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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more news

Senate Rules Committee Passes Process Reforms

Last week, the Senate Rules Committee and the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee marked up separate versions of lobbying and congressional ethics reform bills, starting the ball rolling in the Senate on reform after the scandals surrounding former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-CA). The two bills are expected to be combined.

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Time Running Out to Raise Debt Limit

Mar 7, 2006 by Matthew Madia

Secretary of the Treasury John Snow sent a letter to Congress Monday saying he has taken "all prudent and legal actions” to stay under the $8.184 trillion debt limit and again strongly urged passage of an increase “immediately." Congress, which must act or else they could default on payments to bond holders or fail to make other scheduled government payments, will most likely pass a debt limit increase. This will mark the fourth time the debt limit has needed to be increased under President Bush. If this new hike is approved, the limit will have jumped by $3 trillion since he took office.

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Monthly Budget Review Released

Mar 7, 2006 by Matthew Madia

The Congressional Budget Office released the Monthly Budget Review yesterday, reporting that the government incurred a $219 billion deficit in the first five months of FY 2006. The CBO is estimating a total deficit for FY2006 to be $371 billion. The deficit in February was $121 billion, which is $7 billion more than the deficit recorded in February 2005.

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President Restarts Push for Line-Item Veto

In his State of the Union address, President Bush once again proposed the line-item veto to Congress as a way to reduce deficit spending. While Bush is touting this "tool of fiscal discipline," in reality unchecked use of the line-item veto by the president would transfer significant power and control from the legislative to the executive branch and effectively allow the president to substitute his spending priorities directly for that of Congress.

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CBO's Analysis of the President's Budget

Mar 6, 2006 by Matthew Madia

The Congressional Budget Office has completed a preliminary analysis of the President's FY07 Budget.

Analysis
Supplemental Data

The report found that the President's proposal will:

Spend about $925 billion on discretionary programs in FY07;
Add $35 billion to the CBO's current deficit projections, putting the deficit projection at $371 billion;
Reduce revenues by nearly $9 billion for FY07;
Reduce revenues by $282 billion from 2007-2011 if some of the President's expiring 2001 and 2003 tax provisions are extended;

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Dem Leadership Send Debt Limit Letter

Mar 3, 2006 by Matthew Madia

Today Sens. Harry Reid (D-NV), Max Baucus (D-MT) and Kent Conrad (D-ND) sent a letter to Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) concerning the Debt Limit. Senators Baucus and Conrad spoke on the floor today to discuss this issue and the letter.

The charts used by Senator Conrad
The letter to Sen. Frist

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Treasury Department Reports Deficit on an Accrual Basis

Mar 2, 2006 by Matthew Madia

The Treasury Department sent a report to Congress in December, reporting the FY05 federal deficit on an accrual basis as being $760 billion, a far higher number than $319 billion, which is what is generally accepted as the deficit level for FY05. The $319 billion number uses the government's accepted barometer of cash outlays versus revenues, while the $760 billion number takes into account accrued benefits owed to veterans and federal employees. Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN), a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, said:

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Gregg on Budgeting: Expect a "Vanilla Year"

Mar 1, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee Judd Gregg (R-NH) criticized the President's budget plan yesterday, calling the White House budget practices "irresponsible" and "unrealistic." In an interview with CongressDaily Gregg said Bush has supported massive increases for defense, and has augmented those increases with emergency funding that does not fit within budget caps.

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More on Lobby Reform

Mar 1, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Here is more information on the bill which came out of the Senate Rules Committee yesterday, the Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act of 2006:

The bill
Bill summary

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Rules Committee Markup of Lobby Reform Bill

Feb 28, 2006 by Matthew Madia

This morning the Senate Rules Committee marked up the Lobby Reform Bill, aiming to make the legislative process more transparent. This afternoon there is a hearing on the same subject. A number of amendments were offered during the markup from Senators including Dodd (D-CT), Santorum (R-PA), Feinstein (D-CA), Durbin (D-IL), Inouye (D-HI), and Nelson (D-NE).

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