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The Appropriations Process from the Perspective of a Congressional Staffer
Welcome to appropriations season on Capitol Hill. With the President’s budget officially submitted last month it is now up to Congress to decide what to keep, what to discard, and what to enhance. I want to focus on the third category, and I offer these thoughts from the perspective of someone with nearly two
Appropriations Update
Here we go again. To keep the government funded past the start of the fiscal year on October 1st, Congress passed a Continuing Resolution (CR) that lasts until November 21st. Over the last decade, during non-election years, it has taken, on average, SIX months into the fiscal year before all 12 appropriations bills have been
How Dr. Ronny Jackson got Nuked.
Now that erstwhile Secretary of Veterans Affairs nominee Dr. Ronny Jackson has lost his job as the President’s personal physician, he should blame former Sen. Harry Reid for his troubles. On November 21, 2013, in the face of sustained Republican opposition to confirming President Obama’s nominees and judges, the Senate took the extraordinary step of
R.I.P. Budget Hawks
November 16, 2017, will be a day long remembered in the annals of Congressional history. Not because of the Franken picture or the fact that Sen. Menendez’s trial ended in a hung jury or even that Roy Moore had another revival press conference. No, this day will be remembered as the day the budget hawks
The Sequester Died on May 5
Sequestration put into place by the Budget Control Act in 2011 (BCA) is still on the books. But Congress, with the acquiescence of the President, has found a way to make that point moot. By invoking another section of budget law, section 251(b)(2)(A)(i) and (ii) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of
Unusual Appropriations
The budget process created in 1974 put into place a mechanism to limit the power of appropriators and try to slow down spending growth. By having either a Budget Resolution put a cap on discretionary spending or, when no Resolution is agreed to, having the Appropriations Committee put in place (or “deem”) a cap, the
CBO predicts blizzard of debt
Saw a great tweet yesterday from Paul Singer (@singernews). In reply to Lisa Dejardins’ (@lisaDNews) tweet on the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) Budget and Economic Outlook: 2016 to 2026 (the Executive Summary was released Jan. 18) report predicting that the US will spend $6 trillion just on interest over the next 10 years Singer wrote
Will Congress finally have a normal(ish) appropriations cycle?
Last week, there was a story (pay wall) in Congressional Quarterly on the Military Construction-VA Appropriations bill. I was intrigued when Rep. David Price (NC-4), the longtime appropriator on the Democratic side and the current Ranking Member on the Transportation-HUD Subcommittee (T-HUD) was predicting that “there would be a point during the appropriations process
In Defense of “Sandwich Making”
I love Jon Stewart and believe the information that the Daily Show puts out, while satirical, is often more accurate than the main stream media. That said, his opening piece on Monday, April 20th, where he castigates Congress for getting excited about legislating, is set on the wrong premise. Stewart’s main premise comes out
Is Seat Flipping in the Senate a Big Deal?
A lot is being said about the historic nature of Republicans flipping 8-9 Senate seats and beating four incumbent Democrats (and possibly as many as five by December) during the election of 2014. However, that’s not terribly unusual in the Senate. Of the current Members of the Senate, 48 won their seats either by