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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Making My Job Easier

Jul 17, 2007 by Craig Jennings

A tax on tobacco is a regressive tax, and so equity-based opposition to a tobacco tax increase generally makes sense. However, if the tax will be used to fund an expansion of a fiscally progressive program, then it is possible that the net result will be progressive. I spent some time this morning compiling info that would give some indication of how the SCHIP expansion would shake out. Well, someone has already done the yeoman's work and crunched the numbers.

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JCT Issues Reports on SCHIP Financing

Jul 16, 2007 by Craig Jennings

To fully offset a $35 billion expansion of SCHIP, the Senate Finance Committee has proposed raising tobacco taxes to about $1 per pack. The Joint Committee on Taxation released reports on the proposed revenue changes on Friday.

Estimated Revenue Effects Of The Revenue Provisions Related To The State Children's Health Insurance Program
Description Of The Revenue Provisions For Markup Of The State Children's Health Insurance Program

The five-year revenue generation from the proposed tax would be $35.7 billion, with a ten-year total of $71.1 billion.

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Approps Update

Jul 16, 2007 by Craig Jennings

Senate and House Appropriations Committees begin work this week marking up Agriculture
House Appropriations Committee will also take up Defense this week

Our story so far...

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Earmark Spending Trend in the Math, Not the Headline

Jul 16, 2007 by Dana Chasin

BNA has published a trendline comparison ($) of the number and the dollar amount of actual FY05 and proposed FY08 legislative earmarks and implies that, thus far in this year's process, numbers for both are heading down. "Of the five bills for which data had been posted July 13, earmark totals were mostly down in comparison with the 2005 figures," BNA says. We looked at BNA's findings and did some math, as follows:

Financial Services -- reduction in earmarks: 65 fewer; $150 million reduction in spending
Interior and Environment -- reductions: 1000 earmarks and $600 million

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Earmarks: Congressional Clout Clearly Quantified

Jul 12, 2007 by Dana Chasin

When Hall-of-Famer Mickey Mantle clouted the ball out of the park, the home run was called a "tape-measure shot." But no one ever actually took out a tape measure to quantify Mantle's clout. This appropriations season -- for the first time ever, thanks to earmarks disclosure -- the clout of members of Congress can be measured in dollars, down to the nearest million or so. Let's have a look at the Commerce-Justice-Science (C-J-S) bill, approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee on June 28 by a 28-1 vote, and see how the home run derby contestants measure up.

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Senate Subcommittee Approves Bill to Partly Defund OVP, Private Tax Collection

Jul 11, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The Senate Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee, a part of the Senate Appropriations Committee, passed its version of the FY 2008 Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill (HR 2829) by a party-line vote of 5 to 4.

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CBO Director Emphasizes Role of Health Care Costs in Long-Term Fiscal Imbalance

Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Director Peter R. Orszag is the latest policy thinker to highlight the underlying cause of the long-term fiscal imbalance. Testifying before the Senate Budget Committee on June 21, Orszag emphasized the centrality of health care costs in long-term fiscal imbalances, the reasons for the exploding cost of health care and health care policies that could restrain those costs. (click image to enlarge)

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Approps Update

Jul 9, 2007 by Craig Jennings

Congress is back from its week-long July 4th vacation and will, among other things, try to get pass some more spending bills. This week in the House: Wednesday

Transportation-HUD is in full Appropriations Committee
Labor-HHS is in full Appropriations Committee

Thursday

Commerce-Justice-Science is in full Appropriations Committee
Energy-Water pork is divvied up by Appropriations Committee

Possible action sometime during the week

Defense is in subcommittee
Agriculture is in subcommittee

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July 4th Recess Takes Its Toll

Jul 9, 2007 by Craig Jennings

BNA: ($) "Republicans want to work with Democrats to deal with the issues the American people sent us here to deal with. Unfortunately, Democrats have decided to go their own way," House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) told reporters June 26.

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CBO's Monthly Budget Update - July 2007

Jul 9, 2007 by Craig Jennings

The federal government incurred a deficit of $123 billion for the first nine months of fiscal year 2007, CBO estimates, $83 billion less than the shortfall recorded during the same period in 2006. Revenues have risen by more than 7 percent, whereas outlays have grown by less than 3 percent. Both rates of growth are noticeably smaller than the rates of increase in fiscal years 2005 and 2006, which averaged about 13 percent for revenues and close to 8 percent for outlays. (click on CBO logo for report)

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