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Thursday, January 27, 2005

White House wants to cut government at the knees
The White House announced that the FY 2006 budget will include two proposals for dramatic overhauls of government oversight that would become the Gatling gun for destroying federal programs that protect the public health, safety, civil rights, and environment.

One proposal would create a Sunset Commission to review program performance. As a Congress Daily AM article elaborates, the proposal would also force all government programs to cease serving the public after ten years, unless Congress affirmatively votes to keep the program alive.
Another would create a Results Commission, which would be empowered to produce recommendations for government overhauls that would then go onto a fast-track in Congress. An unelected commission would thus have the power to overrule Congress's own determination of priorities for its agenda.

As Congress Daily discovered, the proposals were announced in the press before anyone in Congress was ever alerted. Congress Daily interviewed Rep. Henry Waxman, who expressed fear that the new White House proposals would "be a field day for corporate lobbyists and put our most important health and safety programs in jeopardy."

Get the White House press release here.

Posted by Robert Shull, 05:46:20 PM

Friday, January 14, 2005

Ethics office studying disclosures
The Office of Government Ethics announced in the Federal Register that it will be studying current financial disclosure requirements for federal government officials. The public only has until Feb. 11 to submit comments. Keep in mind that there were efforts in the 108th Congress to reduce the amount of information required from national security officials. Without financial disclosures, it can be difficult for the public to hold its government accountable for conflicts-of-interest.