Government employee unions are using a flawed study of federal pay to lobby for an end to President Obama’s freeze on cost-of-living salary increases. Obama’s decision will be significant: salaries and benefits for civilian workers totaled an alarming $271 billion last year. Heritage’s Jason Richwine and Andrew G. Biggs of …
Last Thursday, the House of Representatives passed a bill that included language—called the Magnitsky Act—that for the first time punishes Russian officials implicated in serious human rights abuses. The bill was passed by an overwhelming majority—365 to 43—demonstrating strong bipartisan support. The Senate will vote on the Magnitsky Act and …
Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rejected a proposal from a number of governors and federal legislators to partially waive the Renewable Fuels Standard, which mandates the production of 36 billion gallons of ethanol by 2022. This year, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 requires refiners to blend nearly …
Bipartisan outrage is a rarity in Washington these days, but the Obama Administration’s lack of transparency over Benghazi has provoked it. This $64,000 question occupied Congress in open and closed hearings last week as well as the Sunday talk shows: Who altered the Administration’s talking points on the Benghazi terrorist …
Although Japan is now best remembered for two decades of economic stagnancy, its post-war development plan can still serve as a model for emerging countries and economies recovering from crisis. This notion was on display in October, when, for the first time since 1964, Tokyo hosted the annual meetings of …
In a recent interview with Platts Energy Week TV, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), incoming chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, discussed his plans to revise government loan programs that he claimed don’t do enough to boost innovative green energy projects. “Right now they’re not doing enough to encourage …
A letter from 232 multi-industry organizations, in conjunction with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is calling on President Obama and Congress to restructure the nation’s entitlement programs and put them on a path toward financial sustainability. These organizations recognize that the country’s rising debt poses grave economic risks. In the …
With sequestration—the automatic reductions to the federal government set to occur January 2, 2013—looming ever closer, The Heritage Foundation has put forth a proposal to replace these cuts and avert the disaster. Heritage’s Patrick Louis Knudsen recently detailed $150 billion worth of savings to be found in the federal budget …
