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

IT Dashboard Provides Detailed Look at Tech Spending

Jul 2, 2009 by Sam Rosen-Amy

On Tuesday, June 30, Vivek Kundra, the new federal Chief Information Officer, unveiled the IT dashboard, part of the newly redesigned USAspending.gov. The dashboard is actually pretty amazing, as it lets users examine every federal IT project, by agency, and shows whether each project is on schedule and on budget, along with a link to a detailed list of performance metrics for the project. It also has a tab for analysis of the data, which right now is limited to a graph of spending by agency over time and a chart showing a breakdown of the current year's budget. The site also allows third-parties to download XML versions of the data, a feature which I hope will now be standard on all government sites.

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Counting Chickens Before They Hatch: A Quick Lesson on Recovery Act Spending

Jul 1, 2009 by Sam Rosen-Amy

One of the trickiest aspects of tracking Recovery Act spending is a very basic one: figuring out how much money has been spent so far. Theoretically, it should be pretty easy. Find out how much the federal government has spent because of the Recovery Act, and, well, that's how much has been spent on it. By that estimate, according to Recovery.gov, we've already spent almost $53 billion on the recovery, which isn't particularly impressive.

Unfortunately, though, it's not that easy.

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Analysis of New Recovery Act Reporting Guidance

On June 22, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued new guidance to federal agencies on implementing recipient reporting requirements under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, commonly called the Recovery Act. The guidance comes roughly four months after President Obama signed the Recovery Act into law and puts in place new requirements for the first quarterly reports that will start flowing in from grantees Oct. 10. According to the Coalition for an Accountable Recovery (CAR), "While this guidance is a step in the right direction, there is still much room for improvement."

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The Veterans Affairs Budgeting Experiment

Jun 26, 2009 by Jocelyn Yin*

Earlier this week, the House passed an unusual bill that authorizes advance appropriations for Veterans Affairs (VA) funding. HR 1016 means that Congress will create two budgets this year, one for the current 2010 appropriations cycle, and a future budget for 2011. Subsequent years will produce budgets that are at least a year ahead. For the VA department, which has been plagued in recent years by reports of patient neglect and poor management, this will hopefully be the first step towards better service delivery.

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Coburn "Report" No Help in Recovery Act Performance Conversation

Jun 18, 2009 by Craig Jennings

Writing on the States for an Accountable Recovery blog, Phil Mattera takes a well-measured swipe at Sen. Tom Coburn's (R-OK) report detailing Recovery Act project follies.

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When We Shouldn't Worry About the Deficit

Jun 17, 2009 by Craig Jennings

As usual, Stan Collender makes much sense.

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Congress Inches Closer to Final War Supplemental Vote

Legislation appropriating over $100 billion for continued war funding (H.R. 2346) is moving closer to a final vote in Congress, despite significant delays and recent disagreements during conference committee negotiations. The main issues of contention include the release of detainee photos, a funding provision for the International Monetary Fund, and overall concerns related to the bloated cost of the bill. President Obama originally requested $90 billion for the legislation, but that figure has grown to $106 billion.

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South Carolina Recovery Act Showdown: The Conclusion

Jun 11, 2009 by Sam Rosen-Amy

In a decidedly anti-climatic ending to a tense standoff, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford finally requested his state's share of Recovery Act funding this past Monday, June 8th. The action, prompted by the State Supreme Court, ended a months-long battle that mixed state and national politics, federalism, and presidential intrigue.

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USAspending.gov Adds Recovery Act Spending Data Months before Recovery.gov

In late May, USAspending.gov started posting data that identified grants and contracts given out under the Recovery Act. This is in addition to the regular data on government spending on the site. Up until now, there has been a disappointing lack of specific data made available about Recovery Act spending, particularly on the Recovery.gov website – the main vehicle created for information on implementation of the act.

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A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking pie charts

May 29, 2009 by Sam Rosen-Amy

This is a little old, but for those of you keeping score at home, The Atlantic last month put out a great way to visualize what's going on with both the bailout and the Recovery. The graphic does an excellent job of showing how the bailout, while huge at some $787 billion, is almost puny compared to the trillions of dollars the Federal Reserve could be pumping into the system through asset purchases. It's always good to keep some perspective on the situation, and graphics like this help explain why we think it's important to make sure the Fed programs are held to the same transparency and accountability standards as the Recovery Act programs.

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