Earmarks

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

Republicans Tell More Supply-Sider Bedtime Stories

Jun 20, 2006 by Craig Jennings

This morning’s Senate Budget Committee’s markup session on Judd Gregg’s (R-NH) Stop Over-Spending Act of 2006 saw more Republican hand wringing over the budget deficit, but not much more. Republican senators took turns this morning bemoaning the level of federal expenditures and how that spending has crated the huge deficits we now face.

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Congress to Terminate Invaluable Data Collection Program

Jun 20, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

Does welfare reform work? Do food stamps really feed the needy? Are government assistance programs really helping those in need? How effective is our social safety net? Congress certainly doesn’t want to know. Right now, the House Appropriations Committee is considering a Bush recommendation to terminate a program designed to answer these questions.

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Line-Item Veto Act on Congressional Agenda

Jun 19, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

Tomorrow the Senate Budget Committee will be marking up the Legislative Line Item Veto Act. On June 15, the House Rules Committee approved legislation (H.R. 4890) that would give line-item veto power to President Bush, in an 8-4 party-line vote.

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House, Senate Reach Agreement on Supplemental

Jun 9, 2006 by Guest Blogger

After reporting yesterday that the House and Senate had yet to reach a compromise on the supplemental spending bill, they did in fact reach one last night. The $94.5 billion bill to fund the military and hurricane relief also sets the budget spending cap for the Senate at $873 billion (the Senate, remember, had orignally passed a budget resolution allocating $16 billion more in funding, mostly for human needs programs). A number of Senators wanted to boost the cap to $880 billion, but were unable to do so because of resistance from the White House and the House leadership.

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War Funding Methods Draw Increased Criticism

Jun 9, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

We haven't commented on this issue in a while, but the criticisms of the methods used by this administration to fund the wars in Iraq and Afhganistan have not gone away. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is the latest to throw his hat into the ring - announcing Thursday he intends to introduce an amendment to this year's Defense Authorization bill that would force the Pentagon to request war funds through the annual budget process.

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Iraq Supplemental Delayed Over Discretionary Cap Disputes

Jun 8, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

The FY 2006 emergency supplemental bill to fund war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan was held up this afternoon because of a dispute over where the Senate should set the discretionary spending limits for FY 2007 appropriations bills. According to CQ Today, a spokeswoman for Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran (R-MS) "confirmed that a resolution 'deeming' a Senate fiscal 2007 spending cap had not been resolved. She said it would be difficult to reach agreement on a final bill without a deeming resolution attached to it."

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Support Creation of Federal Contracts and Grants Database

May 31, 2006 by Matthew Madia

Last fall, the OpenTheGovernment.org coalition assembled a lengthy list of organizations and individuals, both liberal and conservative, who wrote to President Bush to urge him to put information about how Hurricane Katrina relief funds were being allocated (read the letter). This year, a new effort for increased transparency of federal funds spearheaded by four Senators is making its way through Congress. This effort will make all federal grant and contract information available to the public free of charge in a searchable, downloadable online format.

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House Passes Budget, Slips in Increase to Debt Ceiling

In the very wee hours of May 18, the House finally succeeded in passing its version of the 2007 budget resolution, more than a month too late. Majority Leader John Boehner (R-IA) had repeatedly postponed the vote, because he lacked enough support to pass the bill. The passage of the resolution carries little practical purpose, because the House and Senate are unlikely to have the time or inclination to reconcile the very different versions of the bill, and the House has already moved forward quickly with appropriations.

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Battle Brewing on How to Track Contract and Grant Bucks

Two bills may soon face off in the Senate on how best to provide the public with information on how the government spends taxpayer dollars.

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Immigration Plan Complicates Supplemental Spending Bill

When President Bush recently announced in his address to the nation his immediate plans for immigration reform, he didn't mention how the proposals would be paid for. A few days later, on May 18, he officially requested $1.9 billion from Congress to spend on his border security initiative. Congress will likely approve the president's request as part of the delayed Fiscal year 2006 Supplemental Appropriations bill currently in conference between the House and Senate.

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