The Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) annual "Budget and Economic Outlook: An Update," released on August 27, reports federal budget deficits through the end of 2005 and a relatively modest 10-year total surplus and has added more fodder to the debate in Washington over who’s to blame for the $5.4 trillion drop in the 10-year surplus forecast since January 2001.

White House to Propose Regulations Implementing Faith-Based Agenda (09/03/2002)
According to a Washington Post story on August 31, the Bush administration does not plan to wait for Congress to pass the CARE Act before moving forward with proposed changes in regulations aimed at making it easier for faith-based groups to apply for and receive federal funds.

FEC Holds Hearings on Broadcast Regulations (09/03/2002)
Last week the Federal Election Commission (FEC) held public hearings on its proposed regulations implementing the ban on broadcasts that refer to federal candidates within 60 days of an election or 30 days of a primary. The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 creates the new restriction on broadcasts by corporations, including nonprofits, and labor unions, but gives the FEC authority to create exemptions for broadcasts that are not related to elections. The hearing focused on how broad or narrow these exemptions should be.


Federal Judge Holds Parts of Stealth PAC Law Unconstitutional (09/03/2002)
The “Stealth PAC” law of 2000 requires political action committees (PACs) exempt under Section 527 of the federal tax code to register with the IRS and report their contributions and expenditures. (Contributions to 527 organizations are not tax dedcutible.) The National Federation of Republican Assemblies filed a constitutional challenge to the law in federal court in Alabama soon after it passed. On August 27 Judge Richard Vollmer of the U.S. District Court for Southern Alabama upheld part of the law and overturned part as unconstitutional.

Patents on Hypertext and Legal Challenges to Deep Linking (09/03/2002)
Nonprofits face an increasingly challenging online environment in which both the ability and the manner in which information from outside sources is linked across sites are open to legal dispute. Though currently waged in a mostly commercial context, the stakes and implications for what is available, by whom, and when raise questions around long-held practices and core technologies of the Web itself.
Read more here.


OMB Reviewing EPA Report on Children's Health (09/03/2002)
In an effort well outside the scope of its traditional activities, the Office of Management and Budget is reviewing an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report on children’s health before publication -- the first time, to our knowledge, OMB has ever involved itself in the shaping of a scientific study.

Sensitive but Unclassified (09/03/2002)
Last week officials from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requested a meeting with various public interest groups concerned with public access to government information. The purpose was to discuss OMB’s upcoming efforts to define the category of "sensitive but unclassified" for government information. This vague term generated a great deal of confusion and concern among information advocates when addressed in a memo prepared at the request of Andrew Card, White House Chief of Staff.

Chemical Security Heats Up (09/03/2002)
Sen. Jon Corzine’s (D-NJ) Senate Environment and Public Works Committee July 25. Reports indicate that Corzine plans to offer the bill as an amendment to the Senate’s National Homeland Security and Combating Terrorism Act of 2002 (S. 2452). The Senate will likely address homeland security immediately upon its return. However, in an effort to prevent passage of the Corzine language, industry, which is strongly opposed to it, recently sent a letter signed by 30 industry groups to all Senators, urging them to oppose the bill.

Data Quality Guidelines Continue to Churn (09/03/2002)
Even though the deadline of May 1st for agencies to produce drafts of their Data Quality Guidelines has long past, several agencies and departments have only recently completed and published their drafts for public comment. Among the recent drafters were several major departments such as the Department of Energy, Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Fish & Wildlife Service, Office of Surface Mining, National Parks Service, and U.S. Geological Survey. Other agencies included Bureau of Reclamation, Export-Import Bank of the U.S., National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Government Ethics, and Office of Personnel Management.