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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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Court Finds Public Funds Went Towards Religious Program in State Prison

This week a federal appeals court ruled that tax funding of a Christian rehabilitation program at an Iowa state prison violates the separation of church and state. Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) filed a lawsuit in 2003 against the state of Iowa and Prison Fellowship, which operated a pre-release program for inmates called the InnerChange Freedom Initiative. AU charged that the program, in one of the state's prisons, promoted religious indoctrination and violated the constitutional separation of church and state.

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Groups Question Implementation of Faith-Based Initiative

OMB Watch is a part of the Coalition Against Religious Discrimination, which has asked the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to investigate the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, requesting an oversight hearing. The letter is a result of numerous developments including a recommendation by the Justice Department posted last month that suggests faith-based organizations should be exempt from the employment nondiscrimination rules attached to some federal grants.

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Judge Blocks Legislative Earmarks to Churches

In August the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Louisiana asked that payments to churches totaling $120,000, approved by the legislature as part of a general appropriations bill were stopped. In response, on Oct. 5, a federal judge in Louisiana issued an order stating that "non-neutral, direct money grants of taxpayer funds to favored houses of worship are clearly unconstitutional." The ACLU argued that the legislative earmarks violated the First Amendment's Establishment Clause.

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USAID Temporarily Delays Implementation of Partner Vetting System

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has agreed to temporarily delay implementation of a new database, called the Partner Vetting System (PVS), that would "[ensure] that neither USAID funds nor USAID-funded activities inadvertently or otherwise provide support to entities or individuals associated with terrorism." Under the plan, initially announced on July 17, all nonprofits that apply for grants, contracts or other financial partnership with USAID would have to provide the government with highly detailed personal information about employees, executives, trustees, subcontractors and others associated with the organization. On July 20, USAID also proposed to exempt portions of the PVS database from the Privacy Act. USAID is accepting comment on the Privacy Act exemption until Sept. 18. Charities are actively objecting to this burdensome and unwarranted program in which thousands of nonprofit workers would have to be screened. USAID is moving forward with a pilot program for aid recipients working in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip before expanding it globally as first intended.

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Agencies Extend Legal Services Restriction to HIV/AIDS Grants

In an apparent attempt to derail a constitutional challenge to a requirement that all grantees in an HIV/AIDS prevention program adopt formal policies against sex trafficking, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have issued guidelines for grantees that allow affiliations with groups that do not adopt such pledges. The guidelines, issued July 23, are even more restrictive than similar requirements for legal services programs that are also the subject of a constitutional challenge. They require separate "management and governance" and complete physical separation "between an affiliate which expresses views on prostitution and sex-trafficking contrary to the government's message…" and the grantee. Four leaders in the House have written to USAID urging it to adopt the less restrictive standards that allow faith-based organizations to keep religious and government funded activity separate in time and place without the need for a separate affiliate. Although the guidance is already effective, HHS intends to publish the rule for public comment.

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Senate Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill Would Eliminate Part of Global Gag Rule for Family Planning Grantees

CQ ($$) reports that the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a spending bill for foreign operations that will permit the U.S. to provide contraceptives to family-planning groups to distribute in developing countries. This would be an important change to the Global Gag Rule (also known as the Mexico City Policy) in ending restrictions on use of private funds by nonprofits with federal family planning grants.

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Supreme Court Blocks Case Against Faith-Based Initiatives

Also in a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court today blocked a lawsuit by the group Hein v. Freedom From Religion Foundation Inc., because average citizens do not have the legal right to challenge President Bush's program on federal aid to faith-based organizations. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote the majority opinion in the case. The lawsuit was filed in 2004 claiming that the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives unfairly used taxpayer money to give an advantage to religious groups seeking federal funding, supporting religious groups over secular ones.

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Church-State Lawsuit Filed in North Dakota

The New York Times reports that the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) has filed a lawsuit on behalf of three state taxpayers against North Dakota to prohibit public financing of the Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch. The teen Home provides therapeutic and rehabilitative services for troubled youth rooted in Christian teachings, Bible readings, and religious services. This case is the most recent legal challenge to public financing of religious-based programs.

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Justice Civil Rights Division Focuses on Religious Groups

The New York Times reports on a shift of the Justice Department's civil rights mission. During the Bush administration, religious cases are being taken up much more than cases of racial discrimination.

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Lawsuit Settled Challenging Government Funding of Faith-Based Job Training Program

The state of Pennsylvania and civil liberties groups settled a lawsuit that challenged government funding of a faith-based job training program at a county jail. The settlement requires that state officials do not use public funds to support religious activities, that tax-funded programs will not religiously discriminate against program participants, and that the state will monitor the program activities to ensure there are no violations.

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Resources & Research

Living in the Shadow of Danger: Poverty, Race, and Unequal Chemical Facility Hazards

People of color and people living in poverty, especially poor children of color, are significantly more likely...

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A Tale of Two Retirements: One for CEOs and One for the Rest of Us

The 100 largest CEO retirement funds are worth a combined $4.9 billion, equal to the entire retirement account savings of 41 percent of American fam...

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