Media

Cause of Action in the News:

Franchise Action Network – DEPARTMENT OF LABOR TAKES AIM AT FRANCHISE SMALL BUSINESS

Earlier this month, Cause of Action argued on behalf of entrepreneur Rhea Lana in Rhea Lana v. U.S. Department of Labor before the D.C. Circuit. The Franchise Action Network wrote “Rhea Lana is faced with a Hobson’s choice; either continue running her businesses and face significant potential monetary penalties or cease operating as she has for years even though she has done nothing wrong.”  Cause of Action will continue to fight for people like Rhea Lana and continue to call for government transparency.

In Other News:

Forbes – Amazingly, IRS Says You Can’t Rely On IRS Instructions

If you thought following IRS instructions to complete your taxes was a safe bet, think again. As it turns out, the agency can penalize good-intentioned taxpayers who follow those instructions as courts have held them to be non-authoritative.  There have been many instances of regular Americans losing to the IRS although they tried to do everything right. This kind of behavior would never be tolerated in the private sector and demonstrates an egregious double standard for federal agencies.

Fox News – FBI expands probe of Clinton emails, launches independent classification

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails are under heightened IRS scrutiny as investigators seek to find evidence of False Claims Act violations.  You may recall, Martha Stewart famously graced West Virginia’s Alderson Federal Prison Camp in 2004 after conviction under the same statute.  Former FBI intelligence officer Timothy Gill said “[t]his is a broad, brush statute that punishes individuals who are not direct and fulsome in their answers.”

Fox News – Study claims EPA’s Clean Power Plan may hike electricity prices in 47 states

Boston-based firm NERA Economic Consulting has concluded the EPA’s Clean Power Plan will cost around $292 billion, leading to increased electricity bills in 47 states. Laura Sheehan, Senior Vice President of Communications at the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, noted “[S]tates should be braced to pay higher costs,” and “[c]onsumers only lose in the Clean Power Plan.”  The EPA rejects these results, while curiously maintaining the agency has not even reviewed the report.

AllGov – Most U.S. Agencies Fail to Conduct Required Reviews of Federal Regulations

In 2011, President Obama required federal agencies to review the regulations they created by issuing executive orders to clean up rules “that may be outmoded, ineffective, insufficient, or excessively burdensome, and to modify, streamline, expand, or repeal them in accordance with what has been learned.”  However, a recent study reports that of the 2,400 to 4,500 new regulations promulgated annually, very few are ever reviewed.  The Regulatory Studies Center at George Washington University examined 22 rules that “had an effect of $100 million or more on productivity, jobs, competition, the environment, public health and safety or local governments,” and concluded the government has no plans in place to review them, arguably violating executive directives.

Washington Times – Punishing the Obama way (The president’s enforcers are treating ordinary Americans like enemies)

The Department of Justice has let Lois Lerner off the hook, concluding there was no evidence of Tea Party targeting.  James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, abandoned his inspector general and opined that Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server for government business was above-board.  These are just a few examples of why it is imperative to fight for a transparent government that demands the same compliance from its officials as it does from the American public.

Cause of Action in the News:

Full Measure – Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson

In the fight for government transparency, Cause of Action graded federal agencies on their transparency and response time to FOIA requests. Not surprisingly, many agencies earned very poor grades while two received A’s. Interestingly, the Department of Veterans Affairs scored an A, despite public exposure of the agency’s notorious wait-time scandal the same year. Cause of Action Executive Director Dan Epstein opined, “if you think about it, part of the reason the public knows about the VA scandal is because of the easy ability to get documents. That should show why transparency is actually a good thing for reforming federal agencies.”

Wall Street Journal – Franz Kafka in Footie Pajamas (My consignment company for secondhand children’s clothes has somehow run afoul of federal regulators.)

Meet Cause of Action client Rhea Lana Riner, a business woman who started a small and successful consignment business in 1997 that now has franchises in 24 states. Rhea Lana relies heavily on volunteers who are willing to help before and during the events who then get rewarded with perks such as being able to shop first. The Department of Labor decided that her volunteers must actually be considered employees and that she owes them back wages. Even though none of the volunteers have come forward demanding payment for their volunteer hours, the Dept. of Labor continues to try to obstruct Rhea Lana’s business.

In Other News:

Government Exec – Inspectors General Continue Battle With Justice Over Document Access

The Justice Department has written to Congress that there should be a change in the law that would allow federal agencies to deny access to certain information by inspectors general. They write this as congress holds hearings on a bill that would empower the inspectors general to do their job. The IGs responded saying “While the DOJ agrees with CIGIE that legislation is needed and should be passed by Congress to reverse the impact of the OLC opinion, the DOJ’s proposal only applies to the DOJ Inspector General’s access to records and fails to ensure that all other federal inspectors general have the same independent access at their respective agencies. As such, DOJ’s proposed legislative language is not acceptable.”

Politico – State Dept.: Outlook crashes delay release of Hillary Clinton schedules

The State Department has been unable to meet the deadline for turning over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails due to multiple Microsoft Outlook crashes.  Kelly Degnan, the State Deputy Executive Secretary, wrote a declaration that stated, “[t]hroughout August and the early part of September, problems with the Microsoft Outlook software caused Outlook to crash during the indexing process (a process that is necessary in order to conduct searches of emails which have been retained as .pst files) for searches [State’s executive secretariat within the office of the secretary] was running for other requests, preventing S/ES-S from applying search terms to the records and forcing S/ES-S to restart the indexing process[.]”

Daily Caller – EPA’s Smog Regulation Will Cost 40x More Than It Predicted

A new report by the American Action Forum says the Environmental Protection Agency estimate on the cost of the new smog limits is highly inaccurate.  According to the EPA, the new limits will cost $1.4 billion per year; however, AAF has determined the American people will be losing $56.5 billion in income. The report, which looked at counties who were not compliant with the 2008 standard, explains “[o]bserved nonattainment counties experienced losses of $56.5 billion in total wage earnings, $690 in pay per worker, and 242,000 jobs between 2008 and 2013.”  With so many penalties for noncompliance with the 2008 smog standard, it makes sense that the new standards will have an even harsher impact.

SF Gate – Feinstein calls for end to controversial EB-5 immigration program

The EB-5 visa program gives out green cards to foreign nationals and their families if they invest into U.S. businesses.  Without Congressional action, the program is set to expire in December.  One of the strongest opponents is Senator Diane Feinstein, who noted “[a]t its most basic, the EB-5 program allows a foreigner to invest $500,000 in a U.S. business, in return receive a visa that puts them and their direct family on a special path toward citizenship.  At the same time, individuals unable to buy their way into the country remain trapped in seemingly endless visa backlogs that often last more than 20 years. I believe the program is deeply unfair, sends the wrong message about this country’s values and is prone to fraud and abuse.”

Cause of Action in the News:

Daily Caller – The Daily Caller Sues The State Department For A Variety Of Clinton Email Records

Cause of Action is representing The Daily Caller in a lawsuit over five Freedom of Information Act requests that have gone ignored by the State Department.  Our suit states “Defendant has dragged its feet, refused to provide substantive updates on the status of the requests, and, through its delay, prevented Plaintiff’s access to the requested records and effectively denied it expedited processing,”

“The material being sought here is not complicated to understand yet, for whatever reason the State Department has failed to process these FOIA requests in a timely manner, as required by law.  Whether requests have come from big news agencies or organizations like mine, this State Department has repeatedly shown an inability to produce basic information regarding the emails belonging to the former Secretary of State,” said Cause of Action Executive Director Dan Epstein.

In Other News:

Watchdog.org – Double-dose of EPA regulations will make your bank account scream

According to a white paper by the Independence Institute the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan will be billions higher in cost for power and gas.  The research concluded that by 2020 the cost of electricity and gas in a given household will go up an average of $680.00.  All of this cost will result in no environmental change, as admitted by Gina McCarthy, current EPA administrator.

Daily Signal – Lois Lerner Won’t Be Facing Criminal Charges. Here Are the Problems With the ‘Investigation’ That Cleared Her.

Although the Department of Justice has decided to end its investigation into Lois Lerner and her email scandal they have failed to erase all doubt.  In the letter the DOJ sent to the House of Representatives they explain the results of their investigation, but fail to determine criteria for which organizations needed closer watching, among other unresolved issues.

The Hill – Five states sue over EPA’s ozone

The Environmental Protection Agency is being sued by five states because of the newly stated ozone limits. EPA administrator Gina McCarthy has said that every state but California should be able to comply to the new ozone standards by 2025.  However, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich says that “reducing the ozone standards to 70 parts per billion will be nearly impossible for Arizona to attain.” AG Brnovich is leading the charge in the lawsuits against the EPA.

Breitbart – HILLARY CLINTON CHANGES DEFINITION OF ‘WORK-RELATED EMAIL’

Statements made by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have led to questions of what her definition of a work related email is. Mrs. Clinton said “Well, if you are talking about Mr. Blumenthal, which I assume you are, he had some that I didn’t have, and I had some that he didn’t have. And he — I was under no obligation to make any of his emails available unless I decided they were work-related.”  This seems to contradict a previous statement from Mrs. Clinton where she said she had turned over all emails “that could possibly have been work related,” which should include any emails from an advisor personal friend or not.

Forbes – IRS Joins FBI, DEA & Other Federal Agencies With Access To Cellphone Surveillance Technology

For years now the IRS has had in its possession a Stingray, a device that can capture cell phone data such as location and identifying information without needing a warrant.  A recent Freedom of Information Act request revealed an invoice of $70,000 for the purchase of a HailStorm, a more powerful Stingray, and training for its use.  The IRS has not explained how they utilize the device and now make a list with 12 other federal agencies who own such technology.

Cause of Action in the News:

Wall Street Journal – The Latest Progressive Attack on Speech (Still infuriated by the Citizens United ruling, the left keeps trying to undo that blow for freedom.)

Cause of Action Executive Director Dan Epstein wrote about Van Hollen v. FEC which is currently being heard by the D.C. Court of Appeals.  Maryland Representative Chris Van Hollen is arguing that nonprofit organizations should be required to reveal all donors, not just those that donating for an election.  Mr. Epstein writes “If the court forces nonprofits to disclose the identity of their supporters, it will lead to the “threats, harassment, or reprisal” that chill free speech and limit free association, just as the Supreme Court has warned.”

Delaware Online – Bloom rival settles with state over fuel cells

A settlement was reached that will now allow out-of-state fuel cell manufacturers to compete in Delaware.  Dan Epstein, Cause of Action Executive Director, had this to say about the ruling: “This settlement should send a message to government officials that fair interstate competition is a cornerstone of the U.S. Constitution.  Today is a great day, not only for clean energy manufacturers, but for innovators and entrepreneurs everywhere who wish to compete on an even playing field.”

Politico – Lawyer: Clinton ‘unable to obtain’ emails from first weeks as secretary

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s lawyer David Kendall says that while she has turned over all of her federal emails, but is “unable to obtain” emails from the beginning of her time in the State Department.  Mr. Kendall said the following in his letter: “She does not have custody of e-mails sent or received during the first few weeks of her tenure.” Kendall’s letter comes amidst ongoing lawsuits regarding Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private server, including the case brought by Cause of Action.

In Other News:

Breitbart – DEM REP ON FBI INVESTIGATION OF CLINTON EMAILS: ‘ABSOLUTELY, I THINK IT’S LEGITIMATE’

Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff was asked if he thought the FBI should be investigating Hillary Clinton’s emails and private server.  He first insisted that the investigation wasn’t into Mrs. Clinton herself, but rather to find out when the classified emails on her server were originally marked as classified.  Eventually he did say “Absolutely, I think it’s legitimate for the Justice Department to look into the proper classification of the information and whether any steps need to be taken to protect it. If it’s out in the ethosphere because of this investigation, that’s perfectly appropriate.”

Washington Examiner – States can sue EPA over climate rules starting Friday

Today the timer begins for states who want to sue the Environmental Protection Agency over the Clean Power Plan.  There are already 16 states who are ready to sue the EPA and the GOP plans to fight the rules in Congress.  As of today, states must either come up with alternative plans or provide a plan that will explain their compliance with the Clean Power Plan by September 2016.

NY Post – Revolt of the watchdogs: Federal inspectors general vs. the Obama stonewall

Federal inspector generals have continued time and again to be blocked by the current administration.  Last year over 60 percent of the federal inspectors general wrote a letter stating “serious limitations on access to records that have recently impeded the work” and have reduced their “ability to conduct our work thoroughly, independently, and in a timely manner.”

Cause of Action in the News:

Daily Caller  – Watchdog Group Hopes To Depose Hillary, State Department Officials                                                                                                       
Cause of Action has requested to depose former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Under Secretary of Management for State Patrick Kennedy, the State Department Inspector General Steve Linick, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Margaret Grafeld, in addition to officials in the National Archives and Records Administration.

Our hope is that if the deposition of these individuals is allowed we will be able to shine a bright light onto the mystery of Hillary Clinton’s private email server.  A couple of the questions we plan on asking Mrs. Clinton include why she deleted emails in the first place and why she didn’t turn over electronic copies, which could contain insightful metadata.

In Other News:

Examiner.com – FTC joins EPA, Justice in probes of Volkswagen

In addition to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission has joined the Volkswagen investigation.  The FTC is planning on looking into VW’s advertisements.  With at least 250 consumer lawsuits in 28 states and criminal probes in other countries this just adds to the car manufacturer’s woes.

Slate – IRS Hasn’t Finished Doing Windows Upgrades Because It Can’t Find a Bunch of Its Computers

Even after spending $128 million upgrading their computers from Windows XP on their computers and Windows 2003 from their servers, the Internal Revenue Service isn’t finished. An audit revealed that almost fifty percent of the servers and over a thousand computers have not yet been upgraded.  It was also revealed that the IRS cannot find these computers and servers to upgrade them. “At the conclusion of our fieldwork, the IRS had not accounted for the location or migration status of approximately 1,300 workstations and upgraded only about one-half of its Windows servers.”

Washington Examiner – New EPA climate rules target your air conditioning

The Environmental Protection Agency has introduced new rules that will directly affect the American people in their homes.  Air conditioners and refrigerators are the next target the EPA has in its sights.  The EPA’s administrator said that the rules would get us closer to meeting the current administration’s climate agenda.

Business Insider – Facebook, Google, Amazon and other big tech companies just slammed a proposed US cybersecurity law

A group of large tech companies have grouped together and have gone after the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, which they claim “does not sufficiently protect users’ privacy or appropriately limit the permissible uses of information shared with the government.”  The act is supposed to make it easier for the government to get customer information from big tech companies.  As of right now, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act is being deliberated in Congress.

Wall Street Journal – Clinton Server’s Technical Problems Boosted Use of Personal Accounts (In less than a month, the server appeared to stop functioning at least twice, according to emails the conservative group Citizens United obtained)

By now everyone has heard of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server.  What everyone may not know is that after being in use for only a month the server started having technical difficulties.  When the server was down the email addresses that it was responsible for weren’t working either, which may have led to the use of personal email accounts to send State Department emails.

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.

In the News:

The Hill – Audit: Federal networks still vulnerable

The Government Accountability Office audited the cybersecurity of federal agencies and found 24 that had “persistent weaknesses.”  The GAO stated that “These deficiencies place critical information and information systems used to support the operations, assets, and personnel of federal agencies at risk, and can impair agencies’ efforts to fully implement effective information security programs.”  Even though many agencies have received recommendations on ways to increase their cybersecurity, most agencies have failed to adopt any new measures.

NY Times – 3 Hillary Clinton Emails Deemed ‘Secret’ in State Dept. Review of 6,300 Pages

In the latest batch of Hillary Clinton’s emails turned over by the State Department three emails were found that had been classified as “Secret.”  In addition to classified emails, there was also evidence that Russian hackers had attempted to gain access to the former Secretary of State’s private server.  The hackers had attempted a phishing attack using emails claiming New York speeding tickets and it is unclear if Mrs. Clinton opened the emails even though they remained on her sever.

Fox News – Federal judge blocks new Obama administration rules on fracking

New oil and gas regulations have been stopped for now by a federal judge who claims the Environmental Protection Agency has not been granted authority to regulate hydraulic fracking.  Those seeking to prevent the new regulations have said that the rules copy state regulations already in place and would be at the cost of jobs.  Judge Scott Skavdahl’s ruling was based off of the 2005 Energy Policy Act, which stated that the EPA has no power to regulate fracking.

Daily Beast – Hillary Clinton on Emails: Whatever (So much for that apology. On Meet the Press, Clinton was again nonchalant about her use of a private server.)

“Whatever happened to them, happened to them.”  This was what former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said about the emails on her private server when speaking to Chuck Todd of Meet the Press.  Her husband, former President Bill Clinton said “I have never seen so much expended on so little,” when talking about the email scandal.  Mrs. Clinton claims she has “done all that I can to take responsibility, to be as transparent as possible.”

Government Exec – Obama Again Found Lacking in Open Government Efforts

President Obama’s pledge to be the most transparent administration we have ever seen has continued to fall short.  In the fight for a more open government a collection of advocacy groups have requested that this administration “adopt substantive, measurable and transformative commitments, pursue a more collaborative relationship with civil society, actively support transparency-related legislation and policies, push the intelligence community to significantly reduce both secret law and overclassification, and ensure agencies work both to fulfill and exceed commitments.”

Wall Street Journal – EPA Sets Stricter Standard for Ozone (New limit on pollutant linked to smog draws criticism from industry groups, environmentalists)

The national limit for smog has greatly been reduced due to new Environmental Protection Agency rules.  These new regulations are difficult to meet for manufacturers, large and small alike, but some are angry that the limit wasn’t reduced further.  Penalties, such as loss of federal funding, could be on the table for states that fail to reduce their smog emissions to the new limit.