CEI Today: Towering Federal Register, IRS scandal & gov't unions, and EPA discrimination

REGULATIONS - WAYNE CREWS & RYAN YOUNG

Daily Caller: The towering Federal Register

This week marks the publication of the 20th anniversary edition of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s annual survey of the federal regulatory state, Ten Thousand Commandments. The report takes a big-picture look at the cost and scope of federal regulations. Among other eye-popping numbers, this year’s edition estimates the total federal regulatory burden at $1.8 trillion per year and growing — the first time ever that the cost of regulation has exceeded half the size of the federal budget.

cei.org/10kc

See also: Wall Street Journal editorial, Red Tape Record Breakers

> Interview Wayne Crews

IRS SCANDAL & GOV'T UNIONS - MATT PATTERSON Workplacechoice.org: IRS-Gate: Time to End Government Unions In the American Spectator, Jeffrey Lord has been tracking what he considers may be a smoking gun:  A meeting between National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley and Obama at the White House on Wednesday, March 31st of 2010.  Time will tell if this is mere coincidence, or some nefarious plot emanating from the Oval Office to intimidate the President’s political adversaries into silence. As frightening as it is, the I.R.S. scandal is but one example of the sinister cycle that plays out year after year at all levels of government:  A union representing government workers helps elect politicians who promise to increase the power and wealth of those government workers.  > Read more > Interview Matt Patterson

EPA DISCRIMINATES National Review: The EPA’s Conservative Problem The EPA has an IRS problem. The agency has rubber-stamped fee-waiver requests from environmentalist groups seeking information, but it denied similar requests from conservative groups, an extensive examination of EPA correspondence suggests. It’s the latest instance in which federal agencies have used their executive authority against perceived political opponents. The Competitive Enterprise Institute obtained 1,200 pages of EPA correspondence between January 1, 2012, and April 26, 2013, in circumstances that appear to indicate the process is handled unfairly. > Read more > Interview Christopher Horner

MORE IN THE NEWS... Congress Should Dramatically Simplify the Tax Code and Abolish the IRS Chicago Teachers Union: We Decide When Your Kids Learn Minnesota DFLers Attempt to Payback Big Labor

CEI ANNUAL DINNER & GALA FEATURING THE HONORABLE RAND PAUL JUNE 20, 2013 cei.org/ceidinner

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CEI - Landmark Bill Would End Taxpayer Handout to Gov’t Unions

Coalition of Gov’t Watchdog Groups Urge Support of "Federal Employee Accountability Act"

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 14, 2013 - Government labor unions have long been able to conduct union business while on the job and on the taxpayer dime, under a little-known policy called “official time.”  Legislation introduced by Rep. Phil Gingrey could end this tax give-away to unions, and a new coalition of government watchdog groups called on Congress today to support that plan.

"No one disputes the right for workers to form a union," said Matt Patterson, a CEI Senior Fellow. "But when unions use the government to secure for themselves privileged status and perks, when they use the levers of power to funnel public money into their private coffers, they break a sacred covenant of free government, which works only when and if the law is applied equally and to all."

"Every federal government employee swears an oath to defend the Constitution and to perform their civic duty is the best way possible," said Trey Kovacs, a CEI Labor Policy Analyst. "When a federal employee is conducting union business while on government duty that vow is broken. Unfortunately this happens everyday due to the costly and wasteful subsidy to federal union employees known as official time."

An estimated $155 million in taxpayer money was wasted on “official time” activities in 2011 alone, as the coalition letter explains.  A U.S. Office of Personnel Management official, Angela Bailey, has stated publically that federal workers spent nearly 3.4 million hours conducting union business in 2011.  The Federal Employee Accountability Actwould end that practice and save the taxpayers an estimated $1.3 billion over 10 years.

“At a time when the federal government lurches from one fiscal crisis to another, this is money we can no longer afford to squander on political favors to private special interests,” the letter states.

The coalition letter includes as signatories: CEI, Americans for Tax Reform, Americans for Prosperity, the National Center for Public Policy Research, Heritage Action and the Alliance for Worker Freedom.

>>  View the coalition letter

>>  See also: Official Time: Taxpayers paying for union work is officially a scam

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CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.  For more information about CEI, please visit our website, cei.org, and blogs, Globalwarming.org and OpenMarket.org.  Follow CEI on Twitter! Twitter.com/ceidotorg.