Reports
For our nation’s job creators, Obamacare’s new taxes and excessive regulations are exacerbating the country’s job crisis. The 10,000 pages of regulations already produced through Obamacare—not to mention the thousands of pages still being written—have contributed to significant uncertainty among business owners. Continue reading
The Obama Department of Energy (DOE) has overseen a process wrought with misdirection, changing and expanding requirements, unexplained delays, gross mischaracterizations, and a never-ending cycle of excuses. Not only does it appear that DOE purposely directed taxpayer funds at a failing enterprise, DOE’s action robbed taxpayers of genuine investment toward renewable energy. Continue reading
The Department of Energy’s (DOE) $5 billion Weatherization Assistance Program is a stunning example of how the Obama Administration has wasted billions of taxpayer dollars in a misguided effort to achieve energy savings but ultimately commissioning work that put people’s lives and homes at significant risk. The Weatherization Program, as administered by Energy Secretary Steven Chu, has resulted in excessive waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer dollars with very little benefit to show for it. Continue reading
As part of a broader effort to conduct oversight over FOIA to help improve government transparency, on January 25, 2011, Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa sent a letter to 180 entities representing 100 government agencies requesting information about their FOIA tracking systems. The ability and willingness of agencies to submit this information (or lack thereof) served as the basis of an objective evaluation by committee staff of agency FOIA management. Continue reading
Freedom and choice are the cornerstones of what our system of government was built on. They also represent the core principles that helped create unionization in America. Over time, the role of unions has evolved from being a protector of workers against being forced to work long hours in difficult conditions to a being a powerful agent in the political process. Continue reading
The delayed public notification of serious safety concerns relating to the Chevy Volt raises significant concerns regarding the unnatural relationship between General Motors (GM), Chrysler and the Obama Administration. Rather than allowing GM and Chrysler to enter into a traditional bankruptcy process, the Obama Administration intervened and forced the companies to participate in a politically orchestrated process. The result was that GM and Chrysler emerged as quasi-private entities, partially owned by the United States government. Continue reading
Congress never intended that commercial nuclear power be regulated by a single individual. On the contrary, Congress designed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) as an independent agency with a five person, bipartisan panel of Commissioners at its helm. The American people need to have confidence that the actions of the NRC are not in support of just one individual’s agenda but, rather, singularly in support of the agency’s mission. That mission is to enable the nation to safely use radioactive materials for beneficial civilian purposes while protecting people and the environment. The leadership of Chairman Gregory Jaczko has undermined Commissioners, staff, and the public confidence that the NRC can continue to remain focused on its vital mission Continue reading
As the Obama Administration openly and forcefully criticized private enterprises for accepting taxpayer assistance while paying executives bonuses, its defense of the bonuses now being paid to executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – who now report to the Obama Administration – creates the clear appearance of a double standard. Although the Administration’s rhetoric on executive compensation for companies who owe money to taxpayers has been tough in the past, the Administration appears to be in no hurry to change the existing dynamic of executives receiving millions in compensation while taxpayers continue to lose billions on the bad decisions of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Continue reading
Since its inception, TSA has lost its focus on transportation security. Instead, it has grown into an enormous, inflexible and distracted bureaucracy, more concerned with human resource management and consolidating power, and acting reactively instead of proactively. Continue reading
Sulaimon Brown, an auditor, was the first declared candidate to challenge District of Columbia Mayor Adrian M. Fenty in the 2010 Democratic primary. Brown raised minimal sums, campaigned by mostly attacking Fenty, and ultimately urged voters to cast ballots for then-Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray. Brown came in dead-last in the primary, even behind the write-in candidates. Less than a month after Mayor Gray took office in January 2011, Brown was hired as an Excepted Service special assistant in the city’s Department of Health Care Finance (HCF), receiving an annual salary of $110,000. Continue reading