For months, President Bush's budget proposal has been criticized for not being an honest reflection of his intended policies or the current fiscal reality. The president purposely left out a number of major policies, including Social Security reform, extension of Alternative Minimum Tax relief, and perhaps most egregiously of all, any funding for the future cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That last omission garnered increased criticism from Capitol Hill last week.

Last week, after lengthy negotiations, House and Senate Republican leaders finally agreed to a set of compromises in the fiscal year 2006 (FY06) budget resolution that allowed both chambers to narrowly pass the legislation. Negotiated behind closed doors, the final budget resolution is a dishonest and irresponsible agreement that will weaken both the federal government and the U.S. economy -- and negatively impact most Americans. Most striking is that it provides another tax break for the wealthy and cuts programs to needy and middle-income Americans while still increasing the deficit.

State and local governments addressed a Senate subcommittee and called for an expansion of provisions in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) that would further relieve them from their obligations to provide important public protections.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has significantly missed its publicly stated goal of March for the release of the 2003 Toxic Release Inventory (TRI). The agency made several changes to its data management in an effort to streamline the process, apparently to no avail. In recent years, the agency has been releasing the annual TRI database in May or June.