Federal Budget

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 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 - 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 - 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

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

WASHINGTON - Despite the fact the White House and Senate were able to reach a deal on a roughly $2 trillion stimulus bill early Wednesday, the U.S. economy is still facing a huge shock to its system, the president of... Read More

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