Publications :  The Watcher :  OMB Watcher Vol. 8: 2007 :  July 10, 2007 Vol. 8, No. 14 : 

In This Issue

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Stalled Lobby Reform Bills to be Resolved Before August Recess (07/10/2007)
The House and Senate have now overwhelmingly passed their respective pieces of lobbying and ethics reform legislation, but a partisan impasse in the Senate has stalled progress. Before the Independence Day recess, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) was unable to reach an agreement with Republicans to go to conference. The House and Senate bills both increase current disclosure requirements for paid lobbying activities under the Lobbying Disclosure Act, but a few discrepancies between the two have to be worked out in conference. Reid promised to complete work on the lobbying and ethics bill before the August recess.

Aftermath of Supreme Court's Ruling Exempting Grassroots Lobbying from Campaign Finance Restrictions (07/10/2007)
Reactions to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Federal Election Commission v. Wisconsin Right to Life (WRTL) include dire predictions of massive amounts of soft money spent on sham issue ads before the 2008 elections, and even the end of the entire campaign finance regulatory regime. But the actual impact of the decision, which exempts grassroots lobbying broadcasts from the "electioneering communications" ban on corporate funded broadcasts that refer to federal candidates within 60 days of a general election or 30 days of a primary, is likely to be much more limited. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) must decide whether or not it will establish a rule implementing the decision, while a similar case has been sent back to a lower court for a ruling consistent with the Supreme Court's opinion.

U.S. Attorney Firings Expose Political Nature of Attack on ACORN's Voter Mobilization Efforts (07/10/2007)
Current congressional investigations into the Bush administration's 2006 firing of nine U.S. attorneys have revealed that one motivation behind the firings may have been the attorneys' refusal to pursue allegations of voter fraud as aggressively as the administration would have liked. Unfortunately, the attorneys were not the only casualty of the hunt for voter fraud. ACORN — an organization dedicated to empowering low-income communities across the country — also became a victim in what appears to be a politically motivated assault on its voter registration efforts.

House Votes to Stop Funding for Bush's Regulatory Changes (07/10/2007)
The House passed an appropriations bill June 28 that prevents parts of the executive branch from spending Fiscal Year 2008 funds on the implementation of President George W. Bush's controversial executive order amending the regulatory process. The Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, FY 2008, (H.R. 2829) was amended by voice vote late on the night of June 27 and was passed the next day. The bill provides funding for everything from the Treasury Department and the Executive Office of the President to the Federal Election Commission and the U.S. Tax Court.

U.S. Ability to Regulate Chinese Imports in Question (07/10/2007)
The United States government is struggling to ensure the safety of consumer products and food imported from China, as evidenced by a recent spate of controversies involving dangerous Chinese-made products. While America's consumer product safety net is relatively strong, China's young market economy is largely unchecked by government regulators. Subsequently, dangerous Chinese products are finding their way to American shores where federal agency officials are unable to monitor the volume of imports.

EPA Suspends Fish Kill Rule (07/10/2007)
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has suspended a fish protection rule in response to a January court decision. The decision vacated parts of the rule, which White House officials had edited and weakened. EPA will now have to begin a new round of rulemaking in order to address the ecological problem.

Coal Miners Experience Unusual Occurrences of Black Lung Disease (07/10/2007)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released July 6 the results of studies prompted by reports that underground coal miners are still experiencing unusual occurrences of black lung disease despite federal regulations to prevent exposure to coal dust. The "clusters of rapidly progressing and potentially disabling pneumoconiosis," or black lung disease, were found in 2005 and 2006 in some eastern Kentucky and southern Virginia miners, according to CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).

GAO Issues Report on EPA Mishandling of Katrina (07/10/2007)
On the heels of a congressional hearing blasting the handling of public information about air quality after 9/11, a June 25 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report indicates the U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA) similarly failed the public post-Katrina.

Lawsuit Frees OSHA Toxic Exposure Data (07/10/2007)
A June 29 U.S. District Court decision ordered the Department of Labor (DOL) to disclose its Worker Exposure to Toxic Substances Database, the largest known compilation of workplace toxic chemical sampling data.

Federal Appeals Court Dismisses NSA Spying Case (07/10/2007)
On July 6, a divided Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a 2006 federal district court finding that the National Security Agency's (NSA) Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP) violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures and the First Amendment's protection of free speech. Without ruling on the constitutionality of the TSP, the judges dismissed the case based on the plaintiffs' lack of standing.

Federal Government Kept Nuclear Accident Secret (07/10/2007)
Details on an accidental release of highly-enriched uranium at a nuclear fuel processing plant in Tennessee were kept secret from the public and Congress by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for thirteen months.

EPA Holds off Industry Attack on Health, Safety and Environmental Data (07/10/2007)
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has rejected the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Data Quality Act (DQA) challenge and appeal of supposed inconsistencies across several EPA databases. While agreeing to make a few changes, the agency refused the Chamber's demands that all variations between the EPA databases on chemicals be eliminated, stating that they were not errors but acceptable differences based on different scientific models.

House Misses Opportunity to End IRS Private Tax Collection Program (07/10/2007)
On June 28, the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) private tax debt collection program survived an effort by the House to bring it to a halt. House legislators struck language in the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act (H.R. 2829) that would have put a tight cap on how much funding could have been used to administer the program.

Wall Street Tax Break Comes under Scrutiny (07/10/2007)
After decades of flying below the radar screen, a tax policy allowing private equity fund managers to claim their fee-based income as capital gains rather than ordinary income has suddenly become the subject of media scrutiny, congressional hearings and legislation. In June, the Blackstone Group, a large private equity firm, went public with an initial public offering, which resulted in billion-dollar profits for the principals. This triggered House Ways & Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee chairs Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) and Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) to question the tax breaks that helped enable the billion-dollar profits. They announced their intention to examine tax policy regarding so-called "carried interest," a type of performance fee that is a major source of compensation for fund managers. Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI) has introduced a bill to eliminate the carried interest tax loophole altogether. In response, high-powered lobbyists have gathered to fight back. A classic confrontation between industry and taxpayer interests may be looming.

CBO Director Emphasizes Role of Health Care Costs in Long-Term Fiscal Imbalance (07/10/2007)
Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Director Peter R. Orszag is the latest policy thinker to highlight the underlying cause of the long-term fiscal imbalance. Testifying before the Senate Budget Committee on June 21, Orszag emphasized the centrality of health care costs in long-term fiscal imbalances, the reasons for the exploding cost of health care and health care policies that could restrain those costs.

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