Government Matters Articles

Senate Rejects Estate Tax Repeal; Frist Likely to Turn to Costly 'Compromise'

Last week, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) failed to garner enough support for a procedural vote to move forward with debate on estate tax repeal. The Senate's reject of the motion signals lawmakers may now have realized that their priorities should reflect those of their constituents and the pressing issues facing the country, not tax breaks for multi-millionaires.

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House Passes Budget, Slips in Increase to Debt Ceiling

In the very wee hours of May 18, the House finally succeeded in passing its version of the 2007 budget resolution, more than a month too late. Majority Leader John Boehner (R-IA) had repeatedly postponed the vote, because he lacked enough support to pass the bill. The passage of the resolution carries little practical purpose, because the House and Senate are unlikely to have the time or inclination to reconcile the very different versions of the bill, and the House has already moved forward quickly with appropriations.

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Who Wins With The Tax Bill? Bush Raises Taxes On Students, Expatriates

President Bush marked the culmination of a more than 15-month effort to enact new tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans last week when he signed the $70 billion 2005 tax reconciliation bill into law. In order to keep the bill within cost limits despite the give-away to the affluent, the president and Congress enacted tax increases on students saving for college and Americans working abroad.

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Battle Brewing on How to Track Contract and Grant Bucks

Two bills may soon face off in the Senate on how best to provide the public with information on how the government spends taxpayer dollars.

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NJ Report Highlights Need for Chemical Safety Requirements

A chemical catastrophe at any one of six New Jersey facilities could seriously injure or kill nearly one million people living in the area, according to a May 23 report by the New Jersey Work Environment Council (WEC). The report, Safety & Security First: Protecting Our Jobs, Families, and Hometowns from Toxic Chemical Disaster, concludes that chemical plant security must become a top priority for federal and state lawmakers.

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NAACP Releases Information on IRS Audit

Seven Republican members of Congress filed complaints with the IRS in 2004, claiming the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) engaged in partisan electioneering, leading to an IRS probe, according to agency documents released to the NAACP under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The NAACP has asked the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) to review the IRS's failure to fully respond to its FOIA requests.

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House Passes Right-to-Know Amendment to Save TRI

On May 18, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from rolling back reporting requirements for our nation's worst polluters. By passing the Pallone-Solis Toxic Right-To-Know Amendment to the Interior Appropriations Bill, the House took an important step to preserve EPA's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) program, by prohibiting the agency from spending any money to finalize its plans to cut toxic chemical reporting requirements.

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USAID Pledge Requirement Again Found Unconstitutional

A second federal judge has ruled that a sweeping restriction on the privately funded speech of groups participating in the federal government's international HIV/AIDS program violates the First Amendment.

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Treasury Will Revise Anti-Terrorist Financing Guidelines

A Treasury Department official, speaking at a gathering of attorneys, announced that the department is revising its Anti-Terrorist Financing Guidelines: Voluntary Best Practices for U.S.-Based Charities, based on public comments submitted last February. According to the official, the revisions are undergoing review and the department hopes to release them soon. This will be the third version of the Guidelines, since their release in November 2002; earlier versions have been criticized for hindering legitimate charity work.

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House Speeds Through the First of its Spending Bills

Immediately following the passage of a House budget resolution last week, the Appropriations Committee (and its relevant subcommittees) got down to business and passed its first four appropriations bills. Although the House is once again off to a blistering pace, the lack of a final budget resolution a jam-packed Senate calendar and a short legislative session, will almost definitely delay appropriations beyond the start of the fiscal year. This situation will surely necessitate continuing resolutions and a lame-duck session after the November elections.

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