Revenue & Spending

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

De Facto Estate Tax Repeal for Some

Jul 24, 2006 by Craig Jennings

David Cay Johnston reports in the Sunday New York Times that the IRS has plans to eliminate 157 of the most productive IRS employees. And, those IRS employees are estate tax lawyers and the staff who support their auditing activities. The federal government is moving to eliminate the jobs of nearly half of the lawyers at the Internal Revenue Service who audit tax returns of some of the wealthiest Americans, specifically those who are subject to gift and estate taxes when they transfer parts of their fortunes to their children and others.

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New Opportunity to Support Access to Gov't Information

Jul 21, 2006 by Matthew Madia

Over the past few months, OMB Watch has been working closely with Sens. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Barack Obama (D-IL) on a bill to create a free, searchable database available to the public containing information on all federal spending - both grants and contracts. This legislation (S. 2590) continues to move forward in the Senate and OMB Watch remains strongly supportive of it (see the OMB Watch website for more information on the bill and to access previous coverage on this by OMB Watch. You can also read recent media coverage of the effort.) New Effort for Transparency and Disclosure Underway

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Government Spending Transparency Legislation Getting Attention of the Press

Jul 21, 2006 by Matthew Madia

In the considerably divided legislative body that is Congress, it is rare to see a bill gain so much positive attention from both sides of the aisle. It has also gained the support of a whole slew of advocacy groups from all stripes of the ideological spectrum. As a staunch proponent of S.

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Democrats: Responsible for Budget Surplus, Not So Much for Budget Deficits

Jul 20, 2006 by Matthew Madia

In today’s Washington Post, Robert Samuelson chides President Bush for boasting about a $300 billion deficit, but finishes his column by shifting some of the blame for the atrocious fiscal policies of the Republican Congress and President to the Democrats. For fiscal 2006, which ends in September, the administration projects a $296 billion deficit; for fiscal 2007, the estimate is $339 billion. How could anyone boast about that? [...]

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SOS DOA

Jul 20, 2006 by Craig Jennings

CQ Today is reporting that Senate Budget Committee Chair Judd Gregg (R-NH) doesn’t think he has the votes to overcome a Democratic filibuster of his committee-passed Stop Overspending Act 2006. His measure would implement a bevy of spending-control measures - measures which open up a backdoor to cutting Social Security. Also included in his bill is a version of line-item veto. And, not only is SOS not likely to make it to the Senate floor, but prospects for passage of a separate, standalone line-item veto bill look dim. Included in CQ Today’s article is this interesting bit from Gregg:

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Self-Interested Group Attack Limits on Outsourcing Tax Collection

Jul 19, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

In advance of a Senate Appropriations subcommittee markup, opponents of current efforts to prohibit the IRS from outsourcing its collection of outstanding taxes have come out in force. The head of the Association of Credit and Collection Professionals sent a letter to Senate appropriators on July 14 asking them to oppose any amendment that would prohibit the IRS from using any of its fiscal year 2007 funds to hire private debt collectors.

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OMB Watch Applauds Federal Spending Transparency Effort, Offers Improvements

WASHINGTON, July 18 - Gary Bass, executive director of OMB Watch, testified today before the financial and information management subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Bass was among a group of witnesses with vastly different views on government that testified in support of a new bill that would shed light on government spending.

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OMB Watch Testifies In Support of Federal Disclosure of Financial Data

Jul 18, 2006 by Matthew Madia

Gary Bass, Executive Director of OMB Watch, testified today in front of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee Subcommittee on Federal Fiscal Management in support of S. 2590, a bill to require the government to create a user-friendly, searchable, online database available to the public containing comprehensive information on all federal spending.

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Appropriations Update

Jul 18, 2006 by Craig Jennings

Congress Daily (subscription req'd) is reporting that even if the minimum wage hike amendment in the House Labor-H funding bill is stripped out and put up for a vote in its own bill, Labor-H appropriations would still not see a full floor vote before September. The measure also faces criticism from both wings of the GOP -- conservatives don't like the numerous earmarks; moderates argue it underfunds education and health programs.

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Wealth/Income Trends Reported In Wall Street Journal

Jul 17, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

A great article (sub. required) appeared today in the Wall Street Journal sheading light on another trend that can be seen within the new deficit projections released last week by the administration.

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