Protecting Nonprofit 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...

read in full

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

more news

DeMint Standoff Remains

Jul 17, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

According to CongressDaily ($$), Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) will continue to block a conference on lobbying and ethics reform until he receives a guarantee that his earmark disclosure language will not be changed during conference committee. This promise remains despite Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-NV) offer to put him on the conference committee. "The majority leader is trying to be clever, but I wasn't born yesterday," DeMint said. "Everybody knows Democrats are going to control the conference, 4 to 3, and they will vote 4 to 3 to kill earmark reform.

read in full

WRTL Acts On Supreme Court Decision

Jul 17, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

From BNA Money and Politics ($$); After the Supreme Court ruling in the Wisconsin Right to Life (WRTL) case, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and members of Congress who intervened in the case came to an agreement late last week with WRTL attorney James Bopp. The agreement details the features of political ads sponsored by corporations and unions that all sides specify as permissible in future campaigns. Nevertheless, legal challenges to restrictions on ads may continue to be reviewed by the courts on a case-by-case basis.

read in full

Earmarks II: OMB "Database" Tracks FY08 Bills

Jul 12, 2007 by Dana Chasin

A Citizen's "Consumer Report" This week, OMB announced a new feature to what it terms its "earmarks database" -- data showing estimates of the number and cost of earmarks in the individual FY 2008 Appropriations bills as they move through the legislative process. We road-tested this database here at OMB Watch and give it one thumbs-up.

read in full

Email System Blocks Civic Participation

Jul 12, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

Roll Call ($$) reports that the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) is working on a project to attempt to solve a problem facing Members and their staff, excessive amounts of e-mail that often causes their systems to crash. The article explains the many frustrations citizens and nonprofits are feeling in trying to carry out their advocacy work in encouraging people to contact Congress on important issues, and the frustration of those receiving the unmanageable number of messages.

read in full

Waiting for the FEC

Jul 12, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

Yesterday during a Federal Election Commission (FEC) hearing, the commission was considering the issue of hybrid ads. BNA Money and Politics ($$) discusses yesterday's hearing in length and the wrangling of their possible rulemaking. A final rule has not been drafted with details still to be worked out, including how much of the cost of an ad could be taken on by a party and how much must be paid by the candidate or candidates named in the ad. However, the article also touches upon another subject the FEC is considering.

read in full

Webcasters Would Be Forced to Cease Lobbying to Avoid Royalties

Jul 12, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

There is currently a push for an advocacy restriction in a proposed deal to allow public radio stations to broadcast over the internet without having to pay additional royalty fees. KCRW, Southern California's National Public Radio weekly music commentary, On The Beat, reported that "SoundExchange offered to music webcasters concerning internet music royalties includes quid pro quos that the organization did not disclose in its July 29 press release.

read in full

Hearing on 501(c)(3) Organizations Announced

Jul 11, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

The House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee has announced a July 24 hearing covering an overview of tax-exempt organizations, specifically 501(c)(3) charities and foundations. Most likely witnesses representing the nonprofit sector (from the Council on Foundations and Independent Sector) will urge Congress to extend several tax breaks for donors and put forward their opinion on information that charities must disclose to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

read in full

"Move Lobby Reform Legislation Forward"

Jul 11, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

OMB Watch has released a press statement in response to recent actions that have blocked the Senate from going to conference on lobbying and ethics reform legislation. The latest Watcher has an article on the fruitless attempts to send the measure to conference.

read in full

WRTL Aftermath: Confusion

Jul 11, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

The recent New York Times Magazine has an article titled, "Right to Spend" which discusses the complex and certain issue of money in politics by referencing the recent Wisconsin Right to Life (WRTL) decision without actually discussing the case. "Now, however, the Supreme Court has used the First Amendment to throw out one part of the law and threatened to discard the rest. In this new gilded age, are we doomed to return to gilded-age politics?

read in full

OMB Watch Joins the Call to Move Lobby Reform Legislation Forward

WASHINGTON, July 11, 2007—OMB Watch joins with the Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause, Democracy 21, the League of Women Voters, Public Citizen, U.S. PIRG and other organizations in strongly condemning current efforts to block the Senate from going to conference on lobbying and ethics reform legislation, which the Senate passed in January.

read in full