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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Budget Process Stuck at Square One and In Danger of Irrelevance

From the outside, a great deal seems to be happening with the fiscal year (FY) 2012 budget process. The House debated a "clean" bill to raise the debt ceiling and is starting to vote on its yearly appropriations bills, and the Senate just voted on four budget proposals. But looks can be deceiving: despite these recent actions, the nation's budget process is teetering on the edge of irrelevance.

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OMB Properly Addressing Improper Payments

On May 23, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced the launch of four new pilot projects designed to further crack down on improper payments from the federal government. The projects focus on implementing best practices and sharing information across state and local governments that help administer payment programs in the departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Agriculture (USDA), Labor (DOL), and Treasury.

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The Transparency-Killing Budget

Progress toward increased government transparency will stall, and in some cases reverse, according to new details about the damage stemming from recent federal budget cuts. Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra explained the cuts' impact on key transparency and technology projects in a May 24 letter to Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE).

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House Stands Up for Big Business, Spurns Transparency*

May 27, 2011 by Gary Therkildsen*

GOP: How dare average citizens demand that powerful business interests disclose how they’re influencing the political process.

On Wednesday evening, during House debate of the fiscal year (FY) 2012 defense authorization bill, Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) introduced and won agreement to an amendment that would prevent the federal government from requiring potential contractors – which would include many large corporations – to disclose their political contributions to the public.

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New GAO Report Shows the Benefits of Spending Transparency

May 26, 2011 by Sam Rosen-Amy

According to the report, $24 billion in Recovery Act contract and grant spending went to about 3,700 recipients who owed some $750 million in taxes to the US government. Clearly, this isn’t good. Government contracts shouldn’t be benefiting organizations that don’t play by the rules. But the important point is that we only know this because of the recipient reporting feature built into the Recovery Act.

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Fixing the Deficit is Not Rocket Science

May 23, 2011 by Craig Jennings

Seriously.

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GOP Doesn't Care about Deficits ... Especially When It Comes to Defense Spending

May 18, 2011 by Gary Therkildsen*

No amount of funding for the defense industry could quench the GOP's insatiable thirst for cluster bombing brown people in distant countries ... for freedom.

With release of their cut-to-the-bone 302(b) suballocations last week, the House Appropriations Committee provided yet another display of how Republicans in general - and conservatives in particular – don't care about deficits, as the defense budget received zero scrutiny.

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The Trouble with the "Pass-the-Hat" Funding Model for Government Technology Projects

Federal information technology (IT) spending is approaching $80 billion per year, and debate is swirling about who will pay for new government technology projects and how they will do so. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently examined one of the ways new projects are paid for: the “pass-the-hat” model, in which federal agencies contribute some of their funds to help support projects.

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Agency Performance Modernization Points toward Increased Government Efficiency

In January, President Obama signed the Government Performance and Results Modernization Act of 2010 (GPRA Modernization Act), updating a nearly 20-year-old law in an effort to increase government efficiency through funding choices. In April, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued its first directives to federal agencies on how to implement the new legislation, and Congress has begun to conduct oversight related to the measure.

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CBO Monthly Budget Review, May 2011

May 13, 2011 by Gary Therkildsen*

Last week, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released their latest Monthly Budget Review (MBR). While not as "salacious" as either the April or the February reports – at least in terms of how Capitol Hill is likely to react toward the release – this month’s review includes several interesting items.

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more resources

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

Budget Process Stuck at Square One and In Danger of Irrelevance

OMB Properly Addressing Improper Payments

The Transparency-Killing Budget

House Stands Up for Big Business, Spurns Transparency*

May 27, 2011 by Gary Therkildsen*

New GAO Report Shows the Benefits of Spending Transparency

May 26, 2011 by Sam Rosen-Amy

Fixing the Deficit is Not Rocket Science

May 23, 2011 by Craig Jennings

GOP Doesn't Care about Deficits ... Especially When It Comes to Defense Spending

May 18, 2011 by Gary Therkildsen*

The Trouble with the "Pass-the-Hat" Funding Model for Government Technology Projects

Agency Performance Modernization Points toward Increased Government Efficiency

CBO Monthly Budget Review, May 2011

May 13, 2011 by Gary Therkildsen*

Pages

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

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

Blowing Smoke: Chemical Companies Say “Trust Us,” But Environmental and Workplace Safety Violations Belie Their Rhetoric

Gasping for Support: Implementation of Tougher Air Quality Standards Will Require New Funds for State Agencies

Citizen Health & Safety Topics

Recent Reports

Living in the Shadow of Danger: State Scorecards

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

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