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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House Approves FY 2009 Budget Resolution

Jun 5, 2008 by Craig Jennings

By a vote of 214-210, the House has approved a spending plan for FY 2009. The $3 trillion budget, adopted by the Senate yesterday, includes $1.013 trillion in discretionary spending and is the first budget to be passed in an election year since 2000.

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DAILY FISCAL POLICY REPORT -- June 5, 2008

Jun 5, 2008 by Dana Chasin

Budget -- Senate Adopts FY09 Resolution: In a near-party line vote, the Senate passed a $3.03 trillion budget blueprint yesterday, 48-45. The resolution moves over to the House, which is expected hold a vote on it today. The thorniest long-term fiscal policy questions (about the AMT, extending the Bush tax cuts, etc.) will probably be deferred to the next Congress and the new president, but the appropriations process will at least start by regular order, at least in the House. Statement of Senate Budget Committee chair Kent Conrad (D-ND).

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Senate Adopts FY 2009 Budget Resolution

Jun 4, 2008 by Craig Jennings

By a 48-45 vote, the Senate approved a $3.03 trillion spending blueprint for FY 2009. The resolution's $1.013 trillion domestic spending level tops the president's request by some $24.5 billion. CQ ($- sorry): The conference agreement on the budget blueprint was adopted 48-45 on a largely party-line vote. To accommodate the absences of hospitalized Sens. Edward Kennedy, D- Mass., and Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., Republican Sens. John W. Warner of Virginia and Pete V. Domenici withheld their "no" votes, pairing with the ailing Democrats.

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Senate Vote on Budget Resolution Imminent

Jun 4, 2008 by Dana Chasin

Sometime around noon today, the U.S. Senate is expected to vote on the FY09 budget resolution that has been in the works for nearly four months. If approved, it would be the first time a budget will have passed in an election year since 2000. The budget, which includes a five-year horizon, would achieve a surplus of $22 billion in FY12 and $10 billion in FY13.

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Obama-Coburn Continue Transparency March

Jun 4, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Tom Carper (D-DE), and John McCain (R-AZ) introduced new legislation on June 3 as a follow-up to the 2006 Transparency Act. The bill, the Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act (S. 3077), would augment the 2006 law but go further, making important new data more easily accessible to the public and making it easier for citizens to hold our government accountable for the fiscal stewardship of our shared resources.

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DAILY FISCAL POLICY REPORT -- June 4, 2008

Jun 4, 2008 by Craig Jennings

Taxes -- Extenders to Bypass Senate Finance Cmte.: With the election year compressing the legislative calendar and an underlying conflict on PAYGO simmering in committee, it appears the Senate bill extending expiring tax breaks will bypass the Senate Finance Committee and reach the Senate vote once the climate change bill is voted on. Committee member Mike Crapo (R-ID) warned: "When you bypass the committee, then you basically set up more of a partisan fight on the floor," he said, predicting a filibuster. Senate Extenders Bill Summary.

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DAILY FISCAL POLICY REPORT -- June 3, 2008

Jun 3, 2008 by Craig Jennings

Economy -- Fed Chief Shifts Focus from Slowdown: In a sign that the round of rate-cutting since last summer may be ending, Fed Chief Ben Bernanke indicated more of a concern with inflation in a speech today than with the economic slowndown that has generate months' of speculation about a possible recession in the U.S. Bernanke Speech.

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DAILY FISCAL POLICY REPORT -- June 2, 2008

Jun 2, 2008 by Dana Chasin

Congress returns to session today, starting in on a number of key legislative priorities with important fiscal policy implications that leadership hopes to complete before the July 4 recess. Among them, from most to least likely to see action this week:

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DAILY FISCAL POLICY REPORT -- May 29, 2007

May 29, 2008 by Dana Chasin

Economy -- It's Not A Recssion, per CEA Chair: Edward Lazear, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, said yesterday that, of the five measures the private National Bureau of Economic Research uses to date the start and end of recessions, only one--sales in retail and manufacturing--"are declining at rates commensurate with prior recessions." Recent job losses are at "less than half the rate that prevailed during the mild recession of 2001." Payrolls have declined four months in a row.

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Hi (Economist) Mom!

May 28, 2008 by Craig Jennings

I just wanted to alert readers of a new blog we've been reading: EconomistMom - "where analytical rigor meets a mother's intuition." Authored by economist and mom Diane Lim Rogers of the Concord Coalition, the blog's "particular focus [is] on the economics of fiscal responsibility," but Rogers also writes about broader issues. She's been on a roll lately, explaining the trap of the "largest tax increase in history" rhetoric, expressing frustration about the 'extenders' tax cuts, and righteously high-fiving Steven Pearlstein for his column that connects the dots of the various

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