Blog Posts and Analysis / Revenue & Spending

Congress Approves Budget Resolution

On May 17, Congress achieved a basic benchmark of responsible fiscal governance — passing a final budget resolution. While this accomplishment has become somewhat of a rare event in Washington (spending in three of the past five fiscal years has not been guided by a budget resolution), and the votes were close (Senate 52-40, House 214-209), Democrats were able to reach final compromises on a few contentious issues.

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Congressional Hearing Reveals Flaws in Outsourcing Tax Debt Collection

On May 23, the House Ways and Means Committee heard testimony on the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) private debt collection program that lets outside contractors pursue federal tax debts. At the hearing, Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) requested that the IRS not issue additional contracts to private collection agencies (PCAs).

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Congress Demands Answers to USDA Security Breach

On April 13, a user of FedSpending.org, an online database on government spending run by OMB Watch, discovered that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) was publishing personally identifiable information about a loan she received from the agency.

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Budget Resolution Report and Vote Could Come Soon

During the week of May 7, House and Senate budget resolution conferees began meeting to settle differences between the House- and Senate-passed $2.9 trillion budget resolutions. Despite a pre-emptive veto threat by the Bush administration, conferees are expected to produce a more generous and more fiscally sound budget plan than the president has proposed.

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Social Programs Are Collateral Damage of the War Funding Debate

Congress and the president have yet to resolve their differences over an emergency spending bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Caught in the middle of this fight are high-priority proposals to raise the minimum wage, provide stopgap funding for a children's health insurance program, and restore some cuts for energy assistance. A drawn-out debate over war funding could end up causing unnecessary hardship for people who depend on the passage of these initiatives. War Funding

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The Entitlement Crisis That Isn't

On April 23, the Social Security and Medicare Board of Trustees released its annual reports on the two programs. These reports reveal there is not, in fact, an "entitlement" crisis, and that the alarmist language often placing blame on entitlements is generally a pernicious shorthand that glosses over the complicated fiscal challenges facing an aging society with rapidly rising health care costs.

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Mapping out the Post-Veto Supplemental Landscape

President George W. Bush and Congress are continuing their power struggle over policies related to the war in Iraq and a war funding bill containing a "goal" timeline for withdrawal of soldiers. Congress sent the funding bill to the president on May 1, the fourth anniversary of Bush's "mission accomplished" visit aboard an aircraft carrier, and he promptly vetoed it shortly thereafter. With the House unlikely to override a veto, Democrats in Congress are faced with the difficult task of finding a compromise in the next month.

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