Throughout the past several years, attempts to roll back regulatory safeguards and delay new rulemaking have been common. 2006 proved to be no different, and several important issues garnered attention. Among these were sunset commission legislation, the nomination of Susan Dudley, and proposals to further complicate the regulatory process.

The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) submitted the Information Sharing Environment (ISE) Implementation Plan to Congress in November. Through changes in policy and technology, the plan articulates a multi-year vision for improving terrorism information sharing across the federal government and between foreign, federal, state and local governments, as well as key members of the private sector.

The continuing creep of the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) is threatening to impact tens of millions of Americans in 2007 - a fact that will push it to the forefront of tax policy issues. In 1995, 414,000 wealthy tax payers paid the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), and in 2001, that number grew to 1.3 million. Unless Congress acts, 23.4 million Americans are expected to be snagged by this "stealth tax" in 2007, which was originally intended to affect only 20,000 wealthy taxpayers.