The Impact on Public Investment from Drops in Non-Defense Discretionary Spending
Jun 14, 2013 by Nick Schwellenbach
While the damaging impacts of austerity have received increased attention in recent weeks, a new report from the Economic Policy Institute shows that most of the major budget plans being considered in Washington would make things worse.
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White House At Odds With House on Weapons Cancellations
Jun 12, 2013 by Nick Schwellenbach
It's an old battle: executive branch expertise on how it thinks taxpayer dollars should be spent versus the congressional power of the purse. This story plays out often in the yearly authorization and appropriations bills for the Department of Defense (DOD). This year is not any different as a White House statement from yesterday makes clear.
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Senate to Begin Appropriations Process Week of June 17
Jun 7, 2013 by Patrick Lester
The Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to begin consideration of annual appropriations bills starting the week of June 17, according to The Hill.
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Boehner Charges Obama With Threatening Government Shutdown
Jun 6, 2013 by Patrick Lester
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) accused President Obama of threatening a government shutdown on June 6. The charge came after the administration issued veto threats against two spending bills that are consistent with a broader House GOP effort to shift further budget cuts from defense spending to domestic programs.
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White House Threatens to Veto GOP Spending Bills
Jun 5, 2013 by Patrick Lester
The White House has issued veto threats against two pending House spending bills, one funding the Department of Homeland Security (H.R. 2217) and another funding military construction and veterans affairs (H.R. 2216).
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America Would Know Less Under House Census Policy
May 16, 2012 by Gavin Baker
Since 1790, Americans have used the Census as a tool to understand who we are and where we stand as a nation. However, our ability to gather this crucial data would be crippled under a bill recently passed by the House.
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State of the Union's Call for Tax Fairness is a Good Start
Jan 26, 2012 by Sam Rosen-Amy
“The state of the union is getting stronger.” That is how President Obama characterized the current state of the union. But, as we wrote in our State of the Union preview on Tuesday, we still have a long way to go before the economy is back on its feet. In our article, we recommended doing away with the looming budget cuts, increasing taxes on capital gains and financial transactions, and using the additional revenue to pay for more infrastructure projects and public protections. So what fiscal issues did Obama talk about in his speech on Tuesday?
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Congress Strips Out Many Controversial Riders from Funding Bills, but Leaves Public in the Dark
Dec 21, 2011 by Sam Rosen-Amy
Even though the 2012 fiscal year (FY) began more than two months ago, Congress only recently put the finishing touches on this year’s budget. Over the weekend, the House and the Senate approved a funding package wrapping all of the outstanding annual appropriations bills into one. In doing so they stripped out many, but not all, of the controversial legislative provisions, known as policy riders.
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House "Megabus" Contains Modest Boost to E-Gov Fund
Dec 15, 2011 by Gavin Baker
Late Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee released its proposed "megabus" spending bill, packaging the nine appropriations bills that have not yet been completed for Fiscal Year (FY) 2012. The House and Senate have been in negotiations to finish the nine bills before a stopgap spending bill expires on Friday.
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Super Committee "Failure" Is Anything But
Nov 28, 2011 by Craig Jennings
On Monday evening (Nov. 21), the Super Committee formally announced that it was unable to reach an agreement for reducing the federal deficit by $1.2 trillion. While others are decrying the lack of agreement by the Super Committee and calling it a failure, we at OMB Watch believe that each of us should, instead, be relieved.
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