Budget

  • Personality-wise are you usually happy or sad? Would friends and family describe you as an upper or a downer? The way you view the bipartisan budget deal may tell a lot about whether you are a glass-half-full or glass-half-empty person, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says.

    December 16, 2013
  • The bipartisan budget deal announced this week goes a long way toward clearing up the widespread budget uncertainty that has plagued federal agencies for the last two years. But it doesn't actually set individual agency funding for next year. That's the job of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, the leaders of whom now must write an official spending bill that spell out exactly how much each agency gets to spend next year and on what. Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), the chairman of the House committee, said Thursday he would begin work on an omnibus spending bill to fund agencies next year.

    December 13, 2013
  • Tucked away inside the bipartisan budget deal announced with much fanfare this week is a proposal limiting the maximum level contractors can charge the government to pay the salaries of their top executives to nearly half of what it is currently. But it may not be the final word on the issue on the sticky issue of contractor compensation. the budget deal's proposed changes to taxpayer-funded contractor salaries are competing with another piece of bipartisan legislation currently before Congress. The annual Defense Authorization Act seeks to lower the compensation limit but by far less than the budget deal.

    December 13, 2013
  • On this week's Capital Impact show, Bloomberg Government analysts participate in a roundtable discussion of the budget deal, the Volker Rule, and Bitcoin. December 12, 2013

    December 12, 2013
  • Congress went after federal workers and retirees with a meat ax. But instead the new budget agreement is more of a kick in the shins for feds who have yet to be hired, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says.

    December 12, 2013
  • Lawmakers in districts with large constituencies of federal employees are signaling their support for the bipartisan budget deal announced Tuesday even though it would require new federal workers to contribute a greater share of their paychecks to their retirement benefits. The alternatives -- another government shutdown or a second year of the steep across-the-board sequestration cuts -- would have been worse, they argue.

    December 11, 2013
  • On this week's Your Turn radio show, host Mike Causey examines what's in the most recent budget deal that will impact feds.

    December 11, 2013
  • If the proposed budget deal becomes law, new federal workers will see a total of 10.6 percent of their salaries automatically withheld from their paychecks to cover their retirement benefits. That could lead to them contributing less or not at all to their voluntary Thrift Savings Plan accounts, experts said.

    December 11, 2013
  • The annual policy legislation also doesn't merge the DoD CIO and deputy chief management officer.

    December 11, 2013
  • Newly hired federal workers will be required to contribute more toward their pensions and some military retirees will see smaller cost-of-living adjustments under a budget deal announced by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) Tuesday evening. The budget deal, which sets funding levels for the next two years, eases some of the bite of the automatic spending cuts, known as sequestration. The pact restores about $63 billion to agency spending through the end of fiscal 2015, split about evenly between Defense and civilian agencies.

    December 11, 2013
  • Lawmakers, who face a self-imposed Friday deadline to come up with a fiscal 2014 budget plan, appear to be making progress toward a limited deal that would stave off another shutdown and give agencies the certainty of funding for the remainder of the year.But lawmakers with districts surrounding Washington, D.C. are preemptively speaking out against any proposal that, in their words, would "throw federal employees under the bus." Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), says that too often in the past federal employees' pay and benefits have "been used as pawns in budget negotiations."

    December 09, 2013
  • Julie Perkins and Jenny Mattingley host a roundtable discussion of the big issues in the federal government and what's ahead for 2014. December 6, 2013

    December 06, 2013
  • Linda Rix, co-CEO of Avue Technologies will discuss how uncertainty in the federal marketplace is stifling government innovation. December 6, 2013 (Encore presentation December 13, 2013)

    December 06, 2013
  • The two employee unions say lawmakers shouldn't make up for sequestration cuts by forcing federal employees to contribute more to their retirement. House and Senate legislators are working on a small-scale budget deal that reportedly includes a provision to alter federal retirement benefits.

    December 06, 2013