December 19, 2005 E-Rulemaking Executive Committee Members: Recently-signed provisions of the FY06 Treasury/Transportation/HUD appropriations bill contain restrictions on government-wide funding of E-Government (E-Gov) Initiatives. This significant legislation requires agencies to inform and secure Congressional approval to fund E-Gov initiatives including eRulemaking. The Office of Management and Budget

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Deadline Extension for Comments

Download OMB's notice extending the deadline for comments from 12/23 to 1/9.Download OMB's notice extending the deadline for comments from 12/23 to 1/9.

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Happy Holiday Gift from the White House

Dec 19, 2005 by Guest Blogger

... although it's more like the package that turns out to be a sweater or some pairs of socks: the White House has announced an extension of the deadline for public comments on the proposed bulletin on "good guidance practices". Comments were due at the end of this week, but now they aren't due until Jan. 9. Here's the notice of the extension.

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