Appropriations

Feb 8, 2016

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

As Americans were gathering party supplies to greet the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service released their annual report of cumulative tax data reported on the 400 tax r...

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Feb 4, 2016

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

Chlorine bleach plants across the U.S. put millions of Americans in danger of a chlorine gas release, a substance so toxic it has been used as a chemical weapon. Greenpeace’s new repo...

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Jan 25, 2016

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for 2014 is now available. The good news: total toxic releases by reporting facilities decreased by nearly six percent from 2013 levels. Howe...

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Jan 22, 2016

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

UPDATE (Jan. 22, 2016): Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its proposed rule to reduce methane emissions...

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more news

FedSpending Spotlight: Skyrocketing Contracts, Less Competition

Lurita Doan, the new head of the General Services Administration (GSA), recently complained about the growth of Government-wide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs) and the loss of contracting efficiency. Data from FedSpending.org reinforces these efficiency concerns by revealing the fast growth in federal contracts and, specifically, the remarkable growth of contracts for which there was little to no competition.

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A Fiscal Policy Review of the 109th Congress

With just a few short post-election, lame-duck weeks left, the 109th Congress will leave behind a legacy of woefully inadequate action on fiscal policy. With a set of fiscal challenges that included the need for comprehensive tax reform, concerns over Social Security insolvency, large and growing deficits, the 109th Congress' list of accomplishments is almost non-existent.

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Treasury Reports Quarter-Trillion Dollar Deficit; President Still Obscures Fiscal Problems

When the Treasury Department closed the books on Fiscal year 2006 on Sept. 30, one number precipitated a furious round of back-slaps and high-fives in the halls of the White House and the Office of Management and Budget - $248 billion. President Bush had no compunction about expressing glee about the nearly quarter-trillion dollar federal budget deficit for FY2006.

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How To Use FedSpending.org

Oct 23, 2006 by Matthew Madia

Recent media reports have shown a few of the many ways to use FedSpending.org, our new online database that lets you track how the federal government spends money. Some articles have used FedSpending to show the local impact of federal spending. An article in the Washington Examiner used FedSpending.org to calculate the total amount of all contracts that are handled by companies in the Washington, DC area. And a report in the Salt Lake City Tribune covered total federal dollars that Utah received.

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Faith-Based Hogwash

Oct 20, 2006 by Matthew Madia

Here's more evidence of the budgetary sleight-of-hand, misguided priorities, and broken promises that we've all come to expect from the Bush Administration. This time, it's from former Bush staffer David Kuo, whose new book has gotten signficant press attention. Introducing the book, he writes on BeliefNet of the grand promises Bush made as a presidential candidate in 2000.

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Reporting Deficit

Oct 18, 2006 by Matthew Madia

The Washington Post ran a good article on the tax cuts and the deficit yesterday- lots of interesting quotes from credible folks with different opinions. Here's a great quote on the forces driving the lower deficit:

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CBPP: Lame-Duck Trap

Oct 13, 2006 by Matt Lewis

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has a paper out on the lame-duck budget cuts that are nearly a foregone conclusion. In September, Congress shifted $5.3 billion that Senate appropriators planned to devote to domestic programs to the defense and homeland security appropriations bills. As a result, $5.3 billion will have to be cut from other appropriations bills the Senate Appropriations Committee has approved — bills that largely fund domestic programs — when Congress reconvenes after the election.

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The FY 2007 DoD Approps Bill, Deconstructed

Oct 13, 2006 by Matthew Madia

In a brilliant analysis of the FY 2007 DoD appropriations bill, Winslow T. Wheeler, Director at the Straus Military Reform Project of the Center for Defense Information based in Washington, D.C., exposes the bill's budget gimmicks, misleading program labeling, and meaningless dollar figures. The lead-in for Wheeler's article:

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OMB Watch Launches FedSpending.org

For the first time, itemized information on the more than $12 trillion disbursed by the federal government between FY 2000 and FY 2005 is now available to the public on a user-friendly, searchable Web site. FedSpending.org, a project of OMB Watch launched Oct. 10, provides citizens with a detailed look at how the government sets national priorities and allocates federal resources.

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Bernanke on Budget Cuts

Oct 5, 2006 by Matt Lewis

Another sign that the Bush Administration may push for "entitlement reform" (read: massive cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid) after the election. From CongressDaily ($$):

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