Government Matters Articles

Scaled Down Church Electioneering Bill Introduced

We are collecting feedback from nonprofits on how much partisan electioneering powers can help or hurt 501(c)(3) organizations. What do you think? Could taking sides be a good investment of your group's time, money, or political capital? What are the dangers, and can they be avoided? If so, how? You can provide us with input through our online forum on NPAction.org Last fall, after the House defeated a bill that would have allowed religious organizations to engage in partisan electioneering, sponsor Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) promised to re-introduce the bill in the next Congress. On January 8 he followed through by introducing the Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act, H.R. 235), which attempts to address concerns raised about last year’s bill by narrowing the scope of what it allows. It currently has thirteen co-sponsors and has been referred to the Ways and Means Committee.

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Workshop on EPA's Assessment Factors

A workshop was held on January 21, 2003, to discuss scientific and technical aspects of the appropriateness and utility of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recently developed Draft Assessment Factors for Evaluating the Quality of Information from External Sources. The Assessment Factors represent an additional effort by EPA in response the Data Quality Act. EPA finalized its data quality guidelines in October 2002.

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Trading Away the Clean Water Act?

A new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) policy, announced on January 13, will allow industrial polluters to buy trading credits instead of reducing water pollution.

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EPA Announces Plans to Withdraw Protection of Wetlands

The Bush administration unveiled plans on January 15 that would withdraw federal protection for as much as 20 million acres of wetlands, such as marshes, swamps and bogs.

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Senate Rejects Amendment Blocking Clean Air Rollback

The Senate narrowly rejected an amendment on January 22 that would have delayed a rule weakening the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) New Source Review (NSR) program while the National Academy of Sciences evaluates its potential impact on air pollution and human health. The final rule, set to take effect March 3, rolls back clean air protections through a series of exemptions to NSR, which requires older coal-fired power plants to add the latest anti-pollution machinery whenever they are substantially upgraded.

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Read the Watcher in Full in Easy-to-Print PDF Format

For your convenience, the OMB Watcher is also available in full as a PDF document -- this will allow for viewing and printing of the entire issue in one document.

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What Are Some Good Economic Stimulus Plans?

The chart in this article provides a comparison of some economic stimulus plans that have not come out of Congress. For a comparison of the Bush plan with Congressional plans, see this chart.

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Unemployment Assistance Needs to Go Farther

With last week’s round of self-congratulating that followed the President’s signing of an extension of federally-funded unemployment benefits, one might think that the bill’s benefits would reach all unemployed workers in the country. Indeed, the bill’s signing came just in time for those workers whose regular (or state-funded) unemployment benefits ended December 28. Without the extension of the federally-funded “Temporary Emergency Unemployment Compensation” (TEUC), these workers would have been left with no assistance. Under the renewal of the TEUC, this group of unemployed workers will receive 13 weeks of federally-funded unemployment benefits, or up to 26 weeks, if they reside in states with exceptionally high unemployment rates.

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House Republicans Institute Dynamic Scoring; Waive Debt-Ceiling Votes

Included among its questionable first actions in the 108th Congress, the Republican-led House Ways and Means Committee made two new troubling rule changes that will govern House legislation around the federal budget.

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Continuing Resolution, Take 8

Last week the House and Senate Passed, and the President signed the eighth continuing resolution (CR) of the FY 2003 budget season. This CR will keep the federal government and the programs it funds going through January 31, 2003. Without the CR, there would be no funding for these programs and the government would be forced to shut down – an option no one wanted to serve as the opening to the 108th Congress last week. As discussed in previous issues of the Watcher, there are many problems for agencies trying to operate under a stream of CR’s, which only continue last year’s funding levels, with no increase for inflation. There is hope that this will be the last CR necessary for FY 2003, as many in Congress want to complete work on the remaining 11 appropriations bills by combining them into an omnibus appropriations bill – to allow them to move on to the FY 2004 budget.

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