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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Next Step for FY 2008: Budget Resolution

Feb 26, 2007 by Dana Chasin

Over the course of the five-week congressional "work period," a major fiscal focus will be the FY 2008 budget resolution. Below is the current congressional timetable for the budget resolution -- a roadmap Congress uses to plan out the budget for the year setting out changes on entitlement programs and taxes.

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FedSpending v2.0 Goes Live!

Feb 22, 2007 by Adam Hughes*

OMB Watch is pleased to annouce we have just released a new version of FedSpending.org with updated data, new features, and improved navigation. The new site is now live - see it yourself at www.fedspending.org. OMB Watch issued a press release that describes the updates and improvments made to the site, and you can learn and see more about FedSpending v2.0 in the About This Site section, or by exploring the site yourself. We welcome your feedback, comments, and questions about the new website, so please go to the Contact section of FedSpending.org and send us your thoughts.

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Congress Finally Finishes FY 07 Appropriations

It took four extra months and a new Congress, but on Feb. 14, lawmakers finished the FY 2007 appropriations cycle when the Senate passed H.J.Res. 20. The $463.5 billion spending bill passed 81-15. The President signed the bill the next day, just in time to prevent a government shutdown.

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Senate Set to Approve FY 2007 CR

Feb 14, 2007 by Adam Hughes*

By a 71-26 vote yesterday, the Senate moved closer to approving the FY 2007 CR passed by the House last week (covered here), with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-TN) and 22 other GOP members joining all but one Democrat to close debate and move to a final vote, which could come later today.

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OMB Watch Releases Analysis of Bush FY 08 Budget Request

During the week of Feb. 5, OMB Watch issued a multipart analysis of President George W. Bush's Fiscal Year 2008 budget request to Congress. In an overview of the president's budget, OMB Watch examined the overall impact of the request and found that it puts tax cuts ahead of domestic needs. The budget uses gimmicks and omissions to mask the true impact of the president's proposals and allows him to project an artificially balanced budget.

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President Rehashes Tired Old Budget Process Reform Proposals

The Analytical Perspectives portion of President Bush's proposed budget includes a section that outlines seven budget process reform proposals. Six of them are updated versions of proposals from previous years, while one is new, covering earmark reform.

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FY08 Budget Encounters GOP Skepticism in Congress

Feb 6, 2007 by Dana Chasin

The President's FY 2008 budget submission to Congress was only hours old yesterday when senior Republicans in both the Senate and House stopped just short of declaring it still-born: Senate Budget Committee ranking member Judd Gregg (R-NH): Unfortunately, I don't think it has got a whole lot of legs... The White House is afraid of taxes and the Democrats are afraid of controlling spending. Rep. Michael Castle (R-DE):

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OMB Watch Release Preliminary Budget Analysis

Feb 5, 2007 by Matt Lewis

OMB Watch has released a preliminary analysis of the President's FY 08 Budget request. President's Budget Full of Cheap Rhetoric; Wrong Priorities President Favors Tax Cuts for the Wealthy over Domestic Needs Check back here for additional analyses and commentary on the budget as the week progresses.

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Bush Drops War Bomb: Supplemental ($100 bn.), Budget ($145 bn.) Requests Set for Monday

Feb 2, 2007 by Craig Jennings

This afternoon, CNN is reporting that, next Monday, the Bush administration will ask for:

supplemental funding of $100 billion for military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan (bringing total war appropriations for 2007 to about $170 billion) as well as
$145 billion, budgeted for FY2008 and broken down into detailed form (but subject to a supplemental of its own)

according to National Security Adviser Stephen J. Hadley.

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If CBO Can Do It, So Can - and Should - OMB Do It

Feb 2, 2007 by Craig Jennings

Based on the president's recent announcement of his plan to deploy an additional 21,000 troops to Iraq, CBO has released a report detailing the projected costs of such an escalation. CBO Director, Peter Orszag, predicts that the president's plan to increase troop levels could cost as much as $27 billion.

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