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OMB Watch Offers Testimony to National Deficit Commission
On June 30, OMB Watch's Gary Therkildsen offered the organization's perspective on the long-term fiscal gap facing the nation to the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. In the two-page testimony, Therkildsen noted, "OMB Watch recognizes the dangers posed by the unsustainability of the long-term fiscal outlook. However, the current atmosphere of deficit scaremongering poses a different danger: poor fiscal policy that ultimately harms Americans and does nothing to change the trajectory of the long-term budget situation. 'Fiscal responsibility' is not simply setting arbitrary limits on federal spending for the sake of reducing the federal budget deficit. Rather, it is an assessment of the current economic and fiscal environments and a determination of an equitable deployment of national resources."
Read the full text of the testimony.
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On July 21, a federal district court judge in Alaska issued an order halting all oil and gas activities in more than 29 million acres of the Chukchi Sea. The order said that the former Minerals Management Service (MMS) failed to adequately consider the environmental impacts of potential natural gas production in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
The National Mining Association (NMA) filed a 
On Capitol Hill, there exists a debate about the future of the Bush tax cuts and the federal estate tax. While President Bush's 2001 tax policy eliminated the estate tax for 2010, it is set to return to pre-Bush tax cut levels in 2011 unless Congress intervenes. How Congress chooses to address the estate tax will have significant implications for the federal budget deficit and the fair distribution of the nation’s prosperity.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) has introduced two related chemical facility security bills that would reduce the consequences of a catastrophic accident or terrorist attack at many of the nation's chemical plants and drinking water and wastewater treatment facilities. The legislation addresses many of the issues raised by a coalition of environmental and openness groups, but it fails to provide the accountability and transparency needed to ensure the government's chemical security program would actually make facilities and communities safe.
On July 8, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Obama administration's attempt to block deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. In a three-paragraph ruling, the court denied by a 2-1 vote the administration's request to stay an earlier ruling by a federal district court that struck down the moratorium. In response, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has revised the moratorium.
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