In fiscal year 2008, the federal government gave $38 billion in grants to nonprofit entities and spent $10 billion on non-competed contracts with nonprofits. Billions were also taken in tax expenditures benefiting nonprofits, representing foregone revenues of $50 billion in 2008.
Excluding contracts, that means that the average U.S. household spent $430 a year on programs to nonprofit entities such as universities, hospitals and charities in 2008.
Loans and loan guarantees made by the government, known as risk transfers, also represent a subsidy. In 2008, the federal government lent at more than $7 billion to ... Continue reading
BP blamed in 8,000 spill reports, federal data shows
British Petroleum and its subsidiaries have been the subject of roughly 8,000 reported incidents of spills, emissions and leaks of oil, chemicals and gases into the environment, according to a government database. (download them here).
The National Response Center, which takes reports on oil spills, radiation
leaks, chemical emissions and other environmental accidents, shows dozens of reports stemming from the April 20 explosion at British Petroleum's Deepwater Horizon. In addition to the crude oil flowing into the gulf , benzene, ethylbenzene, caustic soda solution and six other chemicals have been released into the water and air, according to incident ...
DOE site up to date: President Bush’s goals for 2005
The Reporting Group spent the day digging through government websites looking for resources for reporters covering the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. Tonight I started looking for useful data sets on the Department of Energy's website. Put the word "oil" in the site's search interface, and the first result (as of this writing) explains...
Oil is the lifeblood of America’s economy. Currently, it supplies more than 40% of our total energy demands and more than 99% of the fuel we use in our cars and trucks. The Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy focuses on two ...Continue reading
Oil spill resources: Local reporting
We're pulling together resources for covering and following the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Here's some coverage from local papers in the Gulf region--there's some fantastic local reporting going on. A sampling:
(Monroe) News-Star
The Obama administration's point man on the oil spill rejected the notion of removing BP and taking over the crisis Monday, saying the government has neither the company's expertise nor its deep-sea equipment. To push BP out of the way would raise a question, to replace them with what?" Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen, who is heading the federal response to the spill ...
USDA pulls plug on some farm subsidy data
Identifying some individuals who receive generous federal crop subsidies without going anywhere near a farm has gotten trickier. The Department of Agriculture, which paid $15.4 billion in 2009 subsidies, is no longer centralizing the data that made it easier to pinpoint individuals who receive farm payments through their affiliation in farming corporations, co-ops and other types of business partnerships.
“Recipients can hide behind ‘paper farms’ and reap thousands of dollars in a taxpayers program without being accountable for it,” said Don Carr, a spokesman for the Environmental Working Group (EWG).
EWG has used USDA information to put together a ...
Hedge fund players pump millions into party committees
In the 2010 election cycle so far, Hedge Fund executives, managers and investors contributed more than $12.8 million to national and state party committees--the Democratic National Committee, the Republican National Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee and so on--in chunks ranging from $10,000 to $30,400, a search of TransparencyData.com reveals.
The maximum amount an individual can give to a party committee in an election cycle is $30,400; OpenSecrets.org has a handy primer on the contribution limits here.
The full list of donors and recipients is below.
Senate approves financial reform in a late night vote
The Senate passed sweeping financial reform legislation last night, aimed at keeping the financial sector from collapsing as it did in 2008. The final vote was 59-39, with four Republicans joining the majority party to get the bill through. Two Democrats remained opposed to the bill, saying the Senate measure didn't include tough enough regulations.
Republican Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins from Maine, Chuck Grassley from Iowa, and Scott Brown from Massachusetts all voted yes, with Grassley saying that this bill sends a message to Wall Street.
"There’s no question this bill has flaws," Grassley said. "Big ...
Financial reform moves to Senate vote
After a second procedural vote this afternoon, the Senate was able to shut down debate on S. 3217, Restoring American Financial Stability. Exactly three-fifths of the senate, including 3 Republicans, voted in favor of the motion, which passed 60-40. Two Democrats voted no.
It is likely that the final vote on the bill will be as early as tomorrow.
The newly elected senator from Massachusetts, Scott Brown, joined the two Republican Senators from Maine, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, in delivering yes votes. In a statement, Brown said he was assured by Sen. Reid, D-Nev., that “the issues related to ...
Data on assaults on federal officers, found in the National Data Catalog
The Drug Enforcement Agency, which has an international network of agents that's been involved in high profile arrests of arms smugglers and domestically carries out a number of drug raids, including shutting down meth houses, had just one officer assaulted or killed in the line of duty in all of 2006 and 2007, according to statistics maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and accessed through Sunlight's new National Data Catalog.
Recently the Reporting Group has been reviewing the accuracy of crime and Justice Department statistics, something we mentioned in a chapter we produced for the Open Government ...
“Heart of the Matter” wins honorable mention
We are honored to announce that our investigation, "Heart of the Matter: How Congress and Special Interests Kept Crucial Clinical Trial Data Secret," has won an honorable mention in the sixteenth annual health care journalism awards sponsored by the National Institute for Health Care Management (NICHM) Foundation.
The contest, which was decided by an independent panel of judges, "recognizes the talented researchers and journalists who serve as a catalysts for positive change by advancing and informing the health care policy debate," according to the NIHCM's press release.
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