Blog: The Fine Print / Revenue & Spending

Authorization Earmark an Oxymoron?

Sep 26, 2007 by Dana Chasin

Though President Bush signed the ethics and lobbying bill several weeks ago, some conservative critics now contend that the bill is conspicuously lacking, since it applies only to earmarks in appropriations -- and not authorization -- bills. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) says he reads the new earmark rules — and that the Senate Parliamentarian will back up his reading of the rules — to not ban Members from including new earmarks into authorization bills during conference talks with the House.

read in full

CBO's Score for House SCHIP Bill (HR 976)

Sep 26, 2007 by Craig Jennings

CBO has released its score for the recently passed House bill that would increase funding for SCHIP.
  • SCHIP provisions alone are $27.7 billion above CBO baseline of $27.4 billion
  • Other provisions in the bill, including additional Medicaid outlays are $7.2 billion above CBO baseline
  • Total spending above CBO baseline is $34.9 billion
  • These additional mandatory expenditures will be offset primarily by a 61-cent per-pack cigarette tax totalling $35.5 billion

read in full

Watcher: September 27, 2007

Sep 26, 2007 by Craig Jennings

Wartime Commission Would Investigate Contracting Abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan Sens. Jim Webb (D-VA) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) have sponsored a bill ( href="http://webb.senate.gov/pdf/contracti2.pdf" target="_blank">S. 1825) that would set up a commission to investigate and reform wartime contracting. It is likely the bill will be introduced as an amendment to the Defense Reauthorization Act that is currently being debated in the Senate. FY 2008 War Funding Could Top $200 Billion

read in full

SCHIP Passes House!

Sep 26, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The SCHIP expansion bill passed the House last night by the large margin of 265 to 159. 45 Republicans voted for it, while only 8 Democrats voted against it. Kudos to everyone who called in! Now the fight moves to the Senate. Unfortunately, the House vote fell short of the 2/3 majority needed to overturn a veto. The Senate now has to get a veto-proof vote, which should put pressure on more House members to overturn a veto. If they don't get there, the new funding levels will have to come down, and fewer children will be enrolled in the program.

read in full

House SCHIP Vote Imminent

Sep 25, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The House is scheduled to vote on the SCHIP bill in hours, while the Senate will vote on either Thursday or Friday. If you haven't already, please make sure to call your representatives. The toll free number is 1-866-544-7573. It sounds cheesy, but millions of kids are counting on you to do it.

read in full

FY 2008 CR: Legislative Update

Sep 25, 2007 by Dana Chasin

With three legislative days left before the end of the 2007 fiscal year, Congress and the president have little choice but to adopt a Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep the government operating at full strength. Word on the Hill is that a clean CR -- that is, providing continued funding during the life of the CR at FY 2007 levels -- is expected to be passed before the end of the week, with House voting on the CR tomorrow and the Senate doing likewise on Thursday. Currently under discussion is a CR that would expire sometime around Nov. 16. Click here for a look at the House CR bill.

read in full

Renewing Fiscal Responsibility

Sep 25, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The Brookings Institution will be hosting an event to get the presidential candidates focused on the deficit. But only six years post-Clinton, they may be tilting at windmills.

read in full

Bush, Monday Morning QB, Asks 'Clean' CR

Sep 25, 2007 by Dana Chasin

But Unable to 'Obey' His Own Demands House Appropriations chair Rep. David Obey (D-WI) is trying to forstall a government shutdown, negotiating details of a Continuing Resolution (CR) for Fiscal Year 2008 (which begins next Monday, Oct. 1) with newly-installed OMB director Jim Nussle. "I met with the President's budget director last week and informed him at that time that we intended to pass a clean C.R. I asked him if he would let me know if the administration had any exceptions that they wanted included and they sent us over a dozen changes that they wanted."

read in full

More on Funding Priorities

Sep 25, 2007 by Matt Lewis

From the AFL-CIO blog: Let's also use these numbers for the appropriations conflict. That'd make 82 more days in Iraq as costly as the difference between the President's budget requests and the Congressional proposal. The President's cuts would take away:
  • nearly 370,000 veterans' health care
  • 9,223 teaching jobs
  • 12,000 cops
See this breakdown by state for more of the impact of the President's cuts. And check the headlines for the impact of the President's decision to keep funding this war.

read in full

A Correction and an Explanation

Sep 25, 2007 by Adam Hughes*

We were contacted over the weekend by the Administration on Aging (AoA) in response to my posting last Thursday about the newly released round of PART scores. Saadia Greenberg, Director of the Office of Evaluation at the AoA correctly points out that I was in error when I said it was strange OMB cited the AoA during this release of new scores because it was evaluated by the PART in 2003. In fact, the AoA was reassessed this year (2007) and you can see the results of the reassessment. I apologize for the error. Now I certainly don't want to pass the buck here, but this mistake wasn't really my fault. If you put "Administration on Aging" into the search engine on the ExpectMore.gov website, all you get is information on the program's evaluation from 2003, not 2007. See the screen capture I took this morning: This brings up two important points about the PART:

read in full

Pages

Subscribe to The Fine Print: blog posts from Center for Effective Government
  • ©2025 Project On Government Oversight
  • All Rights Reserved.
  • This an archive site of the materials produced by the Center for Effective Government (formerly OMB Watch) and is maintained by the Project On Government Oversight.