Government Matters Articles

Battle of the Bills

The Senate is currently considering two chemical security bills that seem just about as diametrically opposed to each other as two bills could be. Sen. Jon Corzine’s (D-NJ) Chemical Security Act (S. 1602) is scheduled for mark-up this week. Corzine’s bill would require that facilities that pose hazards to their neighbors look for safer processes and adopt them where feasible. Under the act:
  • The EPA and the Department of Justice would identify the highest-priority facilities;

read in full

Administration to Relax Clean Air Protections for Aging Power Plants

The Bush administration recently announced its decision to roll back clean air protections for older, coal-fired power plants, allowing them to modernize without installing the latest technology to cut down on emissions, as reported in the Washington Post.

read in full

Budget Process, October 1, And Tax Cuts

With the expiration of key Senate budget rules on October 1, tax cuts will get easier to pass.

read in full

2001 Giving USA Study Released

Some $212 billion in charitable giving was generated in 2001, a 0.5% rate of growth significantly lower than the 6% rate of growth in 2000, according to the 2002 edition of Giving USA, a publication of the AAFRC Trust for Philanthropy, researched and written by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, released June 20. Arguably the most surprising news is that charitable giving centered around September 11th activities constituted less than 1% of all giving for the year.

read in full

Senate Finance Committee Passes Amended CARE Act

The Senate Finance Committee passed the Chair's amended version of the CARE Act (S. 1924, the Lieberman-Santorum compromise on the President's faith-based initiative) on June 18 by a voice vote.

read in full

No ICANN Fix It

The nonprofit organization responsible for the management of the Internet's domain name space has recently drawn renewed criticism from Congress, international governments, nonprofits, and the broader online public, most recently for a series of reorganization proposals developed to address earlier concerns about transparency, accountability, and fairness around its deliberations and overall operations.

read in full

Race to Transfer .org Intensifies

On June 18, 2002, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) closed the bidding to both nonprofit and collaborative applicants that represent the future management of the .org Internet namespace.

read in full

Is the FBI Watching You?

The Department of Justice announced new guidelines for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that dramatically expand their authority to conduct investigations that are not related to criminal activity and engage in surveillance of religious, political and advocacy organizations.

read in full

Comment Salvos Exchanged in Data Quality War

Extensions granted In response to the extremely short public comment period most agencies were offering on their draft data quality guidelines, Citizens for Sensible Safeguards, a broad-based coalition of organizations representing health, safety, civil rights, and environmental concerns, sent a letter to Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) Administrator John Graham requesting an extension to the deadline for filing comments on federal agency data quality guidelines. Similar letters were sent to several key agencies requesting that they extend they public comment periods.

read in full

EPA Likely to Require "Terror Checks" at Chemical Plants

According to Associated Press reports last week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may finally begin to require chemical plants to assess their vulnerabilities to a terrorist attack, and then take measures to reduce those risks. While chemical plants have always posed significant risks to communities from “routine” accidents, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 prompted a reassessment of these threats and greater sense of urgency in addressing these risks, and as OMB Watch previously reported here, chemical plants have failed to effectively address the threats on their own.

read in full

Pages

  • ©2015 Center for Effective Government
  • All Rights Reserved.
  • This an archive site of the materials produced by the Center for Effective Government (formerly OMB Watch) and is maintained by the Project On Government Oversight.