Federal budget

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 (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 - 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

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

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 — 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 - 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 — 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 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 - 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

WASHINGTON - The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget debuted a new tool Thursday -- a PAYGO Tracker -- to keep tabs on how well lawmakers are abiding by budget rules requiring new spending and tax cuts to be offset.... Read More

WASHINGTON - The federal deficit reached $984 billion in fiscal year 2019, with spending far out pacing revenue, according to an estimate released by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office this week. This would be an increase of $205 billion over... Read More

WASHINGTON - A House panel charged with improving Congress's procedures and performance took a hard look Thursday at one of the government's most difficult exercises, the annual budget and appropriations process. Last year, the Joint Select Committee on Budget and... Read More