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...

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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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SCHIP Expansion Update

Sep 17, 2007 by Craig Jennings

CongressDaily($) is reporting that House and Senate leadership are making headway in agreeing to SCHIP reauthorization. ...the House will likely take up another children's healthcare bill next week, according to a House leadership aide. That bill is expected to stick closely to Senate-passed legislation that would add $35 billion to SCHIP... If the House picks up the Senate version, not only will the proposed level of SCHIP funding be $15 billion less than the original proposal, but Medicare provisions will be separated from the bill and have to be offered in an alternative venue.

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President's Budget Toys with Consumer Safety

Sep 17, 2007 by Craig Jennings

So if $22 billion isn't really that much, then why shouldn't Congress just give in to the president's stubbornness and limit discretionary spending to his $933 "top line?" Congress and all Americans should care because even though $22 billion is but a sliver of the whole federal budget, a fraction of that sliver can have an enormous impact on the safety and health of hundreds of thousands of children.

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Approps Update

Sep 14, 2007 by Craig Jennings

On Wednesday, the Senate overwhelming approved (88-7) a 104.6 billion Transportation-HUD bill. It's discretionary total, $51.1 billion, drew the expected veto threat from the White House. The President objects to, among other provisons:

Increased funding for the Federal Highway Administration
$1 billion funding increase for Community Development Block Grant
$600 funding increase for housing vouchers

The Senate Appropriations committee also approved this week a $460 billion defense spending bill. Ticktock, ticktock... September 14, 2007 House Senate

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State Budget Woes

Sep 14, 2007 by Matt Lewis

More evidence that state budgets are facing new pressures, and that budget cuts have consequences, from David Sirota: Thanks to budget cuts, Colorado's DMV is now totally understaffed. In 2003, the agency was forced to shut down 25 facilities. Those that remain are chronically overburdened. As the Colorado Springs Gazette reports, lines "are so long that people report spending all day at a driver's license office." But that is just where it starts.

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Congressional Congestion, Calendar Constraints, and a Continuing Resolution

Sep 13, 2007 by Dana Chasin

Take nine unfinished Senate appropriations bills, throw in twelve unscheduled conference negotiations, add a handful of presidential veto threats thus far and counting, and count at most a dozen legislative days until the end of the 2007 fiscal year. You do the math -- it equals at least one continuing resolution (CR). Most discussions center around a CR that would give Congress until Nov. 9 or 16 to complete work on the FY 2008 budget. Without a stopgap agreement by Oct. 1, government agencies could not operate at full strength after the start of the new fiscal year.

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Continuing Resolution a Virtual Certainty; Congress Continues to Work for Appropriations Passage

A plethora of veto threats and the Senate's dithering over spending legislation have combined to all but guarantee the necessity of enacting a continuing resolution before the start of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1. While Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has indicated that a continuing resolution will likely fund government operations for weeks, not months, time is not their only obstacle.

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Nussle Approved as Budget Head, Faces Task of Completing FY 2008 Budget

In the Senate's first vote following the August recess, former Rep. Jim Nussle (R-IA) was confirmed as director of the Office and Management and Budget (OMB), 69-24, with all Republican senators voting in favor of Nussle and the Democrats split down the middle. Notably, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Appropriations Committee Chair Robert Byrd (D-WV), and Senate Budget Committee Chair Kent Conrad (D-ND) voted against the nominee. Nussle's approval sets up what is expected to be a bitter struggle to complete work on the FY 2008 budget during the fall.

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CMS Denies New SCHIP Rule Exemption for New York

Sep 11, 2007 by Craig Jennings

A couple weeks ago, the Bush Administration, via the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) promulgated new rules affecting eligibility requirements to which states must adhere in the administration of their SCHIP programs. On Friday, New York became the first state to be denied an exemption. WASHINGTON, Sept. 7 — The Bush administration on Friday rejected a request from New York State to expand its children's health insurance program to cover 70,000 more uninsured youngsters, including some from middle-income families.

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War Supplemental On Hold Until October

Sep 7, 2007 by Craig Jennings

Roll Call ($): Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, said Thursday that an upcoming Iraq spending bill likely will wait until October and potentially later because Congress still does not have final requests from the Bush administration.

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States Being Hit With Tax Shortfalls

Sep 6, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The Wall Street Journal reports that a slumping housing market has many states facing budget crises. Tremors from the housing market's slump are straining the budgets of state and local governments from coast to coast, sending officials scrambling to plug gaps. Rising defaults on subprime home loans are boosting the inventory of unsold homes and driving sale prices lower. That's cutting into housing-related revenues from building-permit fees, taxes on contracting and recording property transfers, and even sales taxes.

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