Government Matters Articles

Supreme Court Rules Against Expansion of 'Takings' Claims

In a major victory for the environment, the Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision that governments are not required by the Constitution to pay compensation to landowners in cases where development is temporarily prohibited, as reported in the April 23 Washington Post.

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Online Voting and Voter Education, Revisited

In the US and elsewhere, an effort is being made to capitalize on improvements in online security and assistive technologies to use online voting to make voting more accessible, increase overall voter participation, and specifically, turnout among younger voters. The question is whether public confidence will support any changes in voting procedures before technology can be seen as a means to improving voter turnout.

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Senator Grassley Asks for Investigation of Charities' Fundraising

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has asked the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice to conduct an investigation of charities that raise large amounts of money, but use only small amounts for charitable purposes. While the request specifically cites the Children's Wish Foundation International, which has spent only 8% of its funds on charitable purposes over the past 10 years, the investigation will look at the entire charitable sector.

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NPTalk Reader Survey 2002

On NPTalk's third anniversary, we invite you to participate in the following online survey. It'll help us to make NPTalk more useful to you over the course of the next 3 years and beyond.

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Tax Day

As people around the country bring last-minute work on their tax returns to a close today, the House Republican leaders are gearing up for their annual "Tax Freedom" day – a time for denigrating government spending and the taxes that enable the government to provide the services that help support the country. This year, the legislative focus of their Tax Freedom day is likely to be the introduction, on April 18, of legislation to make permanent last year’s $1.35 trillion tax cut, which expires (or "sunsets") at the end of 2010.

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OMB Watch Online Poll: Super-Waiver

OMB Watch is closely following renewed efforts to develop a "super-waiver" for states (see OMB Watcher story). Please help us by taking part in our Super-Waiver Poll.

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President Continues to Push Faith-Based Program

In a speech at the White House last week, the President noted that contributions to many charities have declined, and urged Congress to pass the CARE Act (S. 1924), the faith-based compromise bill sponsored by Sens. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) and Rick Santorum (R-PA) as one way to address the problem. The bill has incentives for charitable giving, including a deduction for contributions by nonitemizers, and provisions for equal treatment of faith-based and other organizations in the federal grantmaking process.

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Watch Out For The Super-Waiver

The new "super-waiver" legislation proposed in the House is dangerously broad and should be opposed by all nonprofits concerned with social justice.

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Data Quality Approaches

Government agencies are busy working on their data quality guidelines with many looking to a draft release for public comment in May. According to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidelines, issued January 3, 2002, each agency must implement agency specific information quality guidelines by October 1, 2002.

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Bush Administration Peddles Ergonomics Smokescreen

Over a year after Congress voted to repeal Clinton-era ergonomics standards at the urging of President Bush, the Department of Labor (DOL) announced on April 5 the release of its replacement "plan" that is nothing more than a smokescreen to mask the administration's unwillingness to seriously address injuries caused by repetitive motion -- the most pressing health and safety issue confronting the workplace today.

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