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...

read in full

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

more news

The Senate Will Lose Extra Funding In Supplemental

May 19, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Negotiators for the House and Senate have agreed to back down on including extra funding within the supplemental spending bill, and are doing so to avoid a veto fight with the White House. The emergency spending bill, which is set to fund war efforts (which after this long should not be funded through the emergency procedure) and hurricane disaster relief, will most likely cost no more than $94.5 billion.

read in full

House Passes Budget Resolution 218-210

May 18, 2006 by Matthew Madia

At 1:30 AM last night the House passed their version of the budget resolution after Majority Leader Boehner had repeatedly put off the vote because he didn't have enough support to pass the bill. The $2.8 trillion measure, H.Con.Res. 376, just barely passed 218-210 after moderates led by Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE) decided to support the measure.

read in full

House Fails to Pass Budget Again--Approps Move Forward Just the Same

House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) once again failed to bring the budget resolution to the floor last week despite rumors and rumblings from the GOP leadership that passage of the bill was imminent. Having reached a compromise with Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA), Boehner was still unable to garner enough support from within the Republican caucus to hold a vote. Considering the difficulty of finding agreement in conference with the Senate at this late date, passing the resolution is now bordering on pointless anyway.

read in full

Dishonest Budget Gimmick Enables Passage of Irresponsible Tax Cuts

One day after the House passed the $70 billion tax reconciliation measure, the Senate passed it as well, sending the bill to President Bush for his signature. With these tax cuts, this Congress has once again proven itself to be a body determined to shirk fiscal responsibility and kowtow to the regressive, revenue-draining tax policies of this administration. And it was all made possible by a dishonest budget gimmick.

read in full

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.

read in full

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).

read in full

2006 Tax Reconciliation Bill Languishes

Despite claims by the two senior GOP tax writers of a breakthrough last week following daily meetings with Republican leaders, last year's $70 billion tax cut bill remains unfinished. The bill is expected to be finalized and brought to the floor of both the House and the Senate, as long as House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas (R-CA) and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) reach a compromise over how to pay for a small part of the bill that exceeds budget targets.

read in full

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.

read in full

Spotlight on the Line Item Veto Act

May 1, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

On April 27, the Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution held an oversight hearing on the Line Item Veto Act of 2006. Christina Martin Firvida, Senior Counsel at the National Women's Law Center, testified the bill would

read in full

Many Not Pleased With Levels of Supplemental Spending

Apr 25, 2006 by Guest Blogger

The New York Times has a great article today highlighting some of the criticisms of supplemental spending, which has "ballooned over the last five years, driven first by the Sept. 11 attacks, followed by the war in Iraq and then by natural disasters including the tsunami in Asia and Hurricane Katrina."

read in full