If the budget process for fiscal year 2014 is lining up to be normal, that’s no guarantee that it will finish that way. But it’s a start. The background: Each year, there is a set schedule on which the president and Congress are supposed to propose budgets and pass spending bills for the coming fiscal [...]
It’s a very special time of year in one area of governing you don’t hear about much. It’s the end of the fiscal year. What’s so special about the end of the fiscal year? It’s when the grant programs in the federal government have to move money out the door. If the funds aren’t spent [...]
The bill to repeal Obamacare that House Republicans will run to the floor this coming week has not been introduced yet. Consistent with their promise of advance notice, though, they have made a copy available. This one is blessedly brief at six-and-a-quarter pages. Five of those pages are introductory material and “findings,” the statements Congress [...]
There’s something going on in Washington, D.C.—something unusual, but something we might be able to explain. Congress is being boring. That’s right. The last few weeks, both the House and Senate have taken up relatively mundane bills. Nothing has generated much interest or heat. The knives are sheathed. Things are quiet. We’re in a lull. [...]
A couple of interesting things have happened over the last few weeks that offer an insight into professional politics. It’s all about the spin, baby. First, consider this: It is pretty much optional for a president to get involved in a weather event like Hurricane Irene. Oh, maybe there’s some political risk to not being [...]
When the Senate version of the bill was introduced, we made a little fun: “It also juliennes carrots,” we said of the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act of 2011. (Yuk yuk.) But the bill (House version: H.R. 2560) takes center stage this coming week as the House will use it for a major statement in [...]
The commentator class is abuzz this week because the Senate is staying in session, cancelling a planned recess around the Fourth of July holiday. (Happy Fourth, everyone, by the way. The fireworks on the national mall were awesome.) [Update: Daily negotiations continue the week following the cancelled Fourth-of-July-week recess. Here's a recently updated news report [...]
Congress will soon have to decide what to do with some controversial parts of the USA-PATRIOT Act, which were made to sunset, forcing this decision. Maybe the thing to do is extend the sunset date! So says S. 1022, which would extend USA-PATRIOT provisions until December 31, 2014. Be sure and do the political math: [...]
Politics is an odd business, and there’s nothing like the birth certificate controversy to prove that. News that President Obama has released his “long-form” birth certificate seems like an important concession on the part of the president, a win for “birthers” and skeptics of his constitutional qualification for office. But the president and his advisers [...]
Yet another government shutdown looms. At the end of the week, the current “continuing resolution” will run out. The government can’t run without Congress’ authorization to spend money, so House Republicans are negotiating with Senate Democrats and the president about what comes next. In 1995, Republicans took most of the political blame when there was [...]