CQ Today reported ($) this afternoon the Senate is close to a deal on extending SCHIP into 2008. According to the article, a bill is being written to delay cuts taking effect Jan. 1 to Medicare physician pay rates that would include an extension of the SCHIP program. From CQ: The package also is expected to include a funding extension of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, but it's uncertain for how long. There appeared to be agreement earlier on an extension until 2009, but the Republican aide cautioned that the situation was "fluid." House Democrats have been pushing to extend SCHIP funding until September 2008, in order to force another debate on what they see as a winning political issue. A extension until 2009 would certainly make the legislation more palatable to Republicans, however. SCHIP is set to expire this Friday if Congress does not act to extend it further.

Greg Anrig has a great article on how the conservative approach to budgeting and regulation is to blame for FDA's recent troubles. It's possible to read all 300-plus horrifying pages of a new Food and Drug Administration subcommittee report describing the agency's slow asphyxiation by prolonged budgetary constraints without learning who is responsible for its decline.

Congress, Thursday evening, passed a one-week continuing resolution (HJ Res 69) that funds operations of the federal government at 2007 levels through next Friday (December 21). Meanwhile, rampant speculation on the shape of an omnibus measure continues.

OMB has launched their website that will comply with the 2006 Coburn-Obama Federal Funding, Accountability, and Transparency Act (Transparency Act) today. You can visit it at www.usaspending.gov. OMB really needs to be commended for this site, for launching it two weeks before required under the legislation, and for their commitment to transparency. For those of you who haven't been to the BudgetBlog before or have, but are still sleepy this morning, you might not notice that the government's website looks an awful lot like FedSpending.org, the site we launched in October, 2006. Well, that's because it basically is FedSpending.org, with a few design changes. As the Washington Post reported this morning, OMB Watch licensed FedSpending.org to OMB for use in compliance with the law (btw, the article is a great insight into the collaboration we've had with OMB over the past year). We will continue to operate FedSpending.org and add more advanced features that make the site easier to use and the data easier to understand. And we hope with a solid foundation, OMB will be able to make timely and eventually more accurate data available to the public through USASpending.gov. Currently, there are difference between the sites. For instance, OMB will have more timely data as they plan to update the site every two weeks with new data (we currently update data twice a year). In addition, the government site does not have features and upgrades added to FedSpending.org in our last version release, including a mapping feature on all searches, creation of a streamlined and powerful SuperSearch for all advanced searching needs, and increased flexibility in getting data more quickly through expandable summary views. I have been continually surprised and proud of the success of our endevor to make Federal spending information more available and understandable to the public through FedSpending.org. For it to now be the model for the government's efforts to do the same is feels even better.