Hubbard Radio Washington DC, LLC. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
Budget
-
![]()
Congress has just this work week left until it adjourns for a month-long recess. The to-do list is long. And the Senate has barely finished work on 12 appropriations bills. House Speaker John Boehner says the Congress will have to settle for a continuing resolution this year to avoid a government shutdown in the fall. David Hawkings, senior editor of Roll Call, writes the Hawkings Here blog. He's keeping an eye on the congressional calendar and tells In Depth with Francis Rose that there just aren't enough days left before the fiscal year ends.
July 27, 2015 -
![]()
The Internal Revenue Service has holes that look like Swiss cheese all throughout its business operations. Appropriations at the IRS are down nearly 7 percent over the last four fiscal years. And Congress won't likely pass an appropriations bill that comes close to the $13 billion President Barack Obama requested for the IR-S in fiscal 2016. Staff at the agency's Human Capital Office, Office of Chief Counsel, and Small Business -Self Employed Division has already been cut by 16 to 30 percent. Jay McTigue is director of tax issues for the Government Accountability Office's strategic issues team. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose how years of budget cuts are affecting the IRS.
July 27, 2015 -
![]()
UPDATED: Congressman Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) joins a growing list of Washington-area lawmakers who are looking at whether Congress could pay for the costs from the OPM breach under emergency appropriations.
July 24, 2015 We've all heard the complaints and lived with the consequences. The congressional budget process is broken and needs drastic overhaul. The Bipartisan Policy Center has some suggestions for doing just that. Dr. Alice Rivlin is a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brooking Institution, and a former director of both the Congressional Budget Office and the Office of Management and Budget. She co-authored the report with former Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), and joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive to discuss it.
July 24, 2015-
![]()
Veterans Affairs officials tell Congress today that they will have to begin a partial shutdown of the department unless Congress reallocates money into VA’s medical services accounts by next week. Federal News Radio’s Jared Serbu reports, the shutdown would impact virtually every VA medical center in the country.
July 22, 2015 -
![]()
Senate leaders agreed in principle to a six-year highway transportation fund bill that doesn’t try to raise money by changing the way the interest rate on the G-Fund is calculated. But Democrats stopped the bill from moving to a full vote because they wanted more time to read the entire bill.
July 21, 2015 -
![]()
The Senate is working on a long-term highway spending bill that taps billions of dollars from the Thrift Savings Plan to help pay for it. House budget writers say the G-fund is just too good of a deal and they want to base the fund's interest rate on a three month average instead of the current four-year average. Kim Weaver of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board says that would make the G-fund virtually worthless for TSP participants. Jessica Klement is legislative director of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association. She tells In Depth with Francis Rose that NARFE wants Congress to come up with another solution.
July 21, 2015 -
![]()
UPDATED: Agencies with the largest percentage of security clearances, such as DoD, DHS and VA, will end up shouldering a huge part of the burden to pay for the credit monitoring services for 21 million current and former federal employees impacted by the second data breach. AFGE and federal officials are angered after acting OPM Director Beth Cobert tells agencies about OPM’s plans to raise its fees for security clearance services it provides in order to recoup the costs of the identity protection services it must purchase for the victims of the attack.
July 21, 2015 -
![]()
Congress has a little less than five work weeks left now before the fiscal year ends. The House Appropriations Committee is done with all 12 of its spending bills for fiscal 2016. But the full House and Senate both have a stack of unfinished business that's just getting bigger. Now it includes a 60-day period to review President Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran and several different debates over the Confederate flag. David Hawkings, enior editor of Roll Call, writes the Hawkings Here blog. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose about some of the distractions that are "sucking all the oxygen out of the room".
July 20, 2015 -
![]()
Agencies will likely go a relative spending spree between now and the end of the fiscal year. But some small companies could be missing out on potential contracts. Marci Love Thomas is a senior counsel in the government contracts practice at General Counsel, and a former senior attorney advisor for the Small Business Adminstration. She tells In Depth guest host Jared Serbu that there are two things that could impact companies in the small business 8(a) program, and also small businesses more generally.
July 16, 2015 -
![]()
It really was that bad. The National Taxpayer Advocate has confirmed in a new report what the IRS long warned about: Taxpayers can forget about getting help from the agency amid budget cuts and staff shortages.
July 16, 2015 -
![]()
The House Appropriations Committee approved the Homeland Security appropriations bill, which is $2.1 billion or 5 percent less than what President Barack Obama asked for in his Fiscal Year 2016 budget request.
July 14, 2015 -
![]()
Congress has a little less than six work weeks left now before the fiscal year ends. Little movement on individual appropriations bills could mean that a short term spending bill is starting to look more likely. And yes, we may even have another fight over a potential government shutdown. David Hawkings, senior editor of Roll Call, writes the Hawkings Here blog. He tells In Depth guest host Jared Serbu what Congress has left on its plate before the month-long recess in August.
July 13, 2015 -
![]()
The fact that there are so many millionaires in Congress worries many people. But Federal News Radio Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says the solution may be to pay them less, not more money.
July 10, 2015
