May 16, 2007
By Gary D. Bass
Special to Roll Call
Reprinted with permission
In a May 10 Roll Call Guest Observer ("Citizens Don't Need 'Protection' From Lobbying"), Douglas Johnson and Caroline Fredrickson posed a question: "Do ordinary citizens need to be protected from groups that may urge them to contact their elected Representatives in Congress about some pending bill?" The authors were referring to H.R. 2093, the latest proposal to shine a light on who is behind big-money, federal grass-roots lobbying expenditures.

By Gary D. Bass, OMB Watch
Published in the March-April 2007 edition of The Environmental Forum
More than just a power grab, the changes President Bush implemented with his newest amendments to Executive Order 12866 and his bulletin requiring the Office of Management and Budget to review agency guidance documents have larger consequences. The requirement to conduct market failure assessments adds more layers of analysis for agencies — a paralysis by analysis. The requirement to have political appointees oversee all steps in the regulatory process allows politics to trump science and shapeshift the regulatory process in ways that can benefit regulated interests. The requirement for OMB review of thousands of agency guidance documents means massive delay in providing advice to regulated industries and further shifts agency discretion to the White House. Each of these actions upsets the constitutional balance between Congress and the presidency, in pursuit of the administration's goal of a "unitary executive."

By Adam Hughes and Craig Jennings, OMB Watch
Published February 23, 2007 at TomPaine.com
President Bush is planning on raising taxes, but he won't come out and say it. In fact, he has continued to loudly proclaim he can balance the federal budget by 2012 and not raise taxes one cent. His rhetoric on the budget is misleading, if not outright deceitful, precisely when having an honest discussion is paramount to implementing policies to confront the long-term fiscal challenges our nation faces.

By Adam Hughes, Budget Policy Analyst, OMB Watch
Indiana's Republican Governor Mitch Daniels, former Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director under President Bush, made a startling announcement Jan. 18: he said he wants to raise taxes in his state.