Publications :  The Watcher :  OMB Watcher Vol. 9: 2008 :  April 15, 2008 Vol. 9, No. 8 : 

In This Issue

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Reports Highlight MSHA's Failures at Crandall Canyon Mine (04/15/2008)
Two recent reports highlight the failures of the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) in approving the retreat mining plans at Crandall Canyon mine in Utah that resulted in nine deaths after a mine collapse in August 2007. A third report criticizes MSHA's approval and implementation of emergency response plans required by legislation passed by Congress in the wake of mining disasters across the country in 2006.

White House Gains Influence in Toxic Chemical Assessments (04/15/2008)
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced changes to its process for assessing the human health effects of common chemical substances. The revised process will allow the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to play a larger role in the evaluation of the substances.

States Failing to Implement Critical Voting Rights Laws (04/15/2008)
On April 1, the House Committee on Administration's Subcommittee on Elections held a hearing on state-level implementation of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), in particular a provision that was designed to enable low-income Americans to register to vote more readily. According to testimony by witnesses at the hearing, many states are not offering voter registration at public assistance agencies and are failing to live up to the promise of the NVRA to provide more equal access to the opportunity to vote.

Robocall Regulation Debate Heats Up (04/15/2008)
Controversy over S. 2624, the Robocall Privacy Act of 2008, has increased in recent weeks following a February Senate committee hearing. Labeled as an affront to First Amendment speech rights, an unwelcome infringement upon citizen-to-citizen communication, and unconstitutionally vague and overly broad, this bill has forced political pundits, consultants, and politicians to debate what constitutes "core political speech" and how best to utilize robocalls. Some consultants in the automated call industry are seeking donations for the Legal Defense Fund of the American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC), and others are partnering with the National Political Do-Not-Contact Registry.

USAID Tells NGOs It Will Proceed with Plan to Use Secret Watch List (04/15/2008)
On April 11, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) told an overflow crowd of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Washington, DC, that the agency is moving forward with the widely criticized Partner Vetting System (PVS) it proposed in 2007. PVS will require USAID grantees to submit highly personal information about key personnel and leaders to be checked against a secret government watchlist. Although USAID representatives said some changes have been made based on public comments, details are not available, and there will be no further public comment period before the final rule is announced.

Oversight of Terrorist Financing Ignores Problems for Nonprofits (04/15/2008)
An April 1 Senate Finance Committee hearing continued an unfortunate pattern of insufficient congressional oversight of anti-terrorist financing programs, neglecting to address the unnecessarily harsh impacts the programs have on U.S. charities and philanthropy. Despite an OMB Watch request that the committee hear from additional witnesses, members only heard from Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey. Both Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-MT) and Levey raised issues relating to charities that left important questions unasked and unanswered. However, committee staff has agreed to meet with nonprofit representatives.

Housing Crisis Legislation: A Tale of Two Houses (04/15/2008)
By fits and starts, Congress is moving toward a legislative response to the housing sector crisis — the biggest sectoral crisis to afflict the U.S. economy since the technology stock bubble burst earlier this decade. In what might turn out to be a case of the tortoise and the hare, the Senate has jumped out front with a housing bill that enjoys little if any support in the House or the Bush administration, while the House has embarked on a schedule of hearings and mark-ups of a much-praised bill of a wholly different nature. There is a widely shared consensus that, with elections approaching, Congress must and will act to address the crisis, but thus far, the two houses are proceeding along on separate, if not perpendicular, tracks.

House Cancels Private Tax Collection Program (04/15/2008)
On April 15, the House passed the Taxpayer Assistance and Simplification Act of 2008 (H.R. 5719). The bill, approved by a 238-179 vote, is a collection of provisions aimed at facilitating income tax compliance — especially among elderly and low-income taxpayers. Most significantly, the bill would end the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) highly controversial private debt collection (PDC) program.

New Report Shows "Historic Collapse" in Audit Rates of Largest Corporations (04/15/2008)
A report released by Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University highlights a disturbing trend in Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audit rates of large corporations. Audit rates for corporations with $250 million or more in assets (large corporations) are at a historic low at 26 percent. Analyzing IRS data — portions of which had to be obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests — TRAC also found that the decline in audit rates has been accompanied by declines in audit quality.

EPA Submits Plan for Re-Opening Libraries (04/15/2008)
Responding to congressional demands, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is re-opening libraries that the agency closed over the past several years. However, it appears that the content of the libraries will be more limited, and the facilities will be subject to stricter central supervision, raising concerns from critics about the role politics will play.

Problems Disclosed on Classification Procedures at Intelligence Agencies (04/15/2008)
A recent report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) reviews the classification procedures at eight agencies and finds significant problems, which unnecessarily complicate classification procedures and inhibit the free flow of information.

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