Publications :  The Watcher :  OMB Watcher Vol. 5: 2004 :  July 12, 2004 Vol.5, No.14 : 

In This Issue

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New Poll Finds Overwhelming Majorities Favor Government Regulation for Health and Safety (07/13/2004)
A new Harris poll conducted for Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety reveals that nine out of ten Americans believe that governmental regulation to protect health and safety is important.

Appropriations in November? (07/12/2004)
The House has been steadily moving forward with appropriations bills, in spite of the tight cap on appropriations spending for 2004; but in the Senate only one bill -- Defense -- has passed, and only one other bill -- Homeland Security -- has even gotten through a full Senate committee. None has made it to the Senate floor.

Estate Tax Update (07/12/2004)
The status of the estate tax repeal has not changed, but action is likely before this congressional session ends.


Tax Cut Extensions Possible (07/12/2004)
We reported earlier that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) wanted to delay until September consideration of extending the "middle-class" tax cuts -- marriage penalty, expansion of the 10% income tax bracket, and the $1000 child tax credit -- that will expire on December 31. However, the Bureau of National Affairs (BNA) reported July 12 that House and Senate leaders plan to consider the cuts late this week.

OMB Watch Uncovers Flaws in OMB's Data Quality Report (07/12/2004)
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently published a report to Congress that analyzes and summarizes federal agencies' first year of operations experience using the new information quality guidelines mandated under the Information Quality Act (IQA). The guidelines are supposed to ensure the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of information disseminated by federal agencies. The report provides OMB's perspective on the first year under the law and the IQA reports submitted to OMB from individual agencies. Unfortunately, OMB Watch's analysis found that OMB's insights are biased and its facts inaccurate.

Scientists Speak Out Against the Bush Administration (07/12/2004)
Last week the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) released updated evidence that the Bush administration continues to manipulate and control science for political reasons. UCS has now collected the signatures of more than 4,000 scientists supporting a statement urging the Bush administration to discontinue these troubling practices, and to restore scientific integrity in federal policymaking. The prestigious list of scientists taking this unprecedented stand includes 48 Nobel laureates, 62 national medal of science recipients, and 127 members of the National Academy of Sciences.

Patriot Act Intact but Under Fire in Congress (07/12/2004)
In a vote reflecting disagreement among Republican leaders and several conservative members of Congress over the USA Patriot Act, the House of Representatives defeated by the thinnest possible margin an effort to reign in the government's power to require libraries and booksellers to reveal the books people are reading.

Groups Object to Indian Affairs FOIA Exemptions (07/12/2004)
Several groups and individuals voiced objections to a Senate Bureau of Indian Affairs reform bill, in a letter delivered to Senators Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO) and Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI) July 8.

Poll Shows Growing Public Support for First Amendment (07/12/2004)
Public support for the First Amendment has rebounded to pre-9/11 levels, according to this year's results of an annual poll by the First Amendment Center.

Ad Council pushes public to "exercise freedom" after 9/11 (07/12/2004)
The Advertising Council last week released several public service announcements designed to remind Americans to support and defend freedom as part of the response to the attacks of September 11. These new ads encourage Americans to exercise their freedom by voting, volunteering and otherwise engaging in civic life.

Legality of Campaign Coordination with Nonprofits Questioned (07/12/2004)
Two presidential campaigns are facing challenges about their ties to nonprofit groups. The Bush campaign's appeals to churchgoers to recruit from their congregations, and the Ralph Nader campaign's office rental agreement with a 501(c)(3) group founded by him, both raise the possibility that charitable or religious resources are being used for partisan purposes. Both are the subject of a complaint filed at the Federal Election Commission (FEC) that alleges illegal coordination between the campaigns and two nonprofits in Oregon working to get Nader on the state ballot.


More Evidence of Misconduct by Head Start Bureau Chief (07/12/2004)
On June 30, the National Head Start Association issued a statement calling for the immediate resignation of Windy Hill, the U.S. Head Start Bureau Chief. Hill is the subject of an Inspector General investigation into misconduct during her tenure as head of a Texas Head Start agency prior to coming to Washington. The investigation began after NHSA released details of Hill's misconduct in April, alleging thousands of dollars in unauthorized pay, vacation time and undocumented expenses. Hill has announced her resignation effective in November, but NHSA released new details of misconduct and said the resignation should be effective immediately.

Court Says State Must Accept Voter Registrations From Nonprofit Project (07/12/2004)
A Georgia education group involved in a multi-state effort to register voters won a preliminary injunction in early July barring the Georgia Secretary of State from rejecting voter registration cards mailed in bundles. The case, Charles H. Wesley Education Foundation, Inc. v. Cathy Cox, et al., was a test of whether state officials can impose rules on voter registration drives that are inconsistent with the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).

IRS Suspends Tax-Exempt Status of Group on Terrorist List (07/12/2004)
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released Announcement 2004-56 on June 24, suspending the tax-exempt status of the Rabbi Meir Kahane Memorial Fund (the fund), which is a part of the Kahane movement. The action was based Section 501(p), a new section of the tax code created in 2003 as part of the Military Family Tax Relief Act.

Senate Finance Committee to Hold Roundtable on Nonprofit Issues (07/12/2004)
The Senate Finance Committee recently announced it will hold a roundtable discussion Thursday, July 22, on issues concerning exempt organizations. The two main purposes of the roundtable are to follow-up on the committee's hearing on charities, and to further review the staff's discussion draft regarding proposed reforms to exempt organizations.


AmeriCorps Programs Violate Separation of Church and State (07/12/2004)
On July 6, a federal court judge ruled that AmeriCorps must stop funding programs that place volunteers in Catholic schools.

SBA Proposes, Withdraws Proposal to Change Definition of 'Small Business' (07/12/2004)
Last week the Small Business Administration retracted its proposal to alter a powerful federal designation that affects the work of almost every federal agency. Only "small businesses," designated as such by SBA, are eligible for SBA loans and roughly a fifth of federal procurement contracts. But SBA's "size standards" also grant to small business privileges to challenge agency regulations both in rulemaking and rule enforcement periods. Defenders of agency effectiveness have more at stake in the debate over the definition of small business than is immediately apparent.

SBA Lobbies States for Small Business Role in Regulation (07/12/2004)
The Small Business Administration (SBA) has been actively lobbying the states to enact legislation that would increase the role of small business in state regulatory processes, promoting in particular a model bill that would force state agencies to review the costs to small business of proposed public safeguards and, ultimately, all existing state regulations.

Enforcement Report: A round up of news items related to agency enforcement activity & gaps (07/12/2004)
As reported in the recent Citizens for Sensible Safeguards report Special Interest Takeover, one of the many threats to our regulatory system is the lack of enforcement of existing regulation. In recent years, the budgets for agency enforcement efforts have been slashed and personnel have been cut. The EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, for example, has seen a reduction in staff of 12 percent, bringing its staff numbers to the lowest levels since the formation of the agency. The resulting lack of enforcement of existing safeguards threatens the public health, safety, and environment. The following is a roundup of recent examples of inadequate enforcement of public safeguards.

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