Update: 16 Republican Senators voted to empower Harry Reid and expand Food Stamps. It is now up to House members to demand a full floor vote with amendments to this bill. Last week, we noted that Harry Reid, with the help of Republican leadership, is attempting to come late to the 2012 budget game and commandeer the entire process through a series of ‘minibus’ bills. | Read More »
Senate Democrats (and all other Democrats, for that matter) have not passed a budget for over 900 days, yet they are planning to come late to the game and commandeer the appropriations process. After delaying the process for over two years, Harry Reid, with the help of some Senate Republicans, is planning to expedite appropriations bills in a way that disavows standard procedures of transparency. | Read More »
Earlier today, Barack Obama decried the gridlock that has prevented Congress from passing a long-term surface transportation bill (highway bill) as unacceptable and inexcusable. He also asserted that we must formulate a policy in which funding would be directed to those districts that need it the most, instead of politically motivated pork, such as the bridge to nowhere (which he supported in the Senate). Well, | Read More »
Today, the House is debating the annual Agriculture Appropriations bill, which appropriates funds for the Department of Agriculture and similar agencies. The committee-passed bill provides a spending level of $17.25 billion, which is $2.7 billion less than FY 2011 appropriations. While $2.7 billion is a good start -enough to invoke the most vile class warfare from Democrats – there is still more to cut. This | Read More »
Yesterday, the House passed the largely non-controversial Military Construction/Veterans Affairs Appropriations (MilCon) bill for FY 2012. Unfortunately, it is these non-controversial bills which provide a safe haven for meretricious policy initiatives through the rapid fire amendment process. While everyone was focused on presidential politics, the House passed an amendment forcing government contractors to use labor unions on federal construction projects. Oh, and like most bad | Read More »
This week’s legislative schedule in both houses of Congress will provide Republicans (and faux moderate Democrats) a unique opportunity to efface farm welfare by eliminating ethanol credits/tariffs and direct farm subsidies. On the House side, the annual Agriculture Appropriations bill is expected to hit the floor as early as Tuesday. Earlier this month, the Appropriations Committee passed the FY 2012 Ag bill, cutting $2.6 billion | Read More »
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