Earmarks

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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more news

Scrappy Idealists Take on Congress

Jan 29, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Although this is mostly an article about earmarks and "pork", it is an interesting article into the world of the watchdogs.

From the Washington Post: These are dark days for earmarks.

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Too Much Recess? Congress Gears Up for a Short Year

Jan 26, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

Despite the plethora of issues Congress will be addressing this legislative year, the leadership has created a compressed election-year schedule, allowing very little time for actual work to be done. Congress will devote 72 days this year to work on legislative business. (Remeber: votes are generally only held Tuesday - Thursday of any given week). They are scheduled to recess for the year on October 6 in order to give lawmakers up for re-election a full month in which to campaign back in their districts.

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Without Addressing Budget Process, Lobbying Reform Doomed to Fail

Since lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy, mail fraud and income tax evasion, Democrats and Republicans have eagerly jumped on the lobbying and ethics reform bandwagon. Amid the flurry of proposals to overhaul Washington's lobbying system, however, one of the primary mechanisms through which lobbyists see their influence pay off--the system of budget earmarks--has been largely ignored.

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White House Called Out on Manipulating Budget Forecasts

Jan 24, 2006 by Matthew Madia

Stan Collender, contributing editor of the National Journal, makes two excellent points calling out the White House for their faulty and ideological budget projections in his January 17 column Wolf! (subscription only).

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Friends in High Places

Jan 24, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

With lobbying and ethics reform proposals starting to abound in Washington, additional details are continuing to emerge about the real difference it makes to have powerful lobbyists with access to unscrupulous lawmakers, particularly at the last minute.

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House Democrats Put Forth Reform Package

Jan 6, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

House Democrats David Obey (D-WI), Barney Frank (D-MA), David Price (D-NC), and Tom Allen (D-ME) have produced a 14-point package to reform House rules. The package is cosponsored by 120 House Democrats, including Minority Leader Pelosi (D-CA) and Minority Whip Hoyer (D-MD).

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Senate Votes To Uphold Procedural Challenge

Dec 21, 2005 by Adam Hughes*

The Senate voted 52 - 48 not to waive a procedural challenge to the budget cuts bill - and removed some language concerning medicaid liability and a number of government reports. Regardless of how the final vote goes, the House of Representatives will need to act again before the cuts will be finally passed. All Democrats voted with Republican Senators Snowe, Chafee, and Smith to support the procedural challenge.

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Including ANWR on Def. Approps. Is Bad Process

Dec 21, 2005 by Adam Hughes*

We haven't directly mentioned this yet here, but the inclusion of language opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on the defense appropriations bill is an awful decision. Not only is the provision not related to the defense appropriations bill (and therefore should be struck through a procedural challege), but it is also a crude, callous, and reprehensible attempt by Sen.

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Isn't This Debate on a Budget Cuts Bill?

Dec 20, 2005 by Adam Hughes*

The U.S. Senate is supposed to be spending 10 hours today debating the budget cuts reconciliation bill. But a substantial portion of the debate has been spent sparring over the reauthorization of the U.S. Patriot Act and the inclusion of ANWR in the Defense Appropriations bill. While these are certainly very important debates to be had, it's hard to understand why the debate is not about the budget cuts. Do Senators not have anything to say about the cuts? Do they think the changes they will vote for shortly are unimportant? Are Senators ashamed of what they are proposing in this bill?

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Senate Stoops to Coercion

Dec 16, 2005 by Adam Hughes*

Sen. Specter (R-PA) announced today that the new conference report for the Labor/HHS appropriations bill that /node/5557 will be added to the Defense appropriations bill. The reason Specter gave for this move was that there are not enough votes to pass the bill as a stand alone measure.

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