How Prepared is the Budget for a Disaster?

In the past week, the East Coast saw two natural disasters, both of which were thankfully much less destructive than they otherwise could've been. These disasters do, however, remind us that the federal government plays major roles in preparation, information dissemination, emergency response, and recovery aid for natural disasters and provide people with the assistance they need and expect when catastrophe strikes.

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GOP Shields Rich Friends from IRS

I'll take my campaign contributions now, please.

For those that followed the fiscal year (FY) 2011 spending debate, you know that compromise pulled most of the more obnoxious riders, like those aimed at Planned Parenthood and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), out of the continuing resolution (CR). But House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) succeeded in slipping a few riders into the final budget agreement, including one that bans funding for President Obama's initiative to hire additional Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents to crack down on high income tax cheats.

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Press Release: OMB Watch Statement on FY 2011 Continuing Resolution

The continuing resolution agreement to fund the government for the remainder of fiscal year 2011, which was reached by President Obama, Senate Democrats, and House Republicans, is extremely disappointing. At a time when unemployment is close to nine percent, 23 million Americans are either underemployed or unemployed, and economic growth sputters, policymakers have decided that the most pressing problem facing the nation is the budget deficit. Rather than making adjustments where the pain will be felt the least, their solution is to cut nutrition, housing, and education spending, let tax cheats off the hook, and spend more money on an already bloated defense budget.

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Stiff Cuts to E-Government in Compromise CR

The details of the compromise continuing resolution (CR) agreed to late last Friday, narrowly avoiding a government shutdown, have been released. While more analysis is forthcoming, at this point we can say that the CR doesn't look good for e-government.

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Fight Over Policy Riders May Shut Down Government

The battle over a handful of conservative policy priorities has pushed the federal government to the precipice of a shut down.

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The Long, Downhill Road to a 2011 Budget

Appropriations for fiscal year (FY) 2011 are now six months late. The fiscal year began on Oct. 1, 2010, but the nation is not much closer to having a budget than it was back then. As Congress comes face-to-face with the expiration of the current stop-gap spending bill, the budget's downward march may have stopped, but the possibility of a government shutdown still lingers.

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Transparency at Risk in Budget Debate

Penny-pinching fever has engulfed Washington, with both parties eager to root out perceived wasteful spending. Several proposals look for savings in the government's information dissemination programs. While some of the proposals are carefully targeted reductions, others would slash funding indiscriminately with damaging consequences to some innovative transparency projects and programs.

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Federal Spending Anxiety to Shut Off Spending Info Website

At a time when federal spending is the top concern of everyone in Washington, Congress is about to turn off the federal website that tells us where those federal funds are going.

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FY '11 Savings Lost to Continuing Budget Fight

Although congressional combatants believe they are fighting a worthy budget battle, the collateral damage of not coming to agreement is accumulating. Robert Pear at the New York Times and Andy Sullivan at Reuters have reported two noteworthy pieces suggesting that when Congress finally gets its FY 2011 act together, the savings from whatever budget cuts result will significantly eroded by the waste that their dithering has caused.

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House CR Would Cut Nuclear Safety Funding

H.R. 1, the continuing resolution (CR) passed by the House in February that would cut some $61 billion from FY 2010 levels for the remainder of FY 2011 is no friend of nuclear safety. A rundown of the bill reveals the following cuts:

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