On Jan. 26, the Senate rejected an amendment sponsored by Sens. Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Judd Gregg (R-NH) that would have created a bipartisan deficit commission. Due to the complex nature of the proposal, there is a low probability that such a commission would succeed in its goal to slow the growth of the national debt. Despite the improbability of success, there is much speculation that the president will now create a similar deficit commission through executive order.
The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) began with a single, basic idea: prevent imminent economic collapse. With that premise, then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson convinced Congress and President Bush to authorize $700 billion of emergency spending to undertake actions to avert such disaster. Now, with economic catastrophe averted but with the nation's economy still struggling, a new report turns policymakers' focus to the end of TARP.
On Jan. 22, executive agencies posted hundreds of datasets onto Data.gov as required under the Open Government Directive (OGD). Many transparency advocates have lauded the administration’s efforts while at the same time raising questions about how well this first initiative under the OGD actually worked. The release of the datasets has triggered discussions about the value of the data, how individual privacy rights are protected, whether the datasets being released are new, and the quality of the data that has been released.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on Jan. 21 a new practice that will prevent chemical manufacturers from hiding the identities of chemicals that have been found to pose a significant risk to environmental or public health. The policy is a small step to increase the transparency of the nation's chemical laws, and it highlights both the problem of excessive secrecy and the power of the executive branch to make government more open – even without action by Congress or the courts.
In its long-awaited decision on the dangers of bisphenol-A (BPA) exposure, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it believes there is some concern about the effects of BPA on children. This is a shift from the agency's recent position that BPA is safe. The agency says its ability to regulate the chemical, however, is limited by FDA's outdated regulatory authority.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is struggling to interpret and enforce standards intended to limit children's exposure to lead, the agency's commissioners reported to Congress Jan. 15.
The long-awaited decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission was issued on Jan. 21. With a 5-4 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that corporations and unions may now directly and expressly advocate for the election or defeat of candidates for federal office, as long as they do not coordinate their efforts with campaigns or political parties. Many predict the impacts of the decision will be immense and far-reaching, both for nonprofit voter engagement and political discourse as a whole.
In response to the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission opinion announced on Jan. 21, many nonprofits and political leaders are mobilizing to address the impact of the decision. Nonprofits, in particular, are taking the lead in ensuring that the voices of ordinary Americans are not diminished by an influx of corporate money into electoral politics.
