Posts Tagged: Government Affairs Institute

The Senate Has Raised The Debt Limit. Now What?

Congress has avoided going over yet another fiscal cliff, with the House passing a “clean” debt limit bill yesterday, and Senate passage happened today. This marks the fourth major piece of bipartisan legislation passed since last October’s 16-day government shutdown that includes the two-year Ryan-Murray budget agreement, the FY14 omnibus appropriations bill, and the extensionRead… Read more »

Congress and the Federal Worker

Federal employees have many concerns on their plate in terms of Congress and the federal budget, including: What will happen with federal pay in 2015 following the 1% increases in 2014? Will Congress pass a debt limit increase? How will the president’s State of the Union promise to use more Executive Orders play out? KenRead… Read more »

Congressional Staff May Be Losing Their Health Insurance

Here is a recent post from my co-worker, Mark Harkins, that lays out how law was passed that may cause Members of Congress and their staff to absorb the entire cost of their health insurance on January 1, 2014. This amendment started in the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee — which wasRead… Read more »

Defense Cuts Are On The Way

Earlier this month the House passed two appropriations bills, Milcon/VA, and Homeland Security, both of which the president opposes. No appropriations bills have come to the floor in the Senate. As discussed in my article “Defense Cuts are on the Way: $100 billion, $300 billion, or $500 billion?“, with a $91 billion gap between theRead… Read more »

The Outlook for Discretionary Spending

I’ve been closely following the federal budget for more than two decades, and at no point have things been more confusing, not only to observers like myself, but more importantly to federal managers and executives who are trying to plan their department budgets. A grand bargain on the budget would be welcome news not onlyRead… Read more »

Funding the Government: What’s Moving and What’s Not

Originally posted at the Government Affairs Institute The continuing resolution (CR) that passed in the House on March 6 was expected to easily pass in the Senate last week (wait a minute; did I just say “easily pass in the Senate”?). Both bills would fund the government at sequester level spending through September 30. TheRead… Read more »

Sequestration and the Ulysses Solution

I wanted to share this recent post by my colleague Mark Nadel at the Government Affairs Institute who shares an interesting point about government leadership in difficult situations: “when individual desire is about to trump the common good, the decision maker must tie his hands behind his back to avoid disastrous results.” There are aRead… Read more »

Congress on Course to Extend Expiring Continuing Resolution

Originally posted at The Government Affairs Institute Both chambers remain on course to pass a largely uncontroversial extension of the expiring continuing resolution (CR) that will be comprised of an omnibus and probably five out of the 12 individual appropriations bills. It will set FY13 discretionary spending at $984b, equal to the sequester level, butRead… Read more »

What’s Up Next?: Continuing Resolution

Yesterday the House passed a six-month FY13 continuing resolution (CR) that maintains sequester level spending for the remainder of the fiscal year, but provides appropriations to Defense and Milcon-VA. The measure, HR 933, passed by a vote of 267-151, would extend the federal pay freeze but grants military personnel a 1.7 percent pay increase. ItRead… Read more »

Tracking the Sequester: Jockeying Between House and Senate

Originally blogged at Government Affairs Institute With nine days to go, hope of averting the March 1 sequester continues to fade, with each side drawing a line in the sand, and little reason to believe that their differences can be breached any time soon. Last week the President again went on record demanding that anyRead… Read more »