On Jan. 23 Thomas Sullivan, chief counsel for advocacy with The Small Business Administration (SBA), contacted OMB Watch in response to "Is Industry Pulling EPA's Strings?", an article recently published in The Watcher that describes a troubling pattern of close cooperation and extensive communication between the SBA and the Environmental Protection Agency around reducing chemical reporting under the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI), in order cut down on governmental paperwork for companies. Sullivan asked that OMB Watch clarify that the 1997 investigation by SBA's Inspector General into possible unethical actions around the TRI by SBA lawyer Kevin Bromberg, who has previously advocated for an industry coalition on TRI, found no evidence of inappropriate action. During his conversation with OMB Watch, Sullivan acknowledged that all of the facts cited in the article about recent interactions between EPA and SBA are correct. The article has been updated to reflect SBA's request.

According to documents released to the Natural Resources Defense Council, all references to the possibility that naval sonar may have caused 37 whales to swim ashore and die in North Carolina last year were deleted from a government report on the incident. The revelation came as the Department of the Navy nears the close of its public comment period on its plans to build an underwater sonar training range in the same North Carolina location.

• create a high level chief FOIA officer in each agency;
• conduct an internal assessment of FOIA service problems and develop a work plan for making improvements;