July 7, 2011
The House released its Energy & Water Appropriations bill for FY12 today. The bill provides a total $30.7 billion for the Energy Department and federal water projects in FY12, $5.9 billion (16 percent) less than requested by the President and $1.7 billion (5 percent) less than FY11 enacted totals. The bill provides an additional $1… Read More
July 7, 2011
Today, three House Appropriations subcommittees are expected to approve FY12 domestic spending bills that continue the push by House Republicans to cut domestic spending and reverse administration policies. Interior-Environment Bill: Steep cuts are proposed for the EPA, federal clean water and drinking water programs, and for state environmental grant programs that Republicans say are a… Read More
July 6, 2011
The House Appropriations Committee today released their FY12 Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations bill, which will be considered in subcommittee tomorrow. The bill funds the Department of Commerce, the Department of Justice, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and other related agencies. In total, the draft legislation contains $50.2 billion… Read More
July 6, 2011
Latest Budget Talks: President Obama has summoned lawmakers to the White House Thursday for a fresh round of talks on the budget and debt limit. While some progress has been made over the holiday weekend, but there is the two sides are still a long way apart if they want to reach agreement before the… Read More
June 30, 2011
Congressional Schedule: The House is in recess this week and the Senate is scheduled for recess next week (week of July 4th). The House has another recess scheduled for the week of July 18th, and both chambers have recess scheduled for the month on August (August 8th through September 6th). Debt Negotiations Continue: Yesterday, President… Read More
June 24, 2011
Calendar: The House is preparing to begin its Fourth of July holiday recess today and is slated to return July 5, while the Senate remains in session throughout next week before their scheduled recess during the week of July 4th. Deficit Negotiations Stalled: Attempts by Congress and the White House to broker a budget deal… Read More
June 22, 2011
FY12 Appropriations Senate appropriators have been holding off on their FY12 bills, waiting for an agreement on overall discretionary spending to be reached through the ongoing bipartisan debt reduction talks. But because the end of the current fiscal year is just over three months away, they indicated yesterday that the Senate would move forward with… Read More
June 3, 2011
Appropriations On Thursday the House passed their FY12 Homeland Security bill, its first FY12 appropriations measure of the year. Democrats have declared the funding levels in the bill insufficient and are particularly unhappy about cuts to homeland security and first responder grants, although some funding to hire/re-hire/retain firefighters was restored by an amendment on Wednesday…. Read More
June 1, 2011
The House Appropriations Committee today released the FY12 Energy and Water and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, which will be considered in the Energy and Water Subcommittee tomorrow. The legislation provides the annual funding for the various agencies and programs under the Department of Energy, including the Office of Science, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy,… Read More
May 31, 2011
Appropriations The FY12 appropriations process is in full gear in the House with many predicting that work on FY12 spending bills may be completed by December, a few months after the October 1st start of the new federal fiscal year. The White House-led talks seeking an agreement on raising the debt ceiling are expected to yield… Read More
