Federal Budget

WASHINGTON - The Blue Dog Coalition is calling on the House Budget Committee to live up to its name and produce a budget this year, in spite of the fact spending caps have been set through the end of the... Read More

The National Governors Association is joining with the National Guard Association of the United States to oppose the Department of Defense’s planned reprogramming, which would cut nearly $1.7 billion from the National Guard and Reserve. At the request of the... Read More

The Peter G. Peterson Foundation launched an online hub on Tuesday to provide voters with everything they "need to know about the United States’ $23 trillion national debt," and why it matters for the 2020 campaign. The foundation has long... Read More

WASHINGTON - A Pentagon proposal to cut funding for Stars and Stripes is causing an uproar among media organizations and reporters covering the Defense Department who contend the independent newspaper remains a vital source of information for military personnel stationed... Read More

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump's $4.8 trillion election year budget plan was largely panned on Capitol Hill and elsewhere Monday as just the latest example of a lack of fiscal discipline in the nation's capital. Trump’s fiscal 2021 plan does... Read More

President Donald Trump unveiled a $4.8 trillion spending blueprint for the upcoming fiscal year that proposes billions more for defense and a U.S. mission to Mars but would cut deeply into other operations including the Environmental Protection Agency. The proposal,... Read More

President Donald Trump will propose a $4.8 trillion budget on Monday, with sharp cuts to safety-net programs and international aid, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a senior administration official. The proposal would cut non-defense spending by 5% to $590... Read More

WASHINGTON - The Blue Dog Coalition of House Democrats Monday called for an end to federal budgeting by temporary, continuing resolution, throwing their support behind a measure requiring Congress to pass all appropriations bills on time. H.R. 5226, the Funding... Read More

As the longest economic expansion in American history continued last year, state governments increased salaries for teachers and other public employees, authorized new construction projects and — recognizing good times won’t last forever — added to reserve funds. Cash reserves... Read More

WASHINGTON - The federal budget deficit will likely top $1 trillion this year, despite the continued strength of the U.S. economy, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday. The report follows an increase in new spending last year and the... Read More

WASHINGTON - The co-chairs of a Blue Dog Coalition panel on fiscal responsibility and government reform blasted an assertion by a powerful committee chairman Monday that the House might just want to skip passing a divisive budget resolution this year.... Read More

WASHINGTON - Voters remain deeply concerned about Washington's wanton ways when it comes to spending and want leaders to take corrective action, a new survey by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation finds. The survey was conducted in December, just as... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Senate cleared two spending packages totaling $1.4 trillion Thursday, sending the measures to President Donald Trump ahead of a Friday deadline. Debate over the massive packages was tucked in between floor speeches about the House’s Wednesday vote... Read More

WASHINGTON - The House voted Tuesday to pass a $1.4 trillion government-wide spending package, despite a disagreement over $1.4 billion for President Donald Trump's wall along the U.S. Mexico border. The two-bill package ballooned to some 2,371 pages after several... Read More

WASHINGTON — Congressional negotiators agreed to spend $25 million to study gun violence in America next year, the first time in more than two decades that federal funds will be dedicated to researching the contentious issue. The National Institutes of... Read More

WASHINGTON — Republicans and Democrats reached agreement “in principle” Thursday on $1.37 trillion in government funding, staving off the possibility of another shutdown just a week before spending is set to run out, according to Appropriations Committee leaders. The deal... Read More

WASHINGTON - The House passage of the National Defense Authorization Act means many things to many people, but to the residents of one region in Upstate New York, the massive spending bill means one thing: good-paying jobs for the foreseeable... Read More

WASHINGTON — The House on Wednesday approved a sweeping $738 billion defense policy bill that for the first time will provide paid family leave for all federal workers and fund the creation of a Space Force, a top priority of... Read More

WASHINGTON - A bipartisan coalition of House members sent a letter to House and Senate leadership Thursday calling for an agreement that will fully fund the federal government through the end of fiscal year 2020. The letter was signed by... Read More

WASHINGTON - The Blue Dog Coalition of House Democrats on Thursday threw their support behind H.R. 5211, The Sustainable Budget Act of 2019, which would create a fiscal commission charged with balancing the federal budget within a decade. The bill... Read More

WASHINGTON - In a divisive political era, Rep. Scott Peters, a California Democrat, still manages to find a way to reach across the aisle to get things done. Whether it’s introducing legislation to make cost-effective biosimilar drugs more accessible, leading... Read More

WASHINGTON - The Blue Dog Coalition of House Democrats on Thursday endorsed a proposal to create congressional committees specifically tasked to restore and strengthen endangered federal trust funds. The coalition of fiscally-responsible, centrist Democrats said in a statement that without... Read More

WASHINGTON — House Democratic leaders are insisting that all 12 overdue spending bills for the current fiscal year must be finalized before any of them can reach the floor, according to sources familiar with strategy talks. The demand for some... Read More

WASHINGTON — Congress returns to Washington this week with a challenging to-do list for December that not only includes drafting articles of impeachment and finalizing a massive trade deal, but also funding the government. Appropriators and congressional leadership have just... Read More

WASHINGTON - The Blue Dog Coalition is again urging the House leadership and committee chairs to abide by the bipartisan "Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) rule, which requires Congress to pay for new priorities. The letter sent Monday is the second the coalition... Read More

WASHINGTON— The House passed a short-term spending bill Tuesday that would keep federal agencies running for another month, but at least one group of House Democrats, the Blue Dog Coalition, said having Congress "lurching from one self-imposed deadline to another... Read More

WASHINGTON — Congress plans to extend government funding through Dec. 20, averting the risk of a shutdown next week but setting up a potential spending fight amid likely impeachment votes before the end of the year, according to lawmakers and... Read More

WASHINGTON - Former Congressman and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford suspended his longshot campaign for the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday, explaining that sometimes "you've got to be a realist." Standing outside the New Hampshire statehouse while holding an oversized trillion-dollar... Read More

WASHINGTON — Congress could navigate a shutdown and a presidential impeachment inquiry if lawmakers and the Trump administration can’t reach an agreement on government funding during the next three weeks. The two events haven’t overlapped before in the nation’s history.... Read More

WASHINGTON - The federal deficit for fiscal year 2019 was $984 billion, $205 billion more than in the prior fiscal year, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced Friday afternoon. The final accounting from the Treasury Department of the Office of Management... Read More