It's been a busy day of voting on tax and budget issues in both the House and the Senate. Below are the highlights thus far: Continuing Resolution ContinuedThe House voted 413-16 to extend the current continuing resolution (CR) funding the federal government through December 17. It was due to expire tomorrow. The CR is necessary for the government to be funded while Congress finishes work on the approps bills; however this particular CR egregriously underfunds programs. Read more about it here.

On Senate Finance Committee nonprofit incentives/reforms: Chronicle of Philathropyarticle OMB Watch's Watcher article

A new study by Boston College shows that states that previously reported to lag behind the nation in charitable giving actually have higher generosity levels than those indicated by a widely-touted annual index. The study, conducted by researchers at the Boston College Center on Wealth and Philanthropy, recalculates giving levels which since 1997 had been annually evaluated by the Generosity Index, a widely used list that ranks all 50 states according to how much local residents give to charity, published by the Catalogue for Philanthropy. For more information, or to read the study, click here

Both the House and Senate will be holding important votes today on reconciliation bills. The House Rules Committee met this morning at 7 AM and decided to bring the budget reconciliation measure to the floor today. It is still unclear whether the leadership has the votes to pass the $54 billion bill. This vote is extremely important, and lies in the hands of Republican moderates. Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), chairman of the radically conservative Republican Study Committee, himself said that the "Republican revolution is over," if the House does not pass this reconciliation measure.