Cause of Action in the News:
Government Exec – OMB Pressured to Invoke Bush Directive Banning Earmarks
The week Cause of Action has partnered with Demand Progress, another government watchdog, to petition the Office of Management and Budget to enforce an executive order that was put in place to protect taxpayers. When looking into the discretionary spending of federal agencies, we discovered “that OMB’s current efforts to ensure that discretionary grant decision-making is transparent and merit-based are ineffective.”
Dan Epstein, Executive Director of Cause of Action, said the following about the matter: “Cause of Action’s research shows that for years, federal agencies have been ignoring a binding executive order designed to protect taxpayer dollars from being misused. Our organizations believe that Washington has a duty to the public to ensure that federal discretionary spending decisions are transparent and merit-based.”
In Other News:
Politico – Judges refuse to align Clinton email FOIA lawsuits
With almost 40 Freedom of Information Act lawsuits concerning Hillary Clinton’s private email server, the current administration had requested that they all be combined into one suit. The federal court judges in charge of those cases have all denied the request. Chief Judge Richard Roberts said “The judges who have been randomly assigned to these cases have been and continue to be committed to informal coordination so as to avoid unnecessary inefficiencies and confusion, and the parties are also urged to meet and confer to assist in coordination.”
Daily Signal – Audit: IRS Fails Transparency Test on Over 1 in 10 FOIA Requests
“Although the IRS properly released thousands of pages from these documents, taxpayer rights still may have been violated because some information was erroneously withheld.” This was said in an audit that determined that 12.3 percent of the time the IRS failed to turn over Freedom of Information Act documents. In addition, the audit also found that “eight cases we identified included improperly withheld information of examination and collection activity and other tax return information that the taxpayer or authorized Power of Attorney should have received.”
Washington Business Journal – DHS leads federal cybersecurity efforts, but will other agencies follow?
The Department of Homeland Security has announced that they will be using a private company Raytheon Co. to help with their cybersecurity. They are the first government agency to adopt this method of protection for their IT environment. Experts believe this shows us that the agencies themselves are unable to handle all of their cybersecurity without private sector assistance.
Washington Examiner – Attorney general blasts FBI leaks in Clinton email probe
Attorney General Loretta Lynch chastised the FBI for the anonymous leak of information regarding the FBI investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private server. Since the leak, the FBI has confirmed an investigation into Mrs. Clinton’s email. Attorney General Lynch said “I think leaks are detrimental to any matter, no matter what it is, no matter who is involved.”
Breitbart – REP. JIM JORDAN SAYS HOUSE WILL IMPEACH HEAD OF IRS
Representative Jim Jordan has claimed that IRS Commissioner John Koskinen will be impeached by the House this session. The IRS has failed to be helpful and has in fact discouraged the investigations into the Tea Party scandal. “If we don’t hold some people accountable in the executive branch for the executive overreach we’ve seen in [the Obama] administration, then they’ll never get the message,” said Rep. Jordan about the issue.
