Government Matters Articles

"PART" And The Federal Budget

There has been little public or media attention to the “Program Assessment Performance Tool” (PART) developed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), even though its explicit and primary purpose is to evaluate and tie program “performance” to budget appropriations. OMB Is also taking this effort very seriously. Why this sudden renewed attention to “government performance?”

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House Passes Bill to Revoke Exemption for ?Terrorist Support Organizations?

PUBLIC INTEREST GROUPS SUE GOVERNMENT FOR RECORDS ON PATRIOT ACT ACLU and three other public-interest groups filed suit against the Justice Department last week seeking disclosure of information on its use of the PATRIOT Act Congress passed last year. The suit was filed after the Justice Department failed to respond to a Freedom of Information request, asking for statistics on how many times the government had used its expanded wiretapping authority.

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A Call for Action Against Secrecy

Concerned about the current administration?s preference for policies of secrecy and information restriction OMB Watch recently issued a working paper entitled "The Bush Administration?s Secrecy Policy: A Call to Action to Protect Democratic Values" detailing the growth of secrecy in government, its impact and current public opinion on increased secrecy. The paper concludes with a call to action that emphasizes the need to build a coordinated campaign that not only addresses the increased secrecy, but also promotes strengthening the public's right-to-know.

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Anti-Regulatory Studies Found Deceptive

A series of influential studies purporting to show that federal regulation is broadly irrational are based on data that is highly misleading and frequently manufactured to fit a preconceived point of view, according to an investigation by Richard Parker, a law professor at the University of Connecticut, who presented his findings October 17 during a conference of the American Bar Association.

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Report Shows Bush Administration "Hostile" to Regulation

The Bush administration showed a "pre-determined hostility" toward regulation in reviewing, and in some cases weakening, environmental protections adopted under President Clinton, according to a new report, entitled "Rewriting the Rules," released by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), chairman of the Governmental Affairs Committee.

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Rahall, Dingell Express Concern with Bush Environmental Rollbacks

A letter to President Bush from leading congressional Democrats blasts the administration for undermining and dismantling the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), considered the Magna Carta of environmental law. Signed by President Nixon in 1969, NEPA requires agencies to assess the social, economic, and environmental impacts of proposed federal actions by writing a detailed statement called an Environmental Impact Analysis. This statement must also present alternatives to actions that might harm the environment and be subjected to public scrutiny and input.

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Stealth PAC Amendments Become Law

Congress approved a compromise bill just before its fall recess exempting state and local PACs from reporting requirements under the Stealth PAC law of 2000 and requiring data from reports to be made available on the Internet in a searchable format. President Bush signed the bill into law a week later.

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Study Finds Deficient Tracking for Federal Grants to Faith-Based Groups

The Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy, a non-partisan research organization, has released a report on government funding of faith-based social services, stating in its press release that “it is nearly impossible to track how most of the money is being used.” The primary reasons cited for difficulty in tracking these funds were:
  • Devolution -- States contract out federal funds at many different levels;
  • No centralized system or database tracks grants, contracts and vouchers;

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Senate Passes Temporary Extension of 60-Vote Rules

By Unanimous Consent, the Senate passed a 6-month extension of its expiring "supermajority" 60-vote point of order rules late Wednesday, October 16.

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"Bi-Partisan" Economic Summit A Good Start, But We Need Much More

The Democratic Policy Committee (DPC) hosted an economic forum on October 11. Subtitled “Securing Our Economic Future,” it was billed as an attempt to offer a bi-partisan discussion of and debate about the issues underlying the nation’s economic woes. Though the point was clearly made that no Republican Members of Congress accepted the DPC’s invitation, the forum’s first panel was comprised not only of former members of Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors, but also a former Associate Director for economics in President Reagan’s Office of Management and Budget and a former economic advisor to House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX).

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