Blog Posts and Analysis / Revenue & Spending

Biennial Budgeting on the Horizon?

If the Senate confirms Jack Lew, President Obama's nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Lew is likely to revisit the idea of biennial budgeting. The allure of biennial budgeting at the federal level is that it theoretically frees up more time for both Congress and federal agencies to work on issues outside of the budget. But would a move to biennial budgeting actually change the budget process for the better?

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Congressional Oversight Panel Examines TARP Contracting

On Sept. 22, the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP), the body tasked by Congress to oversee implementation of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), examined the Department of the Treasury’s use of private contractors under the program. Witnesses from government, the private sector, and the nonprofit world critiqued Treasury’s use of financial services contractors and highlighted lessons about improved competition and openness that the government should take from the soon-to-be-ended program.

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GAO: Lack of Competition in Some Contracting Difficult to Overcome

In a recent report to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found systemic hurdles to reducing the dollars spent on contracts not competed or those that are competed but only receive one bid. The reasons provided to GAO for the use of these contract vehicles reveal the difficulties that the Obama administration and Congress will face in instituting further reforms; they range from technical hegemony or general expertise by contractors to institutional indolence.

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USAspending.gov to Increase Transparency through Subrecipient Reporting

Since it was unveiled in 2007, USAspending.gov has been a crucial portal through which the federal government makes spending data available to the public. With new guidance on subaward reporting released in August, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has taken additional steps to ensure USAspending.gov will comply with the law that created the site and will make it possible to track more of the federal spending chain.

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Congress Sends Aid to States, Gaps Remain

With all of the attention placed on federal budget problems, it can be easy to forget that state budgets are facing similar troubles. Since almost every state has some form of a balanced budget requirement, states can be extremely susceptible to swings in the economy, and the recent recession is a perfect example. In an effort to help ameliorate the states' fiscal situation, President Obama recently signed into law a $26 billion state aid bill passed by Congress in a rare August session. The bill, which includes $10 billion in education funding and $16 billion for state Medicaid programs, is expected to save some 300,000 jobs. Still, it pales in comparison to the actual size of the fiscal problem facing the states.

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Commentary: Federal Debt and Its Implications for Economic Stability

When the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) produced a brief in late July on the nation’s debt levels and the risk they present to the economy, those pushing for immediate deficit reduction jumped on the report as evidence that the U.S. is about to go over a financial cliff. Upon closer inspection, though, the greatest threat facing the country is still the Great Recession and the lingering effects thereof.

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Congress' Spending Slump

The month of August is seen as an important time in every Congress because the weeks-long recess breaks up the legislative calendar. As the number of legislative days dwindles, Congress is faced with a slew of spending bills, including a war supplemental bill, a small business jobs bill, and a slow-starting appropriations process. The sheer amount of spending bills that remain on the docket, and the tardiness of these bills, nearly guarantee at least one continuing resolution in the fall.

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