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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Congress Approves Fiscally Responsible Expansion of Children's Health Insurance

During the week of July 30, the House and Senate passed different versions of a reauthorization and expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) that will expand health care coverage to millions of uninsured children across the country. The Senate version would extend coverage to about four million additional children, while the House version would add five million children and root out excess costs in the Medicare Advantage program, which privatizes health insurance but at a higher cost than traditional Medicare coverage.

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Background Brief: House SCHIP Bill Would Reduce Subsidies to Insurance Companies

As part of its measure to expand SCHIP coverage to five million additional children, the House would limit payments to private health care providers under the Medicare Advantage program (MA). Over five years, the plan to limit these payments will offset part of the $50 billion cost of the SCHIP bill. More than just a revenue raiser, the House plan, Children's Health and Medicare Protection (CHAMP) Act, would restore equity to Medicare and force private providers that participate in Medicare Advantage to compete with traditional Medicare on a level playing field.

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Senate Passes SCHIP

Aug 3, 2007 by Craig Jennings

By a veto-proof margin (68-31), the Senate passed a $35 billion expansion of SCHIP. Earlier this week, the House passed its version - a $50 billion expansion, partially offset by changes to Medicare. The president has threatened to veto both.

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Bush: Big on Vetoes, But Why?

Aug 2, 2007 by Craig Jennings

In an op-ed published today at TomPaine.com, our colleague Matt takes the president's veto rhetoric to proverbial woodshed. But the president's position is misleading and out of touch with the American public. First, there is no substance to his attacks on the size of the congressional spending proposals. Congress's fiscal 2008 spending plan exceeds the president's budget slightly regarding social spending—a mere $23 billion—or less than one percent of the entire budget. This difference between their budget and the president's will not open the spending floodgates.

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Odds and Ends

Aug 2, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Rick Perlstein at the Campaign for America's Future explains the political significance of the Minnesota bridge collapse.

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American Medical Association Supports House SCHIP Bill

Aug 2, 2007 by Craig Jennings

In statement released yesterday, AMA stated its strong support for the House version of SCHIP expansion: The American Medical Association applauds the members of the U.S. House of Representatives who voted to pass legislation that preserves access to health care for children and seniors. ... By increasing the tobacco tax and eliminating overpayments to insurance companies offering private Medicare plans, Congress has found two appropriate ways to pay for these important national health care priorities.

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Approps Update

Aug 2, 2007 by Craig Jennings

The White House has issued a veto threat over the FY 2008 Agriculture appropriations. I'm beginning to see a pattern here.

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House Passes SCHIP

Aug 2, 2007 by Craig Jennings

By a 225-204 vote, the House of Representatives yesterday approved the renewal and a $50 billion expansion of SCHIP. Also on Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) filed a cloture motion on the Senate version of SCHIP renewal/expansion.

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Senate and House SCHIP Bills Compared

Jul 30, 2007 by Craig Jennings

While the Senate and House are both deliberating renewal of the SCHIP program, they have each offered bills with significant differences. Here's a brief summary to keep it all straight. House Senate 2008-12 2008-17 2008-12 2008-17 Covered children who would otherwise be uninsured 5 million 4 million Cost (billions of dollars) 47.8 159.9 35.2 71.0 Revenue Increase (billions of dollars) 27.0 53.8 36.1 72.8 Tax increase per pack of cigarettes 45¢ 61¢ Families USA has a more detailed side-by-side indicating differences other than cost and revenue scoring.

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Public Opinion on the Budget: Cut or Spend?

Jul 27, 2007 by Matt Lewis

On the budget battle brewing between congress and the president, does public opinion lean toward the veto-happy Bush or the Democratic majority? The Center for American Progress investigates.

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