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...

read in full

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

more news

CBPP on Declining Domestic Spending

Feb 20, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities's Robert Greenstein gave testimony to Congress last week. It's a great summary of CBPP's invaluable work on appropriation levels. Bottom line: overall government spending may have increased under Bush, but, depending on how you measure it, real spending on discretionary social programs has either declined or increased only marginally. UPDATE: I should qualify what I said a bit. Not everything was that awesome. This made me mad: ï»¿ It is in the tax

read in full

Senate Passes CR

Feb 15, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The Senate passed the CR last night. It is the same as the House version. The President should sign it today to avoid a government shutdown. The Washington Post: Four and a half months after the legal deadline, the Senate gave final approval to a 2007 spending plan that funds almost half the federal government and averts any chance of a government shutdown.

read in full

Senate Set to Approve FY 2007 CR

Feb 14, 2007 by Adam Hughes*

By a 71-26 vote yesterday, the Senate moved closer to approving the FY 2007 CR passed by the House last week (covered here), with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-TN) and 22 other GOP members joining all but one Democrat to close debate and move to a final vote, which could come later today.

read in full

President Proposes Unrealistic Cuts to Veteran's Health

Feb 13, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The Bush budget plays games with funding for veteran's health care. The Washington Post reports: WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration's budget assumes cuts to funding for veterans' health care two years from now _ even as badly wounded troops returning from Iraq could overwhelm the system. Bush is using the cuts, critics say, to help fulfill his pledge to balance the budget by 2012. But even administration allies say the numbers are not real and are being used to make the overall budget picture look better.

read in full

Dionne on President's Budget

Feb 9, 2007 by Matt Lewis

EJ Dionne's column on budget trade-offs and priorities is a good read. This president will defend tax cuts by any means necessary. It was one of those moments when a public official gives away a larger truth by offering what seems to be a throwaway line. Testifying this week on President Bush's budget, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. suggested he would not mind a bit if the Democratic Congress added money to prevent cutbacks in coverage under the federal government's children's health insurance program.

read in full

Ensign of the Times: Suddenly Suspicious of Supplementals

Feb 8, 2007 by Adam Hughes*

Today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) filed a cloture petition and filled the amendment tree, limiting debate on the must-pass FY 2007 CR. GOP Senators, dismayed by the $3 billion cut in BRAC in the House version of the CR, seem unmollified by assurances from Reid and Appropriations chair Robert Byrd (D-WV) that the funding would be restored in the upcoming $100 billion-plus supplemental war spending bill, which is not subject to spending caps.

read in full

Federal Contractors: The Invisible, Unaccountable Agency

The incredible growth in the amount of money spent by the federal government on contractors, with almost no corresponding increase in oversight or management, was highlighted in a recent New York Times article, "In Washington, Contractors Take on Biggest Role Ever." According to the article, the amount spent on federal contracts has doubled since 2000, from $207 billion to $400 billion. The lack of sufficient government oversight has led to a virtual free reign for contractors, who are not answerable to the public and have not been called to account by the federal government.

read in full

House Passes FY 2007 Spending Resolution that Restores Some Funding

On Jan. 31, the House cleared a $463.5 billion joint resolution that boosts spending or maintains service levels in health, education and housing programs while staying under a tight budget cap. The resolution also makes $10 billion worth of cuts in 60 programs and eliminates earmark language from bills that were drafted but not passed during the last Congress. If the Senate passes the resolution, the new Congress will finish the FY 2007 budget bills, which the last session of Congress failed to do.

read in full

OMB Watch Release Preliminary Budget Analysis

Feb 5, 2007 by Matt Lewis

OMB Watch has released a preliminary analysis of the President's FY 08 Budget request. President's Budget Full of Cheap Rhetoric; Wrong Priorities President Favors Tax Cuts for the Wealthy over Domestic Needs Check back here for additional analyses and commentary on the budget as the week progresses.

read in full

President's Budget Takes Aim at Nation's Health

Feb 5, 2007 by Craig Jennings

President Bush's 2008 budget, to be released this morning, proposes to eliminate the deficit by 2012 with many spending cuts in various national health and well-being programs.

$101.5 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid over five years
$223 million reduction in spending on the Children's Health Insurance Program, with cuts deep enough over five years to eliminate coverage for half of the children enrolled today
$99 million savings by eliminating a childhood obesity prevention program

read in full