Budget Fight

Freedomlover

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Nov 6, 2008
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The federal budget fight is well under way. Not only is Congress still trying to get an FY11 budget completed, they must begin work on the FY12 budget if they are going to be able to pass one this year. I have hopes for the House doing their duty, but doubts about the Senate.

If the Senate can not agree to cut Nevada's Cowboy Poetry Festival, is there any hope of anything meaningful being done? I fear not!
 
Fightin' the budget fight...
:doubt:
Budget pain taking a toll
March 24, 2011: The Department of Defense has put the construction of a Virginia-class attack submarine on hold due to budget uncertainty.
After six months of coping with stop-gap funding measures, federal agencies have quietly started instituting hiring freezes, withholding grants and curtailing work on critical projects. The uncertainty caused by Congress' inability to pass a budget cuts across many corners of the government. The Defense Department has put the construction of an attack submarine on hold and is struggling to avoid disrupting the workforce at the Virginia shipyard where it's built. The Justice Department is running out of money to house prisoners. And the National Institutes of Health is giving out less funding for scientific research.

Since October, agencies have been stuck at last year's funding levels as Congress has passed six so-called continuing resolutions. And after playing it cool for months, they are starting to lay out the consequences for lawmakers, who are -- in theory -- working on a plan to fund the government for the next six months. At the Pentagon, officials are flat out telling Congress that they are already in serious trouble. The military has delayed 75 projects, and the Army and the Marine Corps have imposed temporary civilian hiring freezes.

The Army has deferred a contract for new Chinook helicopters and delayed refurbishment of war-torn Humvees. The Justice Department, Social Security Administration and Congressional Budget Office have frozen hiring. Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue said his agency won't open eight new offices and has cut back on mailing benefit statements to non-beneficiaries over the age of 25.

Financial regulatory agencies -- the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission -- have struggled to implement the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law. The SEC delayed the creation of five key initiatives mandated by Dodd-Frank, including a new office of women and minority inclusion and a whistle blower unit. At the National Institutes of Health, officials are funding some grants at 90% of their optimal level, due to uncertainty over the budget.

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Half of 'earmark' spending untouched in GOP bills
WASHINGTON — House Republicans who crafted two short-term spending bills made $5.3 billion in cuts by going after some of Washington's least popular spending: those congressional pet projects known as "earmarks."
Even so, a congressional report shows they left $4.8 billion in earmarks untouched — and critics of congressional pork say they should go after it. "Many in Congress promised taxpayers a full earmark moratorium, not a half moratorium," says Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., an earmark opponent who requested the report from the non-partisan Congressional Research Service. "Protecting nearly $5 billion in earmarks from cuts sends the wrong message to taxpayers."

Most of the remaining funds that congressmen set aside for pet projects are in defense, military construction and veterans affairs, according to the report last week. They account for $4.1 billion of the $4.8 billion that could be cut. "There's no reason defense earmarks should be sacrosanct," says Steve Ellis, an earmark watchdog with Taxpayers for Common Sense. "In fact, they're more insidious."

So why haven't House Republicans gone after special-interest spending at the Pentagon?

"Clearly, that's something we're going to do," says Jennifer Hing, a House Appropriations Committee spokeswoman. She says the full-year spending bill — which would have funded the government through Sept. 30 — sought to cut $8.1 billion from defense, including some accounts often used for congressionally favored projects. That bill was rejected by the Senate, leading to the two shorter-term bills. The most recent bill keeps the government running until April 8. Hing says the short-term bills also attacked congressional projects by declaring that the earmarks in the 2010 spending bills "shall have no legal effect."

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