Congress Running Late on Spending
Posted by Jim Harper
Congress is well behind now on passing the bills that govern spending for the 2010 fiscal year. It starts on October 1st, in just 12 short days.
As you can see from the chart to the right, Congress was supposed to have been well through the process in early summer. It’s not working out that [...]
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FY 2010 Spending Tracker Updated – $20,000 per Family
Posted by Jim Harper
We’ve updated the FY 2010 Spending Tracker. The House has now voted on each of the twelve bills that dictate spending for the 2010 fiscal year which starts October 1st.
The Senate has seven bills of its own and has acted on a couple of the House bills.
That’s where the action will be when Congress returns [...]
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What’s Up in the House Today
Posted by Jim Harper
The House will debate H.R. 3183, the FY 2010 Energy and Water Development appropriations bill today. Its cost is about $414 per U.S. family.
Another one up today is H.R. 1018, the Restore Our American Mustangs Act (cost – just over a buck-and-a-half per U.S. family). The bill would affect the protection of wild herds of [...]
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Is Congress Crazy? And Other Important Questions
Posted by Jim Harper
A WashingtonWatch.com user and subscriber to the email list wrote in and asked the following questions:
Hello — I am a total “newbie” to your site — but I am trying hard to become educated about what goes on in Congress — my question is: every week I receive your updates listing these various bills and [...]
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Voila! A Budget!
Posted by Jim Harper
Just over three months behind schedule, the President today produced his detailed budget plan.
(He can be cut some slack because it’s hard to produce a budget for a government as large as this during the transition, and he did issue a budget outline in late February.)
The appendix, which has all the detailed information, [...]
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Spending Done on Time?
Posted by Jim Harper
The Hill reported yesterday that Congress is positioned to pass all 12 annual spending bills on time – for the first time in a dozen years.
But it is much easier to be optimistic in May, when the finish line is five months away. Even with a blueprint agreed upon and Democrats in control, infighting over [...]
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Budget Done – Next Up, Appropriations Bills
Posted by Jim Harper
Yesterday, the House and Senate both approved a final version of the budget for fiscal year 2010, which begins on October 1st.
The deadline for completing the budget was April 15th, as we noted in the recent post “Behind on the Budget.”
Now the budget will be divided up into amounts that each appropriations subcommittee gets to [...]
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Behind on the Budget
Posted by Jim Harper
Before Easter, it was looking like Congress might finish an important step in the budget process on time.
The House and Senate each had passed their respective budget resolutions, and all that remained was for them to blend their plans together. The deadline was April 15.
It is now more than ten days after that [...]
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About That “Pretty Much on Time” Comment
Posted by Jim Harper
With Congress out of town the next two weeks for the Easter recess, my surmise just a bit ago that the House and Senate would finish the budget on time may have been a little off. Congress returns on the 20th, five days after it is due to finalize the budget.
Congressional staff will be [...]
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Here Comes “Reconciliation”
Posted by Jim Harper
The House and Senate have passed their respective budget resolutions – and they’re pretty much on time. It’s a pleasant surprise, because it was looking like the annual budget process was going to go off the rails.
But they have until April 15th to mold their two plans into one. A conference committee with members from [...]
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