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

Republicans Throw Temper Tantrum Over New SCHIP Bill

Oct 25, 2007 by Craig Jennings

Minority Whip Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO) is picking up his ball and going home. CongressDaily Extra(sorry, no link):

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New CBO Estimate of War Spending

Oct 25, 2007 by Matt Lewis

CBO has an new cost estimate of all the wars we're in. The war spending will accrue an estimated $700 billion in interest on the debt, bringing the top total estimate to $2.4 trillion. Could CBO do a "pay-for" analysis, too? Like Jason Furman did on the tax cuts? Even the Bush administration hasn't claimed that wars pay for themselves.

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Approps Update: Senate Solidly Passes Labor-H

Oct 25, 2007 by Craig Jennings

As noted by Matt yesterday, the Senate approved the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill 75-19. What next for FY 2008 appropriations? Matt takes a look in this week's The Watcher. October 17, 2007 House Senate Conf. Cmte. President Cmte. Floor $ Agriculture 18.8 18.7 $ Commerce-Justice- Science 53.6 54.6 54.6 Defense 459.6 459.6 459.6 $ Energy & Water 31.6 32.3 Financial Services 21.4 21.8 $ Homeland Security 36.3 37.6 37.6 $ Interior & Environment 27.6 27.2 $ Labor-HHS- Education 151.4

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Rethinking Discretionary Budget Caps

Oct 24, 2007 by Matt Lewis

A few facts on the congressional budget resolution (from Allen Shick's classic The Federal Budget: Politics, Policy and Process):

For about the first 200 years of this country, there was no congressional Budget Resolution (BR) and no discretionary cap.
The budget resolution was originally conceived of as a way to reduce deficits. When it didn't work that well, discretionary caps were added to make it stronger.
The discretionary spending has decreased from nearly 1/2 the budget in 1975 (the year of the first budget resolution) to less than 1/3rd now.

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Silly Season on Spending for Sununu

Oct 24, 2007 by Dana Chasin

Watch What I say, Not What I Do To listen to him, Sen. John Sununu (R-NH) sounds as committed to cutting spending and the deficit as he ever has: "I think we managed the growth much more effectively in 2004 and 2005 than we had in 2001 to 2003... The fact is, liberals here in Washington want to grow the size of government at a much faster rate, at a higher rate than the Republican minority."

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Putting Policy Priorities in Pecuniary Perspective

Oct 24, 2007 by Dana Chasin

For Bush, Fiscal Responsibility Ends at the Shore For months, the Bush administration has been issue one veto threat after another, as the House and Senate approve appropriations bills that narrowly exceed the President's budget requests. Yesterday, the Senate approved, by a veto-proof 75-19 majority) the Labor-HHS bill, the largest domestic spending bill in the budget. The bill provides $152 billion in discretionary funds for medical research, early childhood education, community health centers, and nutrition services for seniors.

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Senate Easily Passes Labor-HHS Appropriation

Oct 24, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The Senate passed the Labor-HHS appropriations bill last night by a veto-proof majority, and then some (75-19). Now the bill heads to a conference and then to the President, who has promised to veto it. But given the margin of victory in the Senate, does he still think a veto is the wisest way to go?

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The Full Monty Python from George W. Bush

Oct 23, 2007 by Craig Jennings

"A pretty brazen act" -- Washington Post In the classic Monty Python film, "The Search for the Holy Grail," an already diminutive swordsman stuns his foe by insisting on fighting on, despite having already lost both arms and legs. It would appear that President Bush, too, has no legs to stand on, having lost the nation's support for his war in Iraq, lost Congress last November, and floundering at sub-Nixonian approval rating levels in the latest Zogby poll.

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Labor-HHS Appropriations to Test Bush Veto Threats

Congress is nearly ready to send President Bush the first appropriations bill of the FY 2008 budget cycle — almost one full month overdue. The Senate is scheduled to vote today, Oct. 23, on the $150 billion Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill. Once that version is conferenced with the House version (which passed in July 276-140), it will be sent to the president, where it may face a veto.

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House Conservatives Sink SCHIP

Despite a considerable lobbying campaign by supporters, House Republicans blocked an effort to override President Bush's veto of a five-year, $35 billion funding increase for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) that would have provided an additional 4 million uninsured children with health insurance. The final vote was 273-156, which fell 15 votes short of the necessary two-thirds majority. Only two Democrats voted to sustain the veto; the rest were Republicans.

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