The site navigation utilizes arrow, enter, escape, and space bar key commands. Left and right arrows move across top level links and expand / close menus in sub levels. Up and Down arrows will open main level menus and toggle through sub tier links. Enter and space open menus and escape closes them as well. Tab will move on to the next part of the site rather than go through menu items.
Recently, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) pressed Dr. Anthony Fauci for details of hidden...
The trillions of dollars spent on COVID-19 "bailouts" will be a subject of controversy...
The U.S. House of Representatives just passed H.R. 1, which adds a new paid holiday...
The only green in the green energy bill might be the taxpayer money down the drain.
Everyone’s getting rich and the kids aren’t learning!
Being a lifeguard in California can be unbelievably lucrative!
The Dem. majority in the U.S. House of Reps. will allow up to $13B in earmarks on...
Many wealthy, influential, and politically networked people received first round...
Let the good times roll, until the debt comes crashing down.
This week, the U.S. House passed, along party lines, the $1.9 trillion American Rescue...
Trump is the first president since John F. Kennedy to donate his salary.
Over the weekend, the U.S. House posted a first draft version of the $1.9 trillion...
The U.S. House version of the “American Rescue Plan Act of 2021” has an extra perk...
The USPS boasts a massive budget as well as massive losses, and the problem goes...
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), a quasi-public federal agency, paid their new...
When you bill an insurance company $2,715 for a COVID-19 test you probably don’t...
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. disclosed...
If elected Members of Congress, the press, and the people, don’t have time to read...
In the last 20 years, our country’s national debt has exploded.
Dr. Anthony Fauci made $417,608 in 2019, the latest year for which federal salaries...
Whenever we open the books, Los Angeles consistently ranks among the worst tax and...
Dominion Voting Systems is the 2nd largest vendor in the non-transparent and entrenched...
We found that the 50 richest places in the country would get $350 million in bailouts...
Should the American taxpayers from lower-income areas be subsidizing the lifestyles...
Gov. Cuomo received campaign funds from the hospital organizations that lobbied for...
Los Angeles is in trouble, and tourists should be advised to avoid some neighborhoods...
Just how much federal waste, duplication, and weird or unnecessary spending are your...
Local law enforcement agencies have since 1993 received billions of dollars’ worth...
San Francisco is in trouble! Whenever we open the books, San Francisco consistently...
Taxpayers of America, you may soon be funding a $500 billion bailout of the 50 states,...
Christmas comes in September, not December, for federal contractors.
In 2019, the city manager in Laredo, Texas, made $880,486. It doubled the earnings...
The U.S. taxpayer pours billions into Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, New York,...
Everything is bigger in Texas—including the supersized salaries of its city managers,...
The SBA released data on which businesses received forgivable loans under the Paycheck...
The Trump administration released its annual report to Congress on the White House...
Retirement perks include a lifetime pension and a taxpayer-matched savings plan with...
We dug into Seattle’s pay and pension records for 2019 to figure out how the city...
Local politicians in Washington, D.C. claim a $1.5 billion budget deficit due to...
In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, a record 44 million Americans lost their...
Once elected to Congress, members are in a rare and exclusive club.
New York's financial woes aren’t stopping 290,304 government employees from bringing...
The wildest rodeo in Cheyenne this year looks like it’ll be the transparency battle...
Recently, Gov. Gavin Newsom asked U.S. taxpayers for a bailout.
We found 5,137 colleges and universities that were awarded $12.5 billion in coronavirus...
Reps. AOC, Jerrold Nadler, and 8 other NY members of Congress argued that “museums...
Deliberately closing down the economy, which has never been done before, has created...
President Trump legitimized critics who allege that the agency shielded information...
Sen. Kennedy on Democrats accused of adding unrelated spending provisions to $2.2T...
Open The Books Honorary Chairman Sen. Tom Coburn passed away on March 27, 2020.
Last night, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a $2 trillion “Phase III” emergency...
It was a three year fight to open the books on the entire payroll of the Wyoming...
With the stock market in correction, public health alerts, travel restrictions, and...
The CDC, which is America's main line of defense against infectious diseases seem...
In 2017, Speaker Pelosi famously cajoled House Republicans to produce a budget, warning...
For the first time, there are more residents of the nation’s capital who make at...
President Donald Trump is taking action to declare war on waste. We reviewed an advance...
Mohammed Nuru was arrested and charged by the FBI on allegations of bribery, wire...
California’s state government has yet to provide the group with any details about...
Corrupt members of Congress deserve time in prison, not taxpayer-funded federal pensions....
Consensus and bipartisanship are rare in Washington, D.C. – except when it comes...
Out of the 50 states, California is the only one that refuses to produce its state...
As commander in chief, President Donald Trump can lead the ‘War on Waste.' Sign our...
How is 97 percent of Congress able to get re-elected each year even though only 17...
Democratic presidential primary candidates are spending a lot of time talking about...
The largest federal agencies just completed a billion-dollar, year-end spending binge...
Draining the Swamp.
We found the city drowning in taxpayer dollars.
On a horrific Valentine’s Day in 2018, 17 students and staffers were killed and 17...
This year, not only did the president add employees, but his total payroll increased...
The rising cost of healthcare is undermining the American Dream.
Fortune 100 companies are successful because they care about return on investment...
At a Cabinet meeting last October, President Trump instructed the heads of every...
The recent cheating scandal in which wealthy and well-connected parents paid hundreds...
The seething anger that Americans feel over the college admissions scandal with wealthy...
Since 2004, twenty large federal agencies admit paying out an astonishing $1.2 trillion...
For federal agencies, Christmas comes in September. In the final month of the fiscal...
When newly elected Wyoming State Auditor Kristi Racines produced six full years of...
Why does the IRS need five million rounds of ammunition? Why did Health and Human...
OpenTheBooks Oversight Study: Both parties have adopted a mantra of protecting federal...
More than 130 of the country's leaders join us in urging the president to make the...
OpenTheBooks Oversight Study: Who are the most highly compensated public employees...
OpenTheBooks Oversight Study: The NCAA College Football National Championship semifinal...
The newest members of the New York City millionaire class aren’t television stars,...
For the first time in history, 19 million public employee salaries at every level...
Newly captured data posted by our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com shows 14,820 city...
America’s pending pension disasters.
Recently, Fox affiliate Channel 32 and Open the Books detailed the exorbitant pay...
What should be the arts policy of the new administration headed by the incoming Democratic...
Oregon Governor Kate Brown has quietly solicited millions of dollars in campaign...
President Donald Trump last year announced a “war on waste” in the federal government....
Let us introduce you to the Illinois $100,000 Club that cost taxpayers $12 billion....
Recently, President Donald Trump declared war on federal waste. The president pledged...
We mapped the exclusive club of 30,000 Illinois educators with either salaries or...
America needs a War on Waste. As seen in the Wall Street Journal, we've outlined...
In a few weeks, members of Congress will face voters who ought to be in a better...
According to Oregon law, public funds cannot be used for a political purpose. Yet,...
Republicans need to regain the offensive on the fiscal issues. The GOP has somehow...
Adam Andrzejewski (pronounced Angie-eff-ski) just can't resist playing the role of...
You’d think putting together a new farm bill would be fairly easy. After all, Congress...
During calendar year 2017, the second largest school district in Wyoming, the Natrona...
During the Great Depression, farm subsidies were created to keep the family farm...
This summer, the U.S. House and Senate each passed respective versions of a new farm...
Our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com found 7,327 Texas public school administrators,...
While the nation was distracted by the political theater around immigration before...
President Trump’s White House payroll has 374 employees, that's 95 fewer staffers...
You can't educate children in the classroom when you're funding an expensive education...
On February 18, 2018, State Auditor Cynthia Cloud made us refile our open records...
City dwellers, wealthy celebrities, and the deceased all cash in on ag subsidies.
A killer whale sightseeing expedition in Canada; hundreds of expensive car washes;...
The governor is flaunting Oregon open records laws and blurring the line between...
The ever-rising federal debt just surpassed $21 trillion last month – at least $65,000...
As a self-appointed fiscal watchdog who keeps track of how the government spends...
Nobody knows how to game the system for personal gain like an Illinois lawmaker....
It’s Equal Pay Day – an opportunity for activists to raise awareness about the perceived...
WSJ Letter to the Editor - April 5, 2018
Every time there’s a threat of a government shutdown, a threat once rare but now...
President Trump wants to make the federal bureaucracy a meritocracy. He has proposed...
It’s national Sunshine Week across America, sponsored by the American Society of...
Why is the U.S. government withholding salary information on nearly 255,000 employees...
The only thing the bureaucratic resistance hates more than President Trump is the...
Forget about our near-trillion-dollar annual budget deficits and our $20 trillion...
Has Oregon Gov. Kate Brown filed false lobbying disclosure reports for the past seven...
Every taxpayer in America can search the $136 billion federal payroll by zip code. When...
“It’s hard, when you’re up to your armpits in alligators, to remember you came here...
Bureaucracy: President Trump's reigning metaphor of "draining the swamp" is very...
Our non-partisan, nonprofit organization at OpenTheBooks.com recently filed open...
Who knew? The Ivy League gamed-the-system for $42 billion in U.S. taxpayer funded...
Often times, politicians talk about a “war on women” in an effort to score political...
America’s elite private colleges would rather talk about anything other than their...
Taxpayer watchdog Adam Andrzejewski's ride on a tidal wave of tax money continues...
We released a study of highly compensated public employees that reveals a disparity...
Updated figures on guns and ammunition purchased by the Internal Revenue Service,...
Overtime pay more than doubled the number of city employees earning six figures last...
United Federation of Teachers chief Mike Mulgrew reportedly is crowing that almost...
They say if you can make it in New York City, you can make it anywhere. But for government...
The end of the fiscal year doesn't just look like one big party – it is one big party....
Weapons typically reserved for war-time use – tracked armored (tank-like) vehicles,...
While Chicago endures murders and flirts with insolvency, Mayor Rahm Emanuel builds...
Illinois is broke and continues to flirt with junk bond status. But the state’s financial...
A $10,000 grant for theater ‘celebrating the saguaro cactus’? The National Endowment...
If the White House payroll is a leading indicator of the president’s commitment to...
Every year, the federal government pays $125 billion in tax dollars for federal pensions....
New York City’s Public Theater ‘Shakespeare in the Park’ production of Julius Caesar...
Oregonians deserve a safe space from government manipulation, propaganda and bloated...
New Jersey lawmakers just don’t get it: The state’s massive pension-fund shortfalls...
What has a $3.5 trillion unfunded liability, manually calculated on paper inside...
Last night, President Trump spoke to a joint session of congress about his strategic...
As the state contemplates an income tax hike, Oregon’s elites line their pockets...
In the President Donald Trump-era, there could be a high-cost to running a sanctuary...
Earlier this spring, at OpenTheBooks.com, we identified more than 50,000 Illinois...
Fifteen years after terrorists struck the Port Authority-owned World Trade Center,...
Scandal continues to plague the Port Authority.
The supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders and Donald J. Trump have one thing in common:...
Did staffers for Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian volunteer for Avakian's campaign...
Donald Trump criticized universities last month for hoarding their endowments, saying...
Oregon taxpayers deserve to see every dime spent at every level of government — federal,...
In the now-infamous VA scandal of 2012-2015, the nation was appalled to learn that...
AMERICA’S GUN CULTURE has been a subject of intense interest and controversy for...
Women’s sanitary pads purchased for the federal prison system and coded as body armor?...
In the aftermath of the Orlando terrorist attack, many Washington politicians tried...
Radley Balko blogs about criminal justice, the drug war and civil liberties for The...
As gun ownership in the United States is a hot topic among many, a column in Friday’s...
A police lieutenant at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey retired in 2013...
For Memorial Day, Adam Andrzejewski shares stories from his grandfather’s experiences...
Because of the battlefield courage exhibited by my grandfather and his Army lieutenant...
What the facts made appear obvious has now been officially confirmed. Illinois...
This week, Governor Bruce Rauner (R) told the state public employee union AFSME,...
Despite public outcry, new federal data shows that 2014 and 2015 were peak years...
New counts show the number of federal lawyers now exceed the individual public payrolls...
One year ago, on April 13, 2015, U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon empaneled a grand jury...
In 2013, a police lieutenant at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey retired...
Nobody knows how to game the system for personal gain like an Illinois lawmaker.
The magazine found that 72 of Illinois' small-town city and village managers earn...
At OpenTheBooks.com, we have completed our annual ‘Big Dogs’ salary report of municipal...
It's national Sunshine Week across America. During this week, good-government groups...
What has an estimated $22 billion unfunded taxpayer liability, pays out more than...
What has a three-quarter billion-dollar unfunded liability, is manually calculated...
Even after the defeat of the socialist Bernie Sanders, the march toward socialism...
In one of America’s most wealthy counties, DuPage County Clerk Paul Hinds is levying...
When Frank Mautino, the state's new auditor general, walked into the Illinois House...
After Illinois Auditor General William Holland retired last fall, three years into...
What do some top Myrtle Beach hotels, campgrounds, family entertainment venues, and...
Our federal government is a master of self-promotion, comprising the second-largest...
In 2013, then-U.S. Senator Tom Coburn criticized the then Hillary Clinton-led State...
Recently, our organization, American Transparency, released a comprehensive oversight...
The last several months have been bad ones for the Environmental Protection Agency.
Even those of us who have worked in Washington for many years and become accustomed...
At OpenTheBooks.com, we have completed our annual "Big Dogs" salary report of IL...
Why does the EPA need a $715 million police force, a $170 million PR Machine, a nearly...
BACK IN THE 1980s a man who sat on the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission...
The Environmental Protection Agency spent millions of dollars over the last decade...
With the rise of supposed outsider candidates, pundits are calling the coming presidential...
Confronted with our data analysis and hard questions from the Washington Times, the...
The shoes keeping dropping at the College of DuPage, the state's largest community...
Instead of directing court ordered payments to the developmentally disabled, the...
Contractors hired by previous governor are still billing for chartered airplanes,...
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and video journalist James O’Keefe at Project...
Illinois property tax bills push home owners from homes while financing big pensions
In 1970, the federal governments Export – Import Bank (Ex-Im) “spun-off” a private...
Bonuses at the most troubled VA facilities run virtually unabated Last year, it...
Last week the Illinois Supreme Court overturned a state law that would help fix the...
Last week, voters went to the polls to start a new beginning at College of DuPage....
The powerful Illinois Municipal League (IML) demands taxpayers pay more but hasn’t...
As the city approaches financial bankruptcy, Chicago's elite's line-their-pockets...
It’s national Sunshine Week across America. During this week, good-government groups...
State government agencies occupied two of the top six highest all-time recipients...
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has handed out $1 million in patronage pay...
Bruce Rauner’s triumph as the new Republican governor of Obama’s home state was the...
Kathy Hamilton stands four foot eleven, is a mother of two, a classic violinist,...
The Small Business Administration is under fire for lending billions of taxpayer...
In June, the College of DuPage (COD) lost a $20 million state construction grant...
A month after Congressional hearings and the resignation of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki,...
Last week, the Congressional testimony of VA Secretary Gen. Eric Shinseki was echoed...
With a bureaucracy as dysfunctional as the VA, merely replacing the secretary will...
Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin will release his House Republican budget next...
It’s very simple, really: Republicans have to be willing to cut weak claims, not...
Most of us are aware that the government gives mountains of cash to powerful corporations...
If Republicans are going to get truly serious about cutting government spending,...
Last week, our organization, American Transparency added 4.643 million California...
TOP 14,647 California Public Employees Cost Taxpayer's $5 billion
"Washington, D.C., doesn't have many farms, or farmers. Yet thousands of residents...
Democratic Governor awards $71.4 million contract to an outsourcing firm billing...