Publications :  The Watcher :  OMB Watcher Vol. 4: 2003 :  April 21, 2003 Vol. 4 No. 8 : 

In This Issue

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Read the Watcher in Full in Easy-to-Print PDF Format (04/21/2003)
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Congress Passes Irresponsible Budget Plan Providing for $1.3 Trillion Tax Cut (04/21/2003)
The Budget Resolution has now been passed by the House (216-211) and by the Senate (51-50, with Vice President Dick Cheney casting the tie-breaking vote). This budget is, quite possibly, one of the worst examples of the failure of our elected representatives to meet their obligation to determine tax and spending outlines that address the priorities of the American people. Read the full story here.

Poll Shows Administration?s Priorities Are Out-of-Touch with Country?s Needs (04/21/2003)
A recent poll conducted by National Public Radio (NPR), the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Kennedy School of Government reveals much about how tax payers view current proposals to reduce taxes when compared with spending on education, Social Security, health care, and even reducing the deficit. The survey, conducted between February 5 and March 17, 2003, also revealed that many people feel they don’t know enough about various tax cut proposals to offer an opinion on them. This result is disconcerting, surely, but is also very interesting given the efforts of Treasury Secretary John Snow and other White House officials in recent months to educate Americans on the administration’s tax cut agenda through road shows across the country.

Fool Me Once, Shame on You, Fool Me Twice? (04/21/2003)
For the second time, in as many years, the President and his tax-slashing allies in Congress have passed a budget that calls for massive tax cuts. Though the recent precedent-setting effort of congressional Republicans last week to pass a budget resolution by agreeing to different tax cut packages leaves much uncertainty about just how large a tax cut the country will be saddled with, a large tax giveaway seems assured. Within the next several weeks, we will learn whether this round of tax cuts will be limited to the Senate's $350 billion or be as high as the House's $550 billion, but this is just the beginning: the budget resolution actually provides for a total of $1.3 trillion in tax cuts over the next 10 years. Whatever is decided, the tax cuts will be far more than the country can afford. As a result, most of us, and future generations, will be stuck footing the bill for a huge expenditure that will do little, if anything, to stimulate the economy, lower the unemployment rate, close the ever-widening gaps in state budgets, meet the educational needs of our children, or address the shortfall in Social Security or pay for a prescription drug plan for our seniors.

Corporate Tax Havens and the EITC (04/21/2003)
While the administration continues to push for tax cuts for corporations and the very wealthy, whose tax avoidance is estimated to cost the government $75 billion a year, it is also working to establish a rigorous pre-certification process for Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) recipients.

Lawyers Criticize Administration Secrecy (04/21/2003)
The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights recently released a report titled “Imbalance of Powers” which details how the Bush Administration has steadily rolled back basic human rights protections and civil liberties since the September 11 attacks. The shroud of secrecy in which the executive branch has cloaked itself is among the troubling trends. The excessive secrecy makes effective oversight impossible and significantly reduces government accountability.

CARE Act Passes in Senate (04/21/2003)
WHITE HOUSE OPPOSES FUNDS FOR SOCIAL SERVICE BLOCK GRANT

By a vote of 95-5, the Senate passed the Charity Aid Relief and Empowerment Act of 2003 on April 9, acting to increase charitable giving for the first time in two decades. The amended version of the bill did not include the "equal treatment" provisions on grant rules for faith-based organizations. In addition to the giving incentives, it authorizes funding for the Compassion Capital Fund and provides a $1.3 billion two-year increase in funding for programs under the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG). On the afternoon the bill passed the Associated Press reported that President Bush objected to the SSBG funding increase, saying it exceeds his budget request. However, the President supported this provision before the equal treatment provisions were dropped from the bill.

OMB Looking for Comments on Uniform Grant Application, Financial Reporting (04/21/2003)
Two Federal Register notices were published April 8, 2003, by the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Office of Federal Financial Management (OFFM) that move the federal government’s grant streamlining process forward. The first, Notice of Proposed Requirement to Establish Standard Data Elements, proposes uniform information requirements for all federal grant applications. The second proposes consolidation of several financial reporting forms into a single, uniform report for grant recipients. It would apply to discretionary and formula grants and cooperative agreements. OFFM is seeking public comment by June 9, 2003. Its goal is to have an electronic application system operational by October 2003. See our Grant Streamlining Webpage for more background.

Administration Stifles Objections to Pentagon Pollution Exemptions (04/21/2003)
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Assistant Administrator John Peter Suarez has expressed strong support for proposals to exempt the Department of Defense from a host of environmental laws despite serious objections from his own staff.

Norton: No New Wilderness Areas (04/21/2003)
The Bush administration recently revealed plans to suspend reviews of potential wilderness areas and to withdraw protected status from nearly three million acres in Utah.

EPA Proposes Tough Diesel Standards (04/21/2003)
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently unveiled a proposal to significantly reduce harmful emissions from non-road diesel engines used in construction, agricultural and industrial equipment.

Court Blocks Administration From Weakening Dolphin-Safe Tuna Label (04/21/2003)
A federal district court preliminarily enjoined efforts by the Bush administration to allow countries, such as Mexico, to label their tuna “dolphin safe” even if dolphins were chased and encircled in nets in order to catch fish swimming beneath them.

DHS Broadens CII in Proposed Rule (04/21/2003)
Last week the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) proposed its rule for handling Critical Infrastructure Information (CII). While it was encouraging that DHS is engaging in an open rulemaking process, complete with a public comment period, the content of the proposed rule was troubling. The CII provisions of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 were already widely criticized, resulting in proposed legislation to fix the provisions. The CII provisions requested that corporations voluntarily submit information on infrastructure vulnerabilities and would be, in return, guaranteed secrecy, civil immunity, preemption of state and local disclosure laws, and criminal penalties for government employees that reveal the information. The DHS proposed rule raises new concerns.

Permanent Patriot Act? (04/21/2003)
Recently the Bush administration and several lead Republicans in Congress have begun pushing to make permanent the governmental powers temporarily expanded by the USA Patriot Act. The USA Patriot Act, which greatly expanded the government’s ability to spy on citizens, only gained wide support when many of the critical provisions were designed to expire or sunset at the end of 2005, unless Congress re-authorizes them.

Another Non-Disclosure First (04/21/2003)
In a decision that seems almost Kafkaesque, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has achieved new heights in secrecy with its refusal to release the CIA Headquarters Handbook on releasing information to the public. The policy handbook was requested in a Freedom of Information Act letter from a reporter. The CIA confirmed the existence of the manual but claimed that no portion of it, including the cover page, could be released. The CIA asserted that the handbook was being withheld under two separate FOIA exemptions: the agency claimed that the information pertains solely to the internal personnel rules and practices of the Agency, the b(2) FOIA exemption; and the second justification given for withholding was based on the agency’s claims that the document describes intelligence sources and methods, the b(3) FOIA exemption.

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