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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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Earmark Dispute Delays Lobbying and Ethics Legislation

Congress has now returned from the July 4th recess and efforts to send lobbying and ethics legislation into conference committee were once again blocked. These events are a repeat of what occurred right before the recess. The Politico reports on the struggle Democratic leaders will face, especially from Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) who is insisting that the earmark disclosure provision is not altered during conference. However, Democrats simply see this as a means to block the ethics reform bill.

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States Failing to Implement National Voter Registration Act

In its biennial report to Congress on the status of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) provided data showing that states have failed to fully implement the 1993 law.

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Aftermath of Supreme Court's Ruling Exempting Grassroots Lobbying from Campaign Finance Restrictions

Reactions to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Federal Election Commission v. Wisconsin Right to Life (WRTL) include dire predictions of massive amounts of soft money spent on sham issue ads before the 2008 elections, and even the end of the entire campaign finance regulatory regime. But the actual impact of the decision, which exempts grassroots lobbying broadcasts from the "electioneering communications" ban on corporate funded broadcasts that refer to federal candidates within 60 days of a general election or 30 days of a primary, is likely to be much more limited. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) must decide whether or not it will establish a rule implementing the decision, while a similar case has been sent back to a lower court for a ruling consistent with the Supreme Court's opinion.

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Stalled Lobby Reform Bills to be Resolved Before August Recess

The House and Senate have now overwhelmingly passed their respective pieces of lobbying and ethics reform legislation, but a partisan impasse in the Senate has stalled progress. Before the Independence Day recess, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) was unable to reach an agreement with Republicans to go to conference. The House and Senate bills both increase current disclosure requirements for paid lobbying activities under the Lobbying Disclosure Act, but a few discrepancies between the two have to be worked out in conference. Reid promised to complete work on the lobbying and ethics bill before the August recess.

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U.S. Attorney Firings Expose Political Nature of Attack on ACORN's Voter Mobilization Efforts

Current congressional investigations into the Bush administration's 2006 firing of nine U.S. attorneys have revealed that one motivation behind the firings may have been the attorneys' refusal to pursue allegations of voter fraud as aggressively as the administration would have liked. Unfortunately, the attorneys were not the only casualty of the hunt for voter fraud. ACORN — an organization dedicated to empowering low-income communities across the country — also became a victim in what appears to be a politically motivated assault on its voter registration efforts.

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FEC to Consider Two Campaign Financing Decisions

On July 11 during a public hearing the Federal Election Commission (FEC) is set to consider a regulation on "hybrid ads," to possibly allow political parties help finance the television advertising of campaigns. The proposed new FEC rule would allow a party to pay for up to 75 percent of any candidate's advertising costs. The hybrid ad rulemaking came up after the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign used Republican National Committee funds to pay over $40 million in ads. The Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21 filed comments with the FEC on the proposed rulemaking.

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San Jose Lobbying Law Violates Free Speech? Where Have I Heard that Before ... ?

The San Jose Mercury News reports that environmentalist Ted Smith, founder and senior strategist for Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition sued the city of San Jose, California charging that its expanded lobbying definition of who must register, pay fees and report activities is so broad it violates free-speech rights. As many other candidates nationwide, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed's victory in November was in part due to an ethics reform agenda, and Reed commented on the importance of promoting a transparent government. "I don't see how it affects anybody's free speech.

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Case on Political Advertising Sent Back to Lower Court After WRTL Decision

Following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Wisconsin Right to Life (WRTL) case last week, on June 29 the Court sent back another case (Christian Civic League of Maine Inc. v. Federal Election Commission) to the lower court for a new ruling consistent with the WRTL June 25th decision. The Christian Civic League (CCL) had asked the Supreme Court to hear an appeal of a lower court's ruling that dismissed its challenge to restrictions on funding of political ads under the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA).

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IRS Phone Forum on Form 990 Changes

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will be hosting two 60 minute phone forums on the redesigned Form 990. The forum will include a presentation of the changes and the reasons for each change. Comments and questions on the new form will be requested from participants and some will be answered during the session. The session on July 18, 2007, is scheduled for 10:00-11:00 a.m. and the session on July 19, 2007 is scheduled for 1:00-2:00 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Savings Time). For more information and to register, click here.

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Continued WRTL Commentary; Lumping Nonprofit Groups Together With Corporations

A National Journal ($$) column explains how the prohibition on corporations paying for broadcasts that mention federal candidates 60 days before a general election or 30 days before a primary in the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA) sought to prevent business corporations from getting involved in election campaigns, but in turn censored nonprofit groups' criticism of the work of elected officials. "Because nearly all nonprofit advocacy groups are incorporated, the effect was to extend to such groups a ban ostensibly aimed at companies like General Electric and Dow Chemical.

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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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