The bill, approved by a vote of 28-0, would allocate approximately $10.7 billion to the IRS in FY07, $82.3 million above the FY06 level and $64.1 million above the President's FY07 request. Like its House counterpart, the Senate bill would restructure the IRS by dividing it into three accounts - enforcement, taxpayer services and operations support - and would permit the agency to transfer some funds between the accounts. Specifically, the Senate bill would allocate $4.79 billion to "enforcement" whereas the House bill, approved last month, would allocate $4.75 billion.

From the Associated Press: A federal judge on Thursday ordered the release of a top fundraiser for an Islamic charity who has been held for two years because the government says he has ties to terrorism, his attorney said Thursday. Abdel-Jabbar Hamdan was ordered released without bond from the Terminal Island federal detention facility, according to his attorney, Ranjana Natarajan of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

In this installment of my series on the national debt I explain why the national debt matters. The U.S. government owes a whole bunch of people a whole lot of money. Is this a problem? Well, like most things macroeconomic, the answer depends. Generally speaking, there are two things about which to be concerned when the federal government carries debt.

Drama continues to unfold on Capitol Hill as the hot summer heat seems to be getting to members of Congress. We posted yesterday of a "showdown" meeting of members of the long-stalled pension reform conference committee that took place last night. But the meeting did not go as conference chairman Sen. Michael Enzi (R-WY) planned as House GOP conferees boycotted the meeting