Political 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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House Gets Amnesia, Passes Bill to Rush Oil Drilling

May 11, 2011 by Matthew Madia

The House of Representatives today passed a bill that sets ridiculous and dangerous deadlines for the approval of oil drilling permits. According to Earthjustice, “Sponsored by Doc Hastings (R-WA), H.R. 1229 requires the Department of Interior to decide whether to approve a drilling permit within 30 days after receiving an application and allows only two 15-day extensions of this deadline.”

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U.S. Chamber Kicks off Barrage against Disclosure EO*

May 11, 2011 by Gary Therkildsen*

Signaling the first wave of attacks on President Obama's draft executive order (EO) requiring disclosure of political donations by potential federal contractors, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, utilizing their Astroturf group, Friends of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, sent out an absurdly deceptive email alert last week calling on supporters to resist the White House's latest transparency effort.

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Snowe Kills Small Business Bill

May 4, 2011 by Matthew Madia

A small business aid bill that the Senate has been working on for months is likely dead, all because one senator became stubbornly wed to an amendment intended to upset the regulatory process and make it more difficult for agencies to protect the public.

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Push to Cut Oversight of Businesses Roils Senate

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) is pushing legislation that would make it more difficult for government agencies to set health, safety, environmental, and economic standards that protect the American people. Snowe is using the debate over her bill to reinforce untrue stereotypes about regulation's impact on the economy.

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Commentary: Draft Executive Order on Contractor Disclosure of Political Contributions Is Important Accountability Tool

In late April, a draft executive order (E.O.) that had been circulating among federal agencies was leaked to the press. The draft order calls for potential federal contractors to disclose their political spending, and it has generated both support and harsh criticism.

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White House Visitor Disclosure is Commendable, But More Left to be Done

May 2, 2011 by Gavin Baker

A House hearing on White House transparency and visitor logs could be an opportunity to focus on an important transparency issue if Congress decides not to play political games instead. Americans deserve to know who influences the government. The records of who meets with top government leaders should be open to the public.

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Forcing America to Choose Between Clean Air and a Stable Economy

May 2, 2011 by Matthew Madia

The debate over raising the debt ceiling has become the latest front for the battle over the power of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to protect the public from dirty air and climate change by setting standards for greenhouse gases.

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Reducing Influence Peddling in Government Contracting

Published April 27, 2011—In this piece, Gary Therkildsen and Gary D. Bass of OMB Watch argue that the federal government, namely the executive branch, must get serious about making public the information on any and all lobbying related to the federal procurement process. The authors use the Boeing tanker contract scandal as an illustration of the need for reform. This piece appeared as part of the "Solutions: Making Government Work" column on Truthout.

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White House Announces Next Steps on Regulatory Review

Apr 27, 2011 by Matthew Madia

White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) Administrator Cass Sunstein issued a memo April 25 instructing agencies to make public their preliminary plans for reviewing existing rules and to finalize those plans by August.

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Issa Feigns Sympathy for Oil Spill’s Victims

Apr 20, 2011 by Matthew Madia

Rep. Darrell Issa, chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is using the one-year anniversary of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster as an opportunity to criticize the Obama administration for exercising more caution when issuing offshore drilling permits. After the spill, “the Administration’s subsequent assault on off-shore drilling has [damaged] economically vulnerable communities,” Issa says.

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