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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Does OMB Nominee Bring Budget Baggage?

Jul 25, 2007 by Dana Chasin

Ignore that man on the floor with a bag over his head. Pay attention instead to what he does behind closed doors. That was the message of OMB Director-nominee Jim Nussle yesterday at his Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee confirmation hearing:

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Rep. Young, Sen. Stevens Under Criminal Probe

Jul 25, 2007 by Craig Jennings

Allegations of $$ for Earmarks, Contracts The Wall Street Journal reports today that "Federal investigators are examining whether Rep. [Don] Young [R-AK] or Sen. [Ted] Stevens [R-AK] accepted bribes, illegal gratuities or unreported gifts from VECO Corp., Alaska's largest oil-field engineering firm."

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HSGAC Hearing on Nussle for OMB Director

Jul 24, 2007 by Dana Chasin

The "big-picture" quotation of the day, from this morning's Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Afffairs Committee hearing on Jim Nussle to be director of OMB:

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Questions, Concerns Surround Start of Nussle Confirmation Hearings

On June 19, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Rob Portman announced his resignation, effective in August. The same day, President Bush nominated former House Budget Committee chairman Jim Nussle (R-IA) to be the next OMB director. Today, July 24, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) held the first confirmation hearing for Nussle; on July 26, the Senate Budget Committee, which also has jurisdiction over the nomination, will hold its own hearings.

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OMB Releases Flawed Mid-Session Budget Review

On July 11, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released its annual Mid-Session Review, which contains updated estimates of the budget deficit, receipts, outlays and budget authority for fiscal years 2007 through 2012. While the administration trumpeted the decrease in the projected deficit, several aspects of the review cast doubt on the accuracy of these claims. In addition, the projections for years 2008-2012 were less noted and far more sobering.

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Reauthorization of Children's Health Insurance Program Gains Momentum

On July 19, the Senate Finance Committee approved a proposal to expand coverage of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to four million additional children who would otherwise not have health insurance. The entire Senate is expected to vote on the proposal this week (July 24-27), while the House is expected to act soon to approve legislation providing insurance for even more children than the Senate's version. The president has threatened to veto the Senate Finance Committee-approved version, even though it cleared the committee with strong bipartisan support, 17-4.

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Sustaining Presidential Vetoes May Become More Difficult

As Congress continues making progress on appropriations legislation, and as details of its spending priorities are revealed in each of the twelve FY 2008 appropriations bills, signs of waning enthusiasm for sustaining presidential vetoes are appearing within a group of 147 House Republicans. While this group vowed to support any presidential veto of appropriations bills, eight of the appropriations bills passed thus far by the House have garnered significant bipartisan support, defraying the solidarity of that coalition.

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Pelosi, Reid Open Door to Spending Compromise

Jul 24, 2007 by Craig Jennings

In a letter sent Friday, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) invited President Bush (R-$$) to a sit down to discuss the "relatively small differences" between spending legislation making its way through Congress and the president's request. Hoping to avoid a budget showdown, the Democratic leaders are seeking to meet Bush somewhere in between.

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Of Promises and Principles

Jul 23, 2007 by Craig Jennings

Several (well, 62 to be exact) of the 147 congresspeople who signed a letter promising to sustain every presidential spending bill veto are already wavering in their commitments. CQ has an interesting analysis ($) of the four FY 2008 House- approved appropriations bills that have drawn veto threats from the president. Sixty-two of the 147 congresspeople who have pledged to sustain a veto have voted for at least one of the measures. Four of 147 signatories have voted in favor of all four of the bills, while three have voted for three.

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Approps Update

Jul 20, 2007 by Craig Jennings

Yesterday evening, the House voted 276-140 to pass the $607 billion ($151.4 billion discretionary ) Labor-HHS-Education spending bill. The president expressed his dismay at raising the level of funding above 2005 levels for the following programs when he issued a veto threat on Tuesday: