06.05.07
Annual Superfund Report to Congress for Fiscal Year 2006
Annual Superfund Report to Congress for Fiscal Year 2006 (PDF; 176 KB)
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Inspector General
In response to a congressional request, we looked at EPA’s Superfund resources and found that EPA needs to better account for those resources, particularly in light of decreased funding. We found several obstacles that prevented EPA from efficiently and effectively managing Superfund program performance and adequately accounting for resources. These obstacles included the way EPA accounts for program resources, manages by function, and relies on an outdated workload model. Total cost efficiencies resulting from this report to date are $639 million.
06.01.07
National Per Student Public School Spending Nears $9,000
National Per Student Public School Spending Nears $9,000
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
The nation’s public school districts spent an average of $8,701 per student on elementary and secondary education in fiscal year 2005, up 5 percent from $8,287 the previous year, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today.
Findings from Public Education Finances: 2005, show that New York spent $14,119 per student — the highest amount among states and state equivalents. Just behind was neighboring New Jersey at $13,800, the District of Columbia at $12,979, Vermont ($11,835) and Connecticut ($11,572). Seven of the top 10 with the highest per pupil expenditures were in the Northeast.
Utah spent the least per student ($5,257), followed by Arizona ($6,261), Idaho ($6,283), Mississippi ($6,575) and Oklahoma ($6,613). All 10 of the states with the lowest spending per student were in the West or South.
04.22.07
U.S. R&D Increased 6.0% in 2006 According to NSF Projections
U.S. R&D Increased 6.0% in 2006 According to NSF Projections
Current-dollar R&D conducted in the United States increased 6.0%, or $19.3 billion, in 2006 to a level of $342.9 billion, according to projections released by the National Science Foundation (NSF). In 2005, current-dollar R&D had increased 7.8%, or $23.5 billion, to $323.5 billion. Estimates for 2005 and 2006 are based on projections and survey data that are incomplete or subject to further revision.
Source: National Science Foundation
04.18.07
Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education: School Year 2004–2005
Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education: School Year 2004–2005
Source: National Center for Education Statistics
This brief publication contains basic revenue and expenditure data, by state, for public elementary and secondary education for school year 2004-05. It contains state-level data on revenues by source and expenditures by function, including expenditures per pupil.
Full Document (PDF; 328 KB)
04.03.07
Spending on Lobbying Thrives: Drug and health products industries invest $182 million to influence legislation
Spending on Lobbying Thrives: Drug and health products industries invest $182 million to influence legislation
Source: Center for Public Integrity
Manufacturers of pharmaceuticals, medical devices and other health products spent nearly $182 million on federal lobbying from January 2005 through June 2006, a Center for Public Integrity study of disclosure records shows.
Of that total, drug companies and their trade groups spent most of it, or $155 million, lobbying on a variety of issues ranging from protecting lucrative drug patents to keeping lower-priced Canadian drugs from being imported to the United States Drug interests employed about 1,100 lobbyists to do their bidding in each of the past two years.
Many of the bills targeted by lobbyists for drug interests last year were largely the result of public concerns over high drug prices and safety issues. Drug companies “have been facing an increasingly furious Congress and an increasingly disgruntled public,” said Amy Allina, program director at the National Women’s Health Network, a women’s health advocacy group.
The drug industry trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) spent more than $18 million on lobbying last year, more than any single drug company and the most the group spent in one year since 1998, the earliest year of this analysis. In all, PhRMA has spent $104 million since 1998.
04.01.07
Schools Grow Increasingly Dependent on Fundraising
Schools Grow Increasingly Dependent on Fundraising
Source: National Association of Elementary School Principals
Principals were asked how and why they hold fundraisers, and almost all (94%) said they rely on fundraisers to supplement monies received from district, state, and federal sources. The fundraising revenue is used to pay for classroom equipment and supplies, field trips, and playground equipment, among other items.
“For many principals, school fundraising provides a means to an end,” says NAESP’s executive director, Vincent L. Ferrandino. “The revenue that’s generated from fundraisers provides them with sorely needed resources for their students and teachers.”
The most common yearlong fundraising methods are: collecting food box tops and labels (63%), retail store affiliations (42%), supermarket receipts (25%), and sales from the school store (21%).
Eighty-five percent of the principals responded that they have seen an increased need for schoolwide fundraisers within the last decade; 56 percent have concerns about this increase; and 64 percent would stop fundraising if they could. Many believe fundraisers have become too much of a distraction to the school’s instructional day. A common theme in many of the principals’ comments is that fundraisers place too much pressure on young children to sell products and can also be burdensome to teachers, parents, and community members.
03.21.07
What Has Homeland Security Cost? An Assessment: 2001-2005
What Has Homeland Security Cost? An Assessment: 2001-2005
Source: Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Authors Bart Hobijn and Erick Sager estimate that homeland security spending climbed from $56 billion in 2001 to $99.5 billion in 2005. Federal spending accounts for $34.2 billion of the roughly $43.6 billion increase, while private sector spending accounts for the remaining $9.4 billion.
The authors indicate that while both the public sector and the private sector have boosted their security expenditures, the increase has been very modest as a share of the nation’s overall resources: Total spending on homeland security rose from 0.55 percent of GDP in 2001 to 0.80 percent of GDP in 2005—a gain of only ¼ of 1 percent.
03.07.07
2007 Pig Book
2007 Pig Book
Source: Citizens Against Government WasteThe 2007 Pig Book identifies 2,658 pork projects at a cost of $13.2 billion in the Defense and Homeland Security Appropriations Acts for fiscal 2007. Only two of the 11 appropriations bills were enacted by Congress and the remaining nine were subject to a moratorium on earmarks. CAGW has identified $254 billion in pork since 1991.“Although the Pig Book is leaner this year, there is still much to chew through,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said. “Legislators only had two bills into which they could stuff their pork, but they still managed to bring home the bacon.”
CAGW’s website www.cagw.org features a complete database of projects, while the Pig Book Summary profiles the most egregious examples. Highlights in the defense bill include:
- $1,190,000,000 for full funding of 20 F-22A fighter jets, which the Government Accountability Office criticized as unnecessary and out of date;
- $5,500,000 for the Gallo Center to study the effects of alcohol and drug abuse on the brain;
- $1,650,000 to improve the shelf life of vegetables;
- $1,350,000 for the Obesity in the Military Research Program; and
- $1,000,000 for a telescope searching for extra-terrestrial intelligence.
+ Complete Pork Database (Excel; 683 KB)
02.23.07
The Costs and Benefits of an Excellent Education for All of America’s Children
The Costs and Benefits of an Excellent Education for All of America’s Children
Source: Center for Benefit-Cost Studies of Education, Columbia University Teachers College
+ The Costs and Benefits of an Excellent Education for All of America’s Children (PDF; 300 KB): “We provide an answer for those individuals who currently fail to graduate from high school. The present cohort of 20-year olds in the US today includes over 700,000 high school dropouts, many from disadvantaged backgrounds. We investigate the economic consequences of improving their education.”
+ The Costs and Benefits of an Excellent Education — Technical Appendix (PDF: 380 KB): “This Technical Appendix provides supporting information for ‘The Costs and Benefits of an Excellent Education for All of America’s Children.’ This appendix includes calculations of the costs of the interventions, discussions of methodology, and further information on the economic consequences of inadequate education.”
+ The Public Returns to Public Educational Investments in African American Males (PDF; 179 KB)
02.12.07
Economic Report of the President, 2007
Source: GPO Access
The Economic Report of the President is an annual report written by the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors. It overviews the nation’s economic progress using text and extensive data appendices. The Economic Report of the President is transmitted to Congress no later than ten days after the submission of the Budget of the United States Government. Supplementary reports can be issued to the Congress which contain additional and/or revised recommendations. Documents are available in ASCII text and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), with many of the tables also available for separate viewing and downloading as spreadsheets in xls and comma delimited formats.
