Nonprofit Lobbying Rights

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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Advocates Say Logic Puzzle Hinders Grassroots Lobbying

Jun 12, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Articles on the "Logic Puzzle": Jeffrey Birnbaum from the Washington Post discusses the issue, including On a single day last week, of the 8,262 times the logic puzzle was viewed in the House, only 1,568 people answered it and moved on to send a message -- a 19 percent success rate. It's unknowable whether this means that computers could not crack the code or whether actual humans were frustrated and gave up (though there were probably a combination of both). There is also a Roll Call article on the issue.

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FEC Won't Investigate Radio Ad Criticizing Kerry During Election

Jun 9, 2006 by Guest Blogger

From BNA: The Federal Election Commission has rejected a staff recommendation to investigate a radio ad that ran in Indiana before the 2004 presidential election and appeared to criticize Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry (D-MA)

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Hastert to Name Lobby Reform Conferees

Jun 9, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert said today they expect conferees to produce a final lobby reform package before Congress leave town for the Fourth of July. Majority Leader Frist and Speaker Hastert added, “Lobbying and ethics reform remains an important priority for Congress. We are confident that the conferees will work hard and deliver a conference report that will build trust with the American people by making our government more transparent and accountable.”

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Congress Says Send Money, Not Your Opinion

Jun 8, 2006 by Amanda Adams*

The Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House of Representatives recently announced the availability of an "enhancement" to the House's “Write Your Rep” system that challenges constituents with a "logic puzzle" before they are allowed to submit a comment via web form. For an example, go to http://www.house.gov/writerep, select California, and use zip code 93292. At this time, not very many representatives have adopted the logic puzzle challenge, but the numbers are growing.

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Major Challenge to Faith-Based Initiative

Jun 5, 2006 by Guest Blogger

From the Washington Post: In a 140-page decision, U.S. District Judge Robert W. Pratt ruled that the InnerChange Freedom Initiative program at Iowa's Newton Correctional Facility violated the constitutional ban on government establishment of religion because it was state-funded, pervasively sectarian and aimed at religious conversion. Brought by Americans for the Seperation of Church and State, the case is a major challenge to the faith-based initiative.

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527s Breathe Sigh of Relief

Jun 5, 2006 by Guest Blogger

From Roll Call: Now that the Federal Election Commission last week opted not to take its rules on 527 political groups back to the drawing table, most of these groups are expressing satisfaction with the decision. And, some say, they can move ahead with activities without fear of having the FEC rules change on them as the 2006 election approaches.

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Reformers Ask for Real Lobby Reform

Jun 2, 2006 by Guest Blogger

A coalition of reform groups issued a statement today, saying: Regardless of whether a conference report passes, furthermore, the House and Senate must go back to square one and produce real, not cosmetic, reforms to address the worst congressional corruption scandals in decades. They also noted that they will continue to press for real reform, regardless of what does or doesn't come out of conference. For the text of the letter

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Lobby Reform Takes Backseat to Election Year Legislation

Jun 2, 2006 by Guest Blogger

While serious - or any - negotiations have yet to begin on lobby reform legislation passed by both the House and the Senate over a month ago, the Senate is preparing to focus on inflammatory issues designed to rally its base. Up next for the Senate:votes aimed at blocking gay marriage, banning flag burning and repealing the estate tax.

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Birnbaum On Lobby Reform Lite

Jun 1, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.), one of the architects of the House-passed measure, said he would like to "pursue more reform" after the current legislation passes. And when will that be? If more indictments come down and the public begins to revolt noticeably against incumbents over the issue, maybe Congress will bestir itself to act more quickly and aggressively. But my guess is that incumbents won't feel the wrath of voters until Election Day, and regret their inaction too late. For the whole article...

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OMB Watch in the News

May 31, 2006 by Guest Blogger

An editorial in today's Washington Examiner details the importance of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (S. 2590), commonly known as Coburn-Obama-Carper-McCain.

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