Legislation was recently introduced in the House that would require the Departments of State and Treasury to adopt recommendations of an October 2005 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, which addressed the effectiveness of the U.S. government's efforts to assist other countries in the war on terrorism. Among other things, the bill would require the Treasury Department to submit in an annual report to Congress more complete information on how the agency tracks and blocks terrorist assets.

President George W. Bush and Congress are continuing their power struggle over policies related to the war in Iraq and a war funding bill containing a "goal" timeline for withdrawal of soldiers. Congress sent the funding bill to the president on May 1, the fourth anniversary of Bush's "mission accomplished" visit aboard an aircraft carrier, and he promptly vetoed it shortly thereafter. With the House unlikely to override a veto, Democrats in Congress are faced with the difficult task of finding a compromise in the next month.

The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals recently ruled that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is not liable for any harm resulting from their intentional misinformation about air quality around the World Trade Center (WTC) site following the September 11 attacks. The lawsuit, Lombardi v. Whitman, was filed by five emergency responders who worked at the WTC site without adequate safeguards, in part because of the misguided assurances of safe air quality. The April 19 court decision favors protecting government liability over the public's right to know about environmental risks that could compromise their safety.

The White House has released a memo instructing agencies on how to implement President George W. Bush's recent changes to the regulatory process. OMB Watch had anticipated the release of such a memo due to the need for clarification of certain controversial provisions within Bush's executive order. However, the memo offers little new information and further confounds issues in some areas.