Federal Budget

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate passed a $1.2 trillion package of spending bills in the early morning hours Saturday, a long overdue action nearly six months into the budget year that will push any threats of a government shutdown to the fall.... Read More

WASHINGTON — House and Senate leaders released an over-$1.2 trillion, six-bill appropriations package early Thursday morning, giving lawmakers less than 48 hours to pass it ahead of the midnight Friday deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown. The 1,012-page package,... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is expected to vote to keep money flowing to scores of federal agencies before a midnight Friday shutdown deadline even as many members of the Republican conference are expected to vote against it. The first... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday night voted in favor of a “laddered” proposal from the House to extend funding for some federal departments and agencies through March 8 and the rest through March 22. The 77-13 vote, which came... Read More

WASHINGTON — The House on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a two-tiered short-term spending bill to avert a partial government shutdown this weekend. The measure now moves to the Senate, where Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has said it could pass as... Read More

WASHINGTON — Federal agencies got their first concrete indication the threat of a looming government shutdown is getting serious on Friday, as the White House Office of Management and Budget began circulating its guidance to those who will be impacted... Read More

WASHINGTON — The House on Tuesday passed a stopgap spending bill that will avert a government shutdown before the holidays, handing House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., a big bipartisan win in the first true test of his leadership. In the... Read More

WASHINGTON — With current funding for the entire government set to expire on Nov. 17, House Republicans are considering a new approach to stopgap funding that would give them time to pass appropriations bills and ensure that at least some... Read More

WASHINGTON — With just over three hours to spare, the Senate last night passed a bipartisan bill to avert a government shutdown, and President Joe Biden signed it just before the midnight deadline. The measure will fund the federal government... Read More

WASHINGTON — With uncertainty continuing to swirl around Capitol Hill, conversations have begun to focus not on if there will be a partial shutdown of the federal government come midnight on Saturday, but on how that almost inevitable shutdown will... Read More

WASHINGTON — You could tell Capitol Hill was bristling Thursday morning, even before you got within 100 yards of the Capitol building itself. Walking up First Street SE, past Bullfeathers, the popular Capitol Hill eatery, an indistinct conversation between passersby... Read More

WASHINGTON — The House Problem Solvers Caucus late Wednesday night endorsed a bipartisan plan to prevent a government shutdown, ratcheting up the pressure on hardcore Republicans to end the intraparty squabble that prevented a stopgap spending measure from reaching the... Read More

WASHINGTON — Republicans on the House Budget Committee on Tuesday rolled out a 10-year budget plan they contend will “right size” the federal bureaucracy, balance the budget, and in doing so, cut the nation’s bulging deficit by more than $16... Read More

WASHINGTON — It was just a glimpse, but it nevertheless seemed to speak volumes. An hour earlier, House Republican leaders had spiked a planned procedural vote on a proposed stopgap spending plan intended to keep the lights on and the... Read More

WASHINGTON — Tensions are rising on Capitol Hill as Republicans fail to reach agreement on spending plans. So heated has the rhetoric become that during a closed-door conference meeting Thursday morning, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., reportedly addressed recent threats... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker Kevin McCarthy is expected to endorse moving ahead with an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden as he faces mounting pressure from his right flank to take action with the House returning Tuesday for a disruptive fall agenda. McCarthy is... Read More

WASHINGTON — The White House minced no words on Monday in describing how it “strongly opposes” a proposed 2024 spending plan for the Defense Department that would gut the Inflation Reduction Act and other administration programs. The bill, H.R. 4365, also... Read More

NEW YORK — A vast majority of Americans across the political spectrum want lawmakers to quit it with the political brinkmanship and avoid a partial government shutdown next month, according to a new poll by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House said Thursday that Congress should pass a short-term funding measure to ensure the government keeps operating after the current budget year ends Sept. 30. An official with the Office of Management and Budget said lawmakers would... Read More

WASHINGTON — Fitch Ratings downgraded the U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA+ last week. One of the big three credit rating agencies, Fitch determined this first downgrade since 2011 was necessary due to continued erosion of governance, fiscal deterioration... Read More

WASHINGTON — In their final significant vote of the summer, House Republicans on Thursday passed their first government funding bill in the face of bipartisan opposition and the certainty that the spending plan is DOA as it heads over to... Read More

WASHINGTON— The Nuclear Regulatory Commission made a pitch to Congress Wednesday for a $1 billion annual budget at a time when climate change makes it likely the agency is going to get what it wants. Only days after smoke from... Read More

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., sent House members home early on Wednesday after a revolt by nearly a dozen conservative Republicans brought action in the chamber to a standstill. The “chaos” as McCarthy called it at one point... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — In fallout from the debt ceiling deal, Speaker Kevin McCarthy is suddenly confronting a new threat to his power as angry hard-right conservatives bring the House chamber to a halt, reviving their displeasure over the compromise struck with... Read More

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., are set to meet late Monday afternoon for the latest round of face-to-face negotiations on raising the nation’s debt limit. This comes after each leader's hand-picked subordinates met in... Read More

WASHINGTON — Frustrated Republicans walked out of debt ceiling talks on Friday, unexpectedly bringing a halt to the critical negotiations just days before the United States faces the first ever default on its financial obligations. “We decided to press pause... Read More

WASHINGTON — There will be no meeting between President Joe Biden and congressional leaders over the debt ceiling on Friday after they mutually agreed to give staff more time to work out the framework of a deal. Biden, House Speaker... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats are pressuring Republicans on the debt ceiling impasse with a hearing Thursday focused on what they say are the the painful reductions in government services Americans would suffer if a bill recently passed by the House were... Read More

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., will meet next Tuesday to begin discussions anew on raising the nation’s debt ceiling as the timeline for action grows ever smaller. Biden invited McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader Chuck... Read More

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a letter sent to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on Monday that the United States could reach the point when it can no longer satisfy its debt obligations as early as June... Read More