Watcher: July 10, 2007

Jul 11, 2007 by Matt Lewis

House Misses Opportunity to End IRS Private Tax Collection Program On June 28, the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) private tax debt collection program survived an effort by the House to bring it to a halt. House legislators struck language in the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act ( href="http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2007-606">H.R. 2829) that would have put a tight cap on how much funding could have been used to administer the program. Wall Street Tax Break Comes under Scrutiny A tax policy allowing private

read in full

Senate Subcommittee Approves Bill to Partly Defund OVP, Private Tax Collection

Jul 11, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The Senate Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee, a part of the Senate Appropriations Committee, passed its version of the FY 2008 Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill (HR 2829) by a party-line vote of 5 to 4.

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

The Annual AMT Ostrich Act

Jul 10, 2007 by Dana Chasin

According to an article in today's Washington Post, the Congressional initiative to repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) is "faltering before it's even unveiled." The proposal that House Ways and Means chair Charles Rangel (D-NY) and Select Revenue Measures subcommittee chair Richard Neal (D-MA) "had planned to unveil their plan in May [is] not likely to occur before September, if then."

read in full

SCHIP Lurching Forward

Jul 10, 2007 by Matt Lewis

When I think of the Senate, I picture something like the insides of a very old and very big clock, with gigantic rusty gears that move extremely slowly. Well, it seems like, when it comes to expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), those gears are finally starting to turn, but slowly, of course, and with so much effort and compromise required for so little movement.

read in full

Earmark Dispute Delays Lobbying and Ethics Legislation

Jul 10, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

Congress has now returned from the July 4th recess and efforts to send lobbying and ethics legislation into conference committee were once again blocked. These events are a repeat of what occurred right before the recess. The Politico reports on the struggle Democratic leaders will face, especially from Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) who is insisting that the earmark disclosure provision is not altered during conference. However, Democrats simply see this as a means to block the ethics reform bill.

read in full

JCT's pre-Hearing Carried Interest Report

Jul 10, 2007 by Dana Chasin

In advance of tomorrow's Senate Finance Committee hearing on the carried interest tax loophole, the Joint Committee on Taxation issued a report today, Present Law and Analysis Relating to Tax Treatment of Partnership Carried Interests. At the nub of the report is this "core question":

read in full

Federal Government Kept Nuclear Accident Secret

Details on an accidental release of highly-enriched uranium at a nuclear fuel processing plant in Tennessee were kept secret from the public and Congress by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for thirteen months.

read in full

OMB Mid-Session (P)review

Jul 10, 2007 by Dana Chasin

On the eve of OMB's release of its supplemental update of the FY 2007 budget, commonly known as the Mid-Session Review, many in the budget policy community awaits its revised estimates of the budget deficit, receipts, outlays, and budget authority for fiscal years 2007 through 2012. Some will point to the federal government's deficit of $123 billion for the first nine months of fiscal year 2007 as a sign of sustained progress toward a balanced budget, confirming the soundness of the Bush administration's fiscal policies.

read in full

Federal Appeals Court Dismisses NSA Spying Case

On July 6, a divided Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a 2006 federal district court finding that the National Security Agency's (NSA) Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP) violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures and the First Amendment's protection of free speech. Without ruling on the constitutionality of the TSP, the judges dismissed the case based on the plaintiffs' lack of standing.

read in full

Pages

  • ©2015 Center for Effective Government
  • All Rights Reserved.
  • This an archive site of the materials produced by the Center for Effective Government (formerly OMB Watch) and is maintained by the Project On Government Oversight.