After Alberto Gonzales took over as Attorney General at the Justice Department in February 2005, the Department issued secret memoranda justifying extreme interrogation techniques, reported the New York Times in early October. The importance of such secret opinions and the lack of independent oversight was magnified on Oct. 9 when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review a case involving the alleged secret rendition and torture of a German citizen.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) came under tough scrutiny at an Oct. 4 hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment and Hazardous Materials for reducing the reporting standards of the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) in December 2006.

Several states have sued the Bush administration over new policies governing the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The suits follow broad opposition from state public health experts and congressional Democrats and Republicans who urged the administration to abandon the new policies. The suits also come as Congress attempts to reauthorize SCHIP after a presidential veto.

President Bush and Congress continue to deny the fiscal realities of prosecuting two simultaneous wars that cost about $12 billion per month. By classifying the president's FY 2008 $193 billion war funding request an "emergency supplemental" and stifling discussion of war financing, Congress sidesteps the critical task of setting and adequately funding national priorities.