Federal Budget Policy

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

A Not-so-Free Pass to Pollute

Jul 2, 2009 by Jocelyn Yin*

With the passage of the Waxman-Markey bill (HR 2454) in the House, the U.S. is one step closer towards the implementation of a major effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GSGs). Despite its inclusion of a cap-and-trade system, famed Harvard economist, Greg Mankiw, recently called the bill a "missed opportunity" because it gives away a significant number of very valuable pollution permits instead of using an auction system.

read in full

Counting Chickens Before They Hatch: A Quick Lesson on Recovery Act Spending

Jul 1, 2009 by Sam Rosen-Amy

One of the trickiest aspects of tracking Recovery Act spending is a very basic one: figuring out how much money has been spent so far. Theoretically, it should be pretty easy. Find out how much the federal government has spent because of the Recovery Act, and, well, that's how much has been spent on it. By that estimate, according to Recovery.gov, we've already spent almost $53 billion on the recovery, which isn't particularly impressive.

Unfortunately, though, it's not that easy.

read in full

House Hearing Questions Whether PAYGO is Enough to Control Spending

The House Budget Committee held a hearing on June 24 on the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) Act of 2009, which was recently introduced by Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD). During the hearing, House members focused on the enforcement mechanisms in PAYGO, the significant exemptions granted under the proposed legislation, and whether the bill is the appropriate method to reinstate fiscal discipline in Congress.

read in full

Analysis of New Recovery Act Reporting Guidance

On June 22, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued new guidance to federal agencies on implementing recipient reporting requirements under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, commonly called the Recovery Act. The guidance comes roughly four months after President Obama signed the Recovery Act into law and puts in place new requirements for the first quarterly reports that will start flowing in from grantees Oct. 10. According to the Coalition for an Accountable Recovery (CAR), "While this guidance is a step in the right direction, there is still much room for improvement."

read in full

The Veterans Affairs Budgeting Experiment

Jun 26, 2009 by Jocelyn Yin*

Earlier this week, the House passed an unusual bill that authorizes advance appropriations for Veterans Affairs (VA) funding. HR 1016 means that Congress will create two budgets this year, one for the current 2010 appropriations cycle, and a future budget for 2011. Subsequent years will produce budgets that are at least a year ahead. For the VA department, which has been plagued in recent years by reports of patient neglect and poor management, this will hopefully be the first step towards better service delivery.

read in full

Obama Seeks to Eliminate Tax Benefits for Multinational Corporations

Jun 24, 2009 by Jocelyn Yin*

The Obama Administration continues to look for ways to find tax revenue and as a result, several significant tax breaks for multinational companies may be on the chopping block. During the Bush and Clinton Administrations, it became easier for controlled foreign corporations (CFCs) to conduct financial transactions between offshore subsidiaries at much-lower effective tax rates (or in some cases, tax-free). If Obama gets his wish, these tax breaks will not be renewed at the end of 2010 and the Joint Committee on Taxation estimates will result in an increase of $31-86.5 billion in tax revenue from 2011-2019.

read in full

Coburn "Report" No Help in Recovery Act Performance Conversation

Jun 18, 2009 by Craig Jennings

Writing on the States for an Accountable Recovery blog, Phil Mattera takes a well-measured swipe at Sen. Tom Coburn's (R-OK) report detailing Recovery Act project follies.

read in full

When We Shouldn't Worry About the Deficit

Jun 17, 2009 by Craig Jennings

As usual, Stan Collender makes much sense.

read in full

Congress Inches Closer to Final War Supplemental Vote

Legislation appropriating over $100 billion for continued war funding (H.R. 2346) is moving closer to a final vote in Congress, despite significant delays and recent disagreements during conference committee negotiations. The main issues of contention include the release of detainee photos, a funding provision for the International Monetary Fund, and overall concerns related to the bloated cost of the bill. President Obama originally requested $90 billion for the legislation, but that figure has grown to $106 billion.

read in full

Not All Economic Data are Created Equal

Jun 12, 2009 by Jocelyn Yin*

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently released an issue brief that outlined some of the data it used to estimate the effect of the 2008 tax rebates. Given the debate over the true effect of these rebates, the CBO clearly felt that it needed to provide some detail about its methodology.

read in full