Congress Headed for PATRIOT Act Debate This Year

The Senate voted yesterday to extend expiring provisions of the PATRIOT Act until May 27. The House had voted to extend the provisions until December 8; today, the House agreed to consider the Senate version. The House and Senate have to agree before Feb. 28 or the provisions will expire.

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GOP Not Cutting Defense Spending ... but It Should Be

How about cutting that second engine, Boehner?

Over the weekend, House Republicans began a coordinated campaign to defend the caucus' "$100 billion" worth of proposed cuts to the fiscal year (FY) 2011 budget. Since the proposal's release, Republicans have been taking flak for targeting non-security discretionary programs, which only make up about one-sixth of federal spending. When asked about this on the various Sunday talk shows, Republican leaders demurred, claiming defense spending is also on the chopping block. They're not telling the truth.

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Take Two: PATRIOT Act Extension Passes House

Last week, the House failed to clear a supermajority vote under special rules to extend expiring provisions of the PATRIOT Act. But no surprises this time: the House approved the extension yesterday under normal majority rules.

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Broad Opposition to Anti-Regulatory Bill

On Friday, 72 labor, environmental, consumer advocacy, health care, and other public interest organizations (including OMB Watch) wrote to the House Judiciary Committee urging its members to oppose H.R. 10, the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act. The bill, which we’ve been covering extensively on this blog in recent weeks, would require congressional approval of all major rules before government agencies can implement them.

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The Budget That Won't Be (But Still Matters)

This morning, President Obama officially proposed to Congress his FY 2012 budget. Marking the start of a year-long poker game, this is just an opening bid. Republicans will soon follow up within the next month or so their counter offer when the House votes on its FY 2012 budget resolution. Then the Senate will throw in its two cents (so to speak) and make its suggestion. Months later, actual spending bills will be offered, debated, negotiated, and adopted (though probably not on time) at the end of the year.

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242 Lawmakers Vote Against Safe Food, Water, and Children’s Toys

242 members of the House of Representatives don't give a damn if your food is uncontaminated, your water is clean, or your children are safe. Don’t believe me? Then you should have been watching C-SPAN last week.

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Recovery Board Chairman Backs Multi-Tier Reporting

While the new Republican House seems obsessed with cutting federal spending back to pre-stimulus levels, it can be easy to forget that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is still spending money. In fact, there’s still about $100 billion in stimulus contract, grant and loan money that has yet to go out the door. And the Recovery Board, which is in charge of displaying the Recovery Act recipient reports, is still at work. This week, in a big win for transparency advocates, the Board’s chairman, Earl Devaney, announced his support for multi-tier reporting, or reporting beyond prime and sub-recipients.

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Administration Backpedals on Key Transparency Initiative

Transparency, apparently, has its limits.

The Obama administration might be reducing contract spending, but don't expect the contracts the government signs to show up online anytime soon. Withdrawing a proposal made last May, the administration quietly announced yesterday that it's abandoning what has turned out to be a tepid examination of posting federal contracts online.

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House Budget Fail?

It's been an action packed week in Congress as the House tries to put together a $1.06 trillion spending bill to fund the operations of the federal government for the remaining seven months of the 2011 fiscal year. A divided Republican House caucus may be on their way to a huge tactical blunder that could result in a government shutdown or the failure of staying true to their pledge to massively cut federal spending.

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Surprise! PATRIOT Act Extension Fails House Vote

In a surprise move, a vote to extend expiring provisions of the PATRIOT Act fell short in the House yesterday. Three controversial provisions of the intelligence law are set to expire Feb. 28.

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