Congress
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Republican leaders plan to pass a short-term funding bill this week to extend by three days the deadline for wrapping up a massive, $1 trillion-plus catch-all spending bill covering funding for the rest of the year. The short-term measure would give lawmakers until midnight next Saturday to pass the larger funding bill. The current stopgap funding bill expires at midnight on Wednesday.
January 13, 2014 -
On this week's Capital Impact show, Bloomberg Government analysts will discuss what's ahead for Congress in 2014, and the potential impact of the contract compensation cap. January 9, 2014
January 09, 2014 -
Sen. Tom Coburn told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Thursday that Congress isn't doing its job and that's the root cause of much of the waste in government. Rep. Darrell Issa promised to work with Coburn and Sen. Tom Carper on legislation to reduce overlapping programs.
January 09, 2014 -
Army's top uniformed official said the Ryan-Murray budget agreement is a partial remedy to the difficulties the Army has had in training and equipping its troops. But undoing the damage of sequestration will take at least another six years.
January 08, 2014 -
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) has filed a lawsuit against Katherine Archuleta, the head of the Office of Personnel Management, seeking to overturn an OPM regulation that allows lawmakers and their staffs to continue receiving government contribution toward their health insurance premiums. Under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, lawmakers and their staffs were booted from the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), under which the government typically kicks in about three-fourths of the cost of federal employees' premiums, and required to purchase health insurance on the federal exchange.
January 06, 2014 -
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has already set about implementing a plan to cut $1 billion from the Defense Department's budget by consolidating and reorganizing top Pentagon offices, but lawmakers want to hold his feet to the fire. The final version of the National Defense Authorization Act passed by Congress Dec. 19 enshrines DoD's ambitious cost-cutting and streamlining plan into law.
January 02, 2014 -
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 26, 2013
December 26, 2013 -
John Hudak and Phil Wallach with the Brookings Institution will discuss the top federal government issues in 2013, and what's ahead in the new year. December 20, 2013
December 20, 2013 -
On this week's Capital Impact show, Bloomberg Government analysts will discuss how the budget deal will affect next year's government funding,and how budget cuts are affecting U.S. defense industrial capabilities. December 19, 2013
December 19, 2013 -
Audits find contract security personnel, which make up the vast majority of the Federal Protective Service's workforce, receive no meaningful training on how to deal with armed attackers. And many operators of X-ray machines and metal detectors at building entrances likely have never been trained to properly use them.
December 18, 2013 -
From super soldiers to stay-at-home feds, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) identified 100 programs that have generated almost $30 billion in wasteful spending by the federal government in 2013.
December 16, 2013 -
Top Air Force officials say lower budgets will force them to propose cuts Congress won't like. But if lawmakers insist on protecting politically-favored programs, money will have to come from somewhere else.
December 16, 2013 -
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