The Coalition for Human Needs just put up an excellent database of links to resources on Katrina and welfare reform issues. Take a look if you're interested in learning the latest about these milestones in the fight against poverty.

While the inner-workings of Congress can often be full of illogical, ironic, and bizarre happenings, the latest behind the scenes buzz on Capitol Hill (and in the blogosphere) certainly takes the cake. OMB Watch has been supporting S. 2590 (see here and here for some of the BudgetBlog's coverage), a bill to create a free, searchable, downloadable database of all federal grants and contracts information. This effort is supported by progressives and conservatives, and nearly everyone in between, and has the support of a varied and eclectic mix of Senators.

The Senate Budget Committee's Democratic Staff has released an analysis of the Congressional Budget Office's August Budget and Economic Update.

The Bush administration is trying to take health insurance away from poor people again, this time by creating regulations that would force states to lower taxes on health care providers. The taxes help states pay for health care services covered under Medicaid, and result in higher matching grants from the federal government. The states effectively offset the cost of the tax with higher reimbursement rates for the taxed health care providers, which are made possible by the federal matching grants. The move is opposed by all the relavant stakeholders, including: