On Sept. 6, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that a controversial section of the USA PATRIOT Act is unconstitutional. In John Doe v. Gonzales, Judge Victor Morrerro ruled that the National Security Letter (NSL) provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act are in violation of the separation of powers doctrine and the First Amendment's protection of free speech.

According to a Sept. 5 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) second program to test and clean building interiors contaminated by toxins from the World Trade Center (WTC) collapse was a virtual failure. The program's problems stemmed from EPA's inadequate public notification and refusal to listen to its own science experts. The GAO report also indicated that EPA was reluctant to accept cleanup responsibility according to expert recommendations. The result was a limited program grossly underutilized by the public.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has agreed to temporarily delay implementation of a new database, called the Partner Vetting System (PVS), that would "[ensure] that neither USAID funds nor USAID-funded activities inadvertently or otherwise provide support to entities or individuals associated with terrorism." Under the plan, initially announced on July 17, all nonprofits that apply for grants, contracts or other financial partnership with USAID would have to provide the government with highly detailed personal information about employees, executives, trustees, subcontractors and others associated with the organization. On July 20, USAID also proposed to exempt portions of the PVS database from the Privacy Act. USAID is accepting comment on the Privacy Act exemption until Sept. 18. Charities are actively objecting to this burdensome and unwarranted program in which thousands of nonprofit workers would have to be screened. USAID is moving forward with a pilot program for aid recipients working in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip before expanding it globally as first intended.

The U.S. Census Bureau released its annual report, Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States 2006 on Aug. 28. The report, which covers the most recent Current Population Survey (CPS) data, showed slight overall improvement in income and poverty, but continued declining rates of health insurance coverage. The headline numbers — a 0.7 percent increase in median household income and a 0.3 percent decline in poverty — are undermined, however, by the underlying story that middle- and low-income working Americans are not seeing substantial gains from the current economy.