Legislative Branch: Energy Audits are Key to Strategy for Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions GAO-07-516, April 25, 2007: “Legislative branch operations generated about 316,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions (expressed in carbon dioxide equivalents) in fiscal year 2006. The amount of greenhouse gas emissions generated by legislative branch operations is equal to the emissions produced by about 57,455 cars and represents an increase of about 4 percent from the average annual quantity emitted in fiscal years 1998 through 2001.”
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Daily Archives: April 26, 2007
Congress-Judiciary Pay Link Opposed by Former Lawmakers
Follow up to previous postings on judicial pay raises, see How to Pay the Piper: It’s Time to Call Different Tunes for Congressional and Judicial Salaries – Issues in Governance Studies, April 2007 “A group of former U.S. Senators and Representatives is preparing to call for Congress to end the practice of linking the salaries… Continue Reading
Protecting Public Health and Human Services Programs: A 30-Year Retrospective
“The year 2006 marked the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Office of Inspector General (OIG) at the Department of Health and Human Services, 20th anniversary of the False Claims Amendments Act of 1986, and 10th anniversary of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). Protecting Public Health and Human Services… Continue Reading
Web Mashups Help Citizens Track the Political Money Trail
From Wired, Web Mashups Turn Citizens Into Washington’s Newest Watchdogs: “Sites like Maplight.org, Opensecrets.org and Follow the Money, along with wiki-based political reporting resources like Congresspedia, are increasingly giving ordinary citizens the ability to easily document the flow of special-interest money and how it influences the legislature. These new tools are providing an unprecedented level… Continue Reading
Oversight Committee Asks Agencies for Information on Political Presentations
“Following media reports that at least 20 political briefings were given to officials of at least 15 federal agencies, Chairman Waxman writes to government agencies requesting further information and documents about any briefings mentioning elections or candidates provided to agency employees by officials in the White House.” [This link includes the text of each letter] Continue Reading
EPA OIG Evaluation of U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Boards Compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act
2007-P-00019 Evaluation of U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Boards Compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act and Efforts to Protect Sensitive Agency Information (Fiscal Year 2006) [Report PDF – 33 pages] [At a Glance] April 23, 2007. Continue Reading
FCC Adopts Report on Violent Television Programming and Its Impact on Children
Press release: “The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released today a Report on the issue of excessively violent television programming and its impact on children. The FCC found that research indicates exposure to violence in the media can increase aggressive behavior in children, at least in the short term. Given this finding, the FCC recommends that… Continue Reading
Survey Shows Wikipedia's Popularity Remains Strong
Wikipedia: When in Doubt, Multitudes Seek It Out – “More than a third of American adult internet users (36%) consult the citizen-generated online encyclopedia Wikipedia, according to a new nationwide survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. And on a typical day in the winter of 2007, 8% of online Americans consulted Wikipedia.… Continue Reading
State Liability Systems Ranking Study – Lawsuit Climate 2007
Institute for Legal Reform: “The 2007 State Liability Systems Ranking Study was conducted for the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform among a national sample of in-house general counsel or other senior corporate litigators to explore how reasonable and balanced the tort liability system is perceived to be by U.S. business.” Executive Summary (PDF) State… Continue Reading
UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, Human Rights Report, 1 January – 31 March, 2007
UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, Human Rights Report, 1 January – 31 March, 2007 (30 pages, PDF) “Large-scale indiscriminate killings and targeted assassinations continue to impede efforts to bring lasting stability and security to Iraq, according to the latest United Nations human rights report released today on the strife-torn country, where causalities continue to climb… Continue Reading
