Yesterday the IRS released its Report on Exempt Organizations Executive Compensation and the New York Times reported on these findings. About 600 charities and foundations had to file amended tax forms and problems were found in the way nonprofits reported payments to their executives and other employees. One of the reasons for the study that began in 2004 was to pin point excessive compensation to nonprofit executives through audits and questionnaires, ultimately improving tax law reporting of compensation practices of exempt organizations.

Yesterday the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties held a hearing on the lobby reform measures included in S.1. The heated discussion on the issue of grassroots lobbying disclosure has not gone unnoticed. A BNA Money and Politics ($$) points out the undeniable prominence the issue had during the session. The hearing was intended to focus on the ethics and lobby changes passed in S.1, but instead focused mostly on a measure that was voted out of the bill.

Thursday, President Bush nominated Michael Baroody to be a commissioner on the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Baroody is the current executive vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers, a trade group whose mission includes "shaping a legislative and regulatory environment" on behalf of manufacturers. Baroody's ability to shape America's regulatory environment will take on new meaning if he becomes a CPSC commissioner. The CPSC is the independent agency charged with protecting the public from dangerous products. The commissioners (of which there are only three) must be able to work with manufacturers to assess product safety, but also exert authority when industry cooperation does not go far enough in protecting the public. If you think a commissioner with such obvious strong ties to the industry he must regulate is a bad idea, you are not alone. Public interest groups are already sounding the alarms, and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) says she will give the nomination "thorough scrutiny," according to the LA Times. As Reg•Watch has blogged in the past, the CPSC has been short a commissioner since July, and its voting quorum recently expired. I find it depressing to have to contemplate which is worse: a commissioner like Michael Baroody, or no commissioner at all.