Federal Budget

WASHINGTON - House Democrats renewed their push to permanently expand and "improve" the Child Tax Credit, but a prominent fiscal watchdog warns that while the proposal deserves consideration, it must be fully paid for under the House PAYGO rules and... Read More

WASHINGTON - It's the buzzword of everyone wanting to bypass GOP resistance and pass President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, and it could upend decades of precedent when it comes to the federal budget process. The word is... Read More

WASHINGTON — House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., released the text of a $2.3 trillion omnibus spending bill Monday afternoon consisting of all 12 fiscal year 2021 appropriations bills, $900 billion coronavirus relief, and other authorizations. In addition to... Read More

WASHINGTON - The House has passed a week-long stopgap bill to keep the government open through Dec. 18 so lawmakers can continue to negotiate both a longer-term spending package and coronavirus relief. The bill passed 343-67. If the stopgap measure... Read More

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers were finalizing a one-week stopgap funding measure Tuesday to avoid a partial government shutdown starting Friday at midnight, with the only add-ons expected to be a package of expiring health care program extensions, according to Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard C. Shelby.... Read More

Congress returned Monday from its Thanksgiving break hoping to avoid a government shutdown looming at the end of next week — with President Donald Trump being a potential wild card. Hopes for a new coronavirus stimulus package are slim as lawmakers focus on the more... Read More

WASHINGTON — Top appropriators reached bipartisan agreement Tuesday on a framework for an omnibus spending package that would avoid a partial government shutdown next month. The compromise forged between the leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations committees sets spending allocations for the... Read More

WASHINGTON - With over 10.5 million Americans so far infected with COVID-19, the U.S. health care system’s focus has understandably been on strategies for combating the virus. Yet when the nation is finally able to shift back to handling longer-term... Read More

WASHINGTON -- With Congress considering significant health care reforms, including creating a government-run health insurance plan called the public option, a new study shows that it could be significantly more expensive than previously estimated. The study, released by Lanhee J.... Read More

WASHINGTON -- The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, an independent non-profit organization, released its anticipated report on the estimated costs of both Trump’s and Biden’s campaign plans last week. Not surprisingly, they are very expensive plans.  Both candidates have... Read More

WASHINGTON. – U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., James Lankford, R-Okla., and Angus King, I-Maine, reintroduced their bipartisan legislation to save taxpayer dollars by reducing the federal funding available for the acquisition and leasing of new federal vehicles. The Domestic Reduction... Read More

WASHINGTON - The Senate voted to advance a stopgap spending bill Tuesday night, the penultimate step to avoiding a government shutdown at midnight Wednesday. The vote to limit debate on the measure paves the way for a final vote in... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Congressional Budget Office recently released two new outlook reports. These projections are an update of the U.S. deficit, debt, spending, and revenue over the next decade and beyond, given current laws in place. The pair of reports... Read More

WASHINGTON — The House swiftly passed a stopgap funding measure needed to avert a partial government shutdown in eight days after top congressional leaders reached a deal resolving a fight over farm payments. On a lopsided vote of 359-57, the... Read More

WASHINGTON – The federal debt owed by the United States government is expected to grow over the next 30 years to almost twice the size of the nation’s economy, according to the Congressional Budget Office’s Long-Term Budget Outlook report. While... Read More

WASHINGTON — The House will vote Tuesday on a short-term funding bill written by majority Democrats without support from Republicans, increasing the odds of a partial government shutdown in less than 10 days when current spending authority expires. The Democrats’... Read More

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have agreed to work to avoid a government shutdown right before the election, and not let the stalemate over virus-relief legislation hold up a vital stopgap spending bill. Their... Read More

WASHINGTON - The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday approved a $1.3 trillion spending package which includes bills to fund almost all of the federal government while providing an additional $500 million for election security. The so-called minibus passed 217-197... Read More

WASHINGTON - The House approved a $259.5 billion spending package Friday, rejecting a White House proposal to slash the budgets of the State Department and Environmental Protection Agency, and providing ample funding for the humanities. The four-bill minibus, the first... Read More

WASHINGTON — In recent weeks, House appropriators have approved hundreds of billions of dollars in government funding for fiscal 2021, culminating in the Appropriations Committee’s July 15 approval of legislation that would provide nearly $51 billion for the Homeland Security... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government incurred the biggest monthly budget deficit in history in June as spending on programs to combat the coronavirus recession exploded while millions of job losses cut into tax revenues. The Treasury Department reported Monday... Read More

WASHINGTON - When House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer explains the congressional appropriations process, it all sounds so simple. "Funding the government is the Constitutional responsibility of the Congress," he told The Well News recently, in a statement for this article.... Read More

WASHINGTON — House appropriators approved a $115.5 billion Military Construction-VA spending bill Thursday on a 30-20 vote, with Texas Republican Will Hurd joining Democrats to advance the legislation to the floor. The rest of the panel’s Republicans opposed Democrats’ decision to add $12.5 billion... Read More

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers in the coming weeks will begin deciding how to spend another $1.4 trillion in annual appropriations, diving into debates over funding President Donald Trump’s border wall, public health programs and more after coronavirus-related delays sidelined the process... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the federal deficit in May was $424 billion, substantially lower than April’s $738 billion but still the second-largest monthly shortfall since records have been kept. The deficit for the first eight months... Read More

WASHINGTON - Federal funding for U.S. highway projects could soon run out, according to a new report by the Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan agency that gives lawmakers advice on economic and budgetary matters. The Highway Trust Fund -- a... Read More

WASHINGTON — U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has requested $1.2 billion in emergency funding due to a drastic decline in green card and other visa applications that could drain its fee-based coffers by this summer, the agency said Monday. USCIS,... Read More

The flood of pandemic-relief spending from Washington has rekindled deficit concerns among Republican lawmakers, one of several hurdles facing the next round of stimulus many economists say is needed to pull the U.S. out of its downward spiral. After backing... Read More

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that “over time” the U.S. will need to look into the sharply rising budget deficits created by the multi-trillion-dollar coronavirus support packages. Right now “we’re in a war,” Mnuchin said on “Fox News Sunday.” “We’re... Read More

WASHINGTON - Due to a combination of the passage of multiple economic stimulus bills and a deep recession caused by the coronavirus outbreak, the federal deficit for the 2020 fiscal year will quadruple to $3.7 trillion, the Congressional Budget Office... Read More