The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) welcomes Cybersecurity Awareness Month as a wake up for Capitol Hill. It’s fitting the month is shared with Halloween as American’s devices and national security are under threat from haunting hackers and spooky foreign adversaries. Congress continues to drop the ball and not make cybersecurity a priority.
Fortunately, some public servants have risen above endless whataboutism and partisan bickering. Colorado Governor Jared Polis (D) has stayed above the fray as he attempts to shield his constituents from overzealous federal tax agents and nonsensical state restrictions. And, for leading based on conviction rather than partisan friction, Governor Polis is most certainly a Profile in Courage.
The Taxpayers Protection Alliance’s (TPA) Bill of the Month for September 2023 is the No Budget, No Pay Act, introduced by Rep. Wiley Nickel (D-N.C.), with 7 other Democrats. This…
TPA’s State Bill of the Month for September 2023 is AB386, an act Relating to Lowering the Individual Income Tax Rates in the Third Bracket and Increasing and Expanding the Retirement Income Subtraction, introduced by State Rep. David Steffen (WI-4), State Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara (WI-19) and others. This legislation would decrease the income tax rate in Wisconsin’s third income tax bracket, while removing the state income tax for retirees with a yearly income of $100,000 if they are filing individually, or $150,000 if they are filing jointly.
The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA), a nonprofit, nonpartisan taxpayer and consumer advocacy group is calling out the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for pursuing a frivolous and partisan antitrust case against Amazon that will harm taxpayers and consumers.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel is set to announce plans to pursue an order to reinstate regulations that would classify internet as a Title II common carrier service under the Communications Act of 1934. The FCC briefly put these onerous regulations on broadband providers between 2015 and 2017 before former Chairman Ajit Pai led the effort to eliminate them.
This was originally published in Filter on September 18th, 2023Just in time for the new school year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is not letting a good…
A cyberattack this month caused MGM Hotels & Casinos to shutter operations at more than a dozen locations, plausibly costing the company up to $8.4 million per day. Days later, Caesars Entertainment notified the Securities and Exchange Commission that it paid hackers roughly $15 million in ransom money after a recent data breach. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports that Caesars claims to have “discovered that the attacker acquired a copy of data including driver’s license numbers and social security numbers for ‘a significant number’ of members of its loyalty program.”
Now that Democrats have a 3-2 majority on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with the confirmation of Anna Gomez to the panel by Congress earlier this month, the commission will likely look to push for the reimplementation of Title II regulations on internet service providers.
While most lawmakers fiddle and flounder, a select few members of Congress are understandably eager to cut federal spending. The national debt is now over $33 trillion, and trillion-dollar deficits will spell disaster for millions of working families across the country. But, cutting administrative waste is a time-consuming, seldom-successful procedure, leading lawmakers to look for shortcuts. One tool that has gotten plenty of press lately is a 150-year-old legislative procedure called the “Holman Rule,” in which lawmakers can easily tuck cost-cutting provisions into appropriations bills. Federal workers’ salaries and dubious programs can be slashed practically overnight without the usual, required review process.
