Center for Effective Government | Because government matters

$50 Billion Per Year is Not Pocket Change

As reported in the Washington Post on March 25, advocates of estate tax repeal have redirected their efforts to state legislatures, pressuring them to "update" their estate tax laws to reflect the changes implemented in last June’s $1.35 trillion tax cut.

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Resolutions Not Worth Keeping

The FY 2003 Congressional budget plan is probably not going to be a resolution worth keeping.

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States and Local Governments to Lose Funding for Many Programs

A new National Priorities Project report highlights the cuts slated for state and local governments under the President’s FY 2003 budget proposal. These cuts will only further complicate matters for the vast majority of states that are already contending with budget crises. For more on the cuts and there state-by-state impact, see the full NPP analysis. The analysis will continue to be updated over the next 2 weeks, and readers are encouraged to check the NPP website if they do not see their program area covered in the analysis and tables.

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Public Still At Risk of Chemical Plant Attack

The Washington Post reported last week that a previously undisclosed study by the Army surgeon general concludes that as many as 2.4 million people are at risk of being killed or injured in a terrorist attack against a U.S. toxic chemical plant in a densely populated area. This shocking number is twice as high as previous government estimates of possible casualties of a worst-case scenario involving terrorist attacks on chemical plants.

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State and Local PACs Not Reporting to IRS Could Owe Millions in Penalties

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has said that state and local PACs that have failed to register could owe millions in penalties, and they are evaluating how to proceed.

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Bush Administration to Ease Environmental Laws for Coal Powered Plants

The Bush administration plans to ease off of older coal-fired power plants that have violated clean air standards in favor of "incentives for voluntary reductions in toxic emissions," according to this article in the Washington Post.

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Data Quality Meetings To Be Held

Data Quality meetings abound in Washington DC this week. The National Academy of Sciences is hosting a public workshop focused on OMB's "Guidelines for Ensuring and Maximizing the Quality, Objectivity, Utility, and Integrity of Information Disseminated by Federal Agencies" on March 21 and 22. This workshop is being organized by the Ad Hoc Committee on Data Quality under the auspices of the Science, Technology, and Law Program of The National Academies. The registration deadline is Tuesday, March 19 and there is no registration fee.

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