Government Matters Articles

Support Grows for Contracts and Grants Disclosure

The financial and information management subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs held a July 18 hearing on the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (S. 2590). Support in the Senate for the bill that would create a free, searchable public database of government contracts and grants has surged in recent weeks, helping propel the issue forward.

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EPA's Science Advisory Board Opposes TRI Proposals

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Science Advisory Board (SAB) recently sent a letter to the agency expressing concerns over its plans to reduce information collected under the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). The SAB maintains that the proposed cuts would "hinder the advances of environmental research used to protect public health and the environment." SBA sent the letter detailing its concerns to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson on July 12.

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Sunset Commission Bill Imminent

A sunset commission bill could arrive this week, if House leadership sticks to its previously announced plans. As OMB Watch reported earlier, House leaders intended to hold a vote on sunset commission legislation within the first couple of weeks of returning from the July 4 recess.

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Senate Will Hold Hearing on Federal Spending Transparency

A Senate hearing has been scheduled for July 18 to discuss the need for publicly available information surrounding federal spending and how the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (S. 2590) will create this transparency.

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Senators 'Hold' EPA Nominee to Protest Cuts to Pollution Reporting

New Jersey Sens. Frank Lautenberg (D) and Robert Menendez (D) have placed a hold on a Bush administration nominee to protest a set of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposals to dismantle the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). Last year, EPA proposed significant cuts to the TRI program, our country's most complete inventory of toxic pollution, that would according to Lautenberg, "deny thousands of communities - including 160 in New Jersey - full information about the release of hazardous toxic emissions in their neighborhoods."

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Employees Weigh in to Save EPA Libraries

Presidents of 17 Local Unions representing more than 10,000 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency employees wrote to Senate appropriators on June 29 to protest deep cuts to EPA funding that would close the agency's libraries. The letter urges Congress to reinstate full funding to EPA libraries and explains how the cuts will impede EPA's ability to respond to public health, enforcement and homeland security emergencies and restrict public access to vital health and safety information.

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OMB Mid-Session Review Gives Limited Picture Of Budget Crisis

Today, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released its annual Mid-Session Budget Review, and has lowered by $127 billion the projected FY 2006 budget deficit - from $423 billion estimated earlier this year to $296 billion. The reduction is attributed to an unexpected rise in corporate and personal income tax receipts and revenues from capital gains taxes. Beneath the increased tax revenue, however, is a frightening reality: the ever-widening gap between the very rich and the rest of us.

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Reports Show the Good and Bad in Agency Classification Procedures

Continuing its study of classification procedures, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released two reports, one focusing on the Department of Defense (DOD) and the other on the Department of Energy (DOE). The reports offer a stark contrast, bemoaning DOD's "lack of oversight and inconsistent implementation" of classification policies, while praising DOE's "systematic training, comprehensive guidance, and rigorous oversight."

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Report Finds IRS Program Could Hamper Free Speech for Organizations

A new OMB Watch report finds fault with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) program to enforce the ban on partisan activities by charities. The report's most serious findings suggest that the IRS's Political Activities Compliance Initiative (PACI) threatens the constitutional rights of nonprofit organizations and churches to speak out on issues of the day. It also suggests that the IRS exaggerated the extent of noncompliance in an agency report on its enforcement efforts in 2004.

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Congress to Limit Public Participation in Forest Service Decisions

After courts in California and Montana struck down Forest Service rules that limited public participation in certain logging decisions, the Senate has added language to an appropriations bill that would reinstate those rules.

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