Center for Effective Government | Because government matters

The Earned Income Tax Credit "Pre-Certification" Plan Opposed by Senate Democrats

Efforts to stop the proposed "pre-certification" of Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) recipients have growing support in the Senate.

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Still No Extension of Child Tax Credit for Low-Income Families

As 25 million families begin receiving their checks from the IRS for the $400 per child increases in the child tax credit, House Democrats used a series of procedural floor votes on July 23 to bring attention to the fact that no progress has been made to extend the credit to low-income families.

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Estate Tax Planning and Charitable Giving

Losses to charities and the people they serve would likely exceed the estimated $10 billion a year if the estate tax is repealed, because of the impacts on charitable giving behavior from total elimination of the tax.

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Economy and Jobs Watch: Soaring Deficits, Reckless Policy

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in its annual "Mid-Session Review" recently projected that the U.S. federal budget will see an unprecedented $691 billion deterioration in its budget situation -- moving from record surpluses of $236 billion in 2000 to record deficits of $455 billion in 2003.

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Graham Advises Ose to Scale Back Bill on Regulatory Budgeting

The House Government Reform committee recently held a hearing on a bill (H.R. 2432), sponsored by Rep. Doug Ose (R-CA), that would test regulatory budgeting at five agencies, including EPA and the departments of Labor and Transportation.

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EPA: No Permits Required for Pesticides In or Over U.S. Waters

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in a recent guidance document, declared that applying pesticides directly in or above U.S. waters with the purpose of controlling insects does not require a pollutant discharge permit under the Clean Water Act (CWA).

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House Votes to Block Country of Origin Meat Labeling

The House, acting with the support of the Bush administration, recently voted to block implementation of standards that require meat and meat products to bear a label indicating their country of origin. These country of origin labeling (COOL) requirements, which were mandated by the 2002 farm bill, were conceived to help consumers identify American-made products, and are seen as increasingly important due to the recent discovery of mad cow disease in Canada.

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Increase In Rollovers Leads to Highest Highway Fatality Rate Since 1990

Highway fatalities, boosted by a rise in the number of rollover crashes, increased by 1.5 percent in 2002, reaching the highest level since 1990, according to data released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Rollover crashes -- which increased by 5 percent, from 10,157 in 2001 to 10,666 in 2002 -- accounted for 82 percent of the total fatality increase. The number of persons killed in sport utility vehicles (SUVs) that rolled over increased as well – by 14 percent.

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USDA Issues Long-Awaited Listeria Standards

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) recently issued long-awaited standards to control listeria monocytogenes (commonly known as listeria), a dangerous food-borne bacterium often found in ready-to-eat foods.

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