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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more news

Reject White House Interference in Agency Rulemaking, OMB Watch Tells Court

The White House improperly forced the Environmental Protection Agency to put aquatic wildlife at risk at the behest of corporate special interests, OMB Watch told a federal court today.

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Administration Withholds Rationales Behind Anti-Regulatory Hit List

The Bush administration is refusing to inform the public about the justifications for deciding which regulatory protections were added to its hit list of safeguards to be weakened or eliminated.

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Cheap gas, anyone?

Jul 12, 2005 by Guest Blogger

The Department of Energy released its new outlook for fuel prices, and they again project that gasoline prices will remain in the neighborhood of $2.25/gallon. So file this under "wishful thinking": OMB's recent report on the costs and benefits of regulations uses a lowball figure of $1.10-$1.30, possibly to minimize the benefits from improvements to fuel economy regulations. See OMB Watch's comments on OMB's report for more information.

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White House Demands Power to Restructure Government

The White House finally released last week its proposal for legislation granting the Bush administration wide-ranging powers to restructure government programs and force them to plead for their lives every 10 years.

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Hearing on Hit List Addresses Larger Regulatory Policy Issues

A House subcommittee hearing on the White House's anti-regulatory hit list became a venue for stakeholders to voice their positions on the broader ongoing debate over public protections and political interference in regulatory policy, pitting corporate-conservative talking points against evidence of the need for stringent safeguards.

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Comments on 2005 Draft Regulatory Accounting Report

Download here

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Agency whistleblowers and experts at risk

Jul 8, 2005 by Guest Blogger

Two developments put at risk the agency workers who must draw conclusions contrary to industry's bottom line or who alert the public of malfeasance and inefficiency in government:

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Sunset perspective

Jul 7, 2005 by Guest Blogger

With the White House's release of a proposal to give itself the power to restructure government at whim through the use of sunset and results commissions, it's worth revisiting an online conversation with Osha Davidson, Rolling Stone reporter who covered the sunset/results proposals back when they were first threatened, from the blogs Booman Tribune and

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White House power grab: results/sunset commission

Jun 30, 2005 by Guest Blogger

The White House released a legislative proposal today that would enact its long-threatened sunset commission and results commission proposals.

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White House Power Grab Puts Public at Risk

Statement of Robert Shull, Director of Regulatory Policy & Adam Hughes, Budget Policy Analyst
The White House submitted a legislative proposal to Congress today that would imperil the balance between the executive and legislative branches by concentrating power in the White House free of democratic accountability and would expose long-standing public protections to powerful special interests and industry insiders.

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