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

Congress Can Shape War Policy through Appropriations Process

President Bush's plan to increase troop levels in Iraq has stirred up debate recently over the extent to which Congress can direct war policy. While some have gone so far as to suggest that Congress has the authority to do no more than make symbolic statements, in truth, the appropriations process gives Congress significant — albeit restricted — power to shape the course of war policy. Using the Power of the Purse

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The Fiscal Impact of House 100 Hours Agenda

On Jan. 18, the House Democrats succeeded in passing the final piece of their six-part "100 hours" agenda. The combined fiscal impact of the bills — which implement 9/11 Commission recommendations, close energy tax loopholes and more — is significant: the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated $21.1 billion in savings and revenue over the next ten years if the bills are signed into law. H.R. 1: Implementing the 9/11 Commission Recommendations Act of 2007

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Congress Commits More Time to Doing Its Job

After one of the shortest legislative sessions on record, the 110th Congress has scheduled substantially more days in session for 2007. Hoping to avoid the "do-nothing" label that haunted the 109th Congress, Democratic leaders are hoping the additional time will not only allow for the adoption of their initial "100 hours" agenda, but also the timely completion of all appropriations bills before the start of the next fiscal year. Despite the additional days in session, however, it may still be difficult for Democrats to enact their priorities.

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Millenium Challenge To Run Out of Money

Jan 22, 2007 by Matt Lewis

More news that this year's budget underfunds important programs. This time, it's the Millenium Challenge program, which provides funding to foster the development of poor countries. WASHINGTON -- President Bush's signature foreign-assistance program is likely to run out of money this year, leaving in the lurch several poor countries that have labored to meet its strict eligibility standards, according to aid officials. Mr. Bush introduced the Millennium Challenge program in 2002 as a new approach to fix the perceived failures of overseas-development assistance.

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Dems Struggling to Clean Up Approps Mess

Jan 18, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The newly-empowered Democrats are now reaping a grim reward for winning the November election. They have to clean up the Republican's appropriations mess, and reports show that so far, they're having a rough time doing it. Regular readers might recall that the Republican Congress did not pass nine of the eleven required appropriations bills that provide funding for discretionary programs.

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House To Vote on Oil Subsidy-Rescinding Bill Tomorrow

Jan 17, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The last leg of the 100 hours legislative marathon- the Creating Long-Term Energy Alternatives for the Nation Act of 2007- will come up for a vote Thursday. The LA Times has a good summary of the bill here.

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Whitey on the Moon, Iraq

Jan 16, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Via TAPPED, the Washington Post reports today on budget choices at NASA. Money is being shifted out of programs that monitor climate change and hurricanes and into space exploration. The government's ability to understand and predict hurricanes, drought and climate changes of all kinds is in danger because of deep cuts facing many Earth satellite programs and major delays in launching some of its most important new instruments, a panel of experts has concluded.

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Will Congress Stick with PAYGO?

On Jan. 5, the House took a significant step in the direction of fiscal responsibility, adopting pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) budget rules by a 280-152 margin. PAYGO rules bar consideration of legislation including tax cuts or entitlement expansions that would have the net effect of increasing the deficit. While a necessary step toward putting the country back on the right fiscal path, PAYGO rules may make fulfilling the policy goals of the new Democratic Congress significantly more difficult to achieve.

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Stating The Obvious

Jan 8, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Today, the NYT reminds us that the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 disproportionately benefited the wealthy over the middle class, the super wealthy over the wealthy, and the wealthy-beyond-your-imagination over the super wealthy.

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More on Bush's WSJ Pre-State of the Union Op-Ed

Jan 4, 2007 by Adam Hughes*

Yesterday in the Wall Street Journal, ($) President Bush sketched out some broad themes and a few bold claims for the final two years of his presidency. Many in the media have commented on Bush's call to cut earmarks in half this year, but I wanted to highlight a small part of the op-ed that has been overlooked. Bush wrote: Because revenues have grown and we've done a better job of holding the line on domestic spending, we met our goal of cutting the deficit in half three years ahead of schedule. By continuing these policies, we can balance the federal budget by 2012 while funding our priorities and making the tax cuts permanent. (emphasis added) I'll ignore for the moment Bush's continued misleading claims about cutting the deficit in half and how really insignificant that will be in the long run. I'm more concerned that Bush believes we have funded and will continued to be able to fully fund our most crucial priorities. The president is still under the false impression we can tackle difficult challenges without anyone having to sacrifice.

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