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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House Passes Tax Reconciliation Bill

May 11, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Last night the House passed the tax reconciliation bill by a vote of 224-185. Fifteen Democrats voted along with Republicans to pass these costly and regressive tax cuts. Two Republicans, Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) and Jim Leach (R-IA) placed fiscally responsible and compassionate votes by voting against this bill, which will cut almost $70 billion in taxes over the next five years. The Senate is expected to take up the bill today. An editorial in the Washington Post today makes a succinct point about this bill:

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House Approps Committee Approves Allocations

May 10, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Yesterday the House Appropriations Committee approved the 302(b) allocations announced by Chairman Lewis on May 4. Again, the 302(b) allocations for FY07 are the division of about $873 billion in planned discretionary spending among the 11 Appropriations subcommittees. The allocations were approved yesterday by a 37-25 vote (along party-lines), after little discussion. The committee did reject an alternative offered by Democrats, as well as a proposal by Rep. Virgil Goode Jr. (R-VA) to boost funding for military construction and veterans' affairs.

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Budget Back on House Floor Tomorrow!

May 10, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) announced today he wants to bring the budget resolution back to the House floor tomorrow (Thursday) and believes he now can secure enough votes to pass it. Boehner pulled the budget from the floor in March because squabbles within the Republican Party threatened to defeat the bill.

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Congressional Negotiators Reach Deal on Tax Bill

May 10, 2006 by Guest Blogger

GOP negotiators for the House and Senate reached a deal yesterday on the nearly $70 billion tax reconciliation measure. The bill extends Bush's deep tax cuts by extending the 15 percent rate on capital gains and dividends, and also includes a one-year patch protecting 15 million Americans from paying the alternative minimum tax. $67 billion of the $69 billion bill will go toward one of those two priorities.

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Tax Reconciliation Vote May Take Place Soon

May 9, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Both the Senate and House are expected to vote on the $70 billion tax reconciliation bill this week, which both extends capital gains and dividends tax rates for two more years, and also provides protection for 15 million families from paying the alternative minimum tax. The tax cuts within the bill, particularly the capital gains and dividends rate extension, would overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest in society. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has estimated that H.R. 4297 would give households with incomes over $1 million an average tax cut of $42,000.

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Hidden Debt Limit Increase in House Budget Blueprint

May 9, 2006 by Matthew Madia

House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) has indicated that if he has the votes he will hold a vote on the House budget bill potentially as early as friday. Interestingly, this $2.7 billion budget plan includes language in it, as reported in today's Washington Post, that would bump up the federal debt ceiling yet again, to almost $10 trillion.

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Showdown Over Supplemental?

May 8, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Update on the supplemental spending bill: The Senate passed a $109 billion supplemental last thursday, which ended up being significantly higher than the bill passed by the House on March 16th (which was $91.9 billion).

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Chairman Lewis Announces 302(b) Allocations

May 5, 2006 by Guest Blogger

House Appropriations Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA) has made public his spending allocations for the FY07 budget. House GOP leaders are hoping to bring a budget plan to the floor the week after next. In a statement on the allocations, Lewis remarked "These allocations represent my best effort to fairly distribute the limited resources available.

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Harsh Budget Resolution On Its Last Leg?

There has been little movement on the FY 2007 budget resolution since it was pulled from the House floor before the April congressional recess. Despite a deal late last week between Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA) that removed one of three major obstacles to approval in the House, the outlook for the resolution remains bleak.

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The President Who Cried Wolf?

Apr 26, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

The Senate voted today to smack down an attempt to cut spending from the 2006 emergency spending bill current under debate. An amendment offered by Sen. Craig Thomas (R-WY) that would have replaced the entire text of the $106.5 billion bill with President Bush's original $92.2 request was easily defeated 72 - 26.

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