House of Representatives
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The House voted 263-116 to approve the Federal Employee Tax Accountability Act and send it to the Senate. The measure would make those are who are seriously delinquent ineligible for federal employment, whether they're working for the government now or are applying for a job. The House will also vote on final passage of a bill Wednesday to curb misuse of government charge cards.
July 31, 2012 -
Good news, bad news. The good news is that the end of the world — in your case, maybe extended furloughs or even a layoff — is likely to be extended. Things are currently scheduled to go boom early next January. But there are signs that Congress may delay the day of reckoning until March or April of 2013. Now your only worry is the Mayan calendar, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says.
July 31, 2012 -
The U.S. Postal Service is bracing for a first-ever default on billions in payments due to the Treasury, adding to widening uncertainty about the mail agency's solvency as first-class letters plummet and Congress deadlocks on ways to stem the red ink. With cash running perilously low, two legally required payments for future postal retirees' health benefits - $5.5 billion due Wednesday, and another $5.6 billion due in September - will be left unpaid, the mail agency said Monday.
July 30, 2012 -
Legislation forcing the White House to explain how the across-the-board budget cuts known as sequestration will affect individual agencies is now waiting for President Barack Obama's signature. The Senate unanimously approved the Sequestration Transparency Act of 2012 Wednesday, which requires the administration to detail within 30 days how the $1.2 trillion over 10 years in automatic cuts will be applied. The House passed its version of the bill last week in a 414-2 vote.
July 26, 2012 -
The House handily approved a bipartisan bill requiring the Obama administration to provide more information about how automatic, across-the-board cuts, known as sequestration, will be implemented starting in January. While the vote cut across party lines, lawmakers continue to disagree about ways to come up with alternatives.
July 18, 2012 -
The Defense Department removed the 10-page limit after Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) called the department's latest report on China "skimpy."
July 13, 2012 -
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) said a Defense Department report on China was skimpy and late.
July 12, 2012 -
Rep. Nan Hayworth (R-N.Y.) introduced legislation that extends the mass transit tax break that expired at the end of 2011.
July 03, 2012 -
Program to provide identification cards for maritime workers lags behind a similar DoD effort, and is causing decade-long problems.
June 29, 2012 -
Congress is off to a strong start passing annual appropriations bills for fiscal 2013. But the White House has taken issue with several of the bills' provisions, with President Barack Obama threatening to veto many of the bills if they come come to desk.
June 29, 2012 -
Congress is demanding more answers about how $1.2 trillion in budget cuts set to take effect in January will be applied across the government. The House Budget Committee Wednesday unanimously approved a bill directing the Obama administration to provide Congress a report that provides specific details about how the spending cuts will affect federal agencies and programs. Meanwhile, the House Armed Services Committee formally requested that the head of the Office of Management and Budget, Jeff Zients, testify before the committee on the "mechanics and impact" of the automatic cuts.
June 27, 2012 -
The pressing need for cybersecurity legislation has led to widely divergent paths in the House and Senate. The House has opted for a more incremental approach, while the Senate has crafted comprehensive legislation
June 27, 2012 -
Congress has made quick work, so far, of the 12 annual bills setting agency spending for fiscal 2013. Over the past few months, the House Appropriations Committee has approved 10 of the bills, and the full House has OK'd five of them. The full Senate has approved no appropriations bill so far this year, however the committee has reported out eight bills.
June 26, 2012 -
The Office of Management and Budget has reiterated to lawmakers that the automatic, across-the-board budget cuts known as sequestration will apply to wartime funding. In a June 15 letter, to Rep. Buck McKeon, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Office of Management and Budget Acting Director Jeff Zients wrote that the Budget Control Act allowed no "flexibility" to exempt Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO), from sequestration.
June 22, 2012 -
Lawmakers at a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee held at the Georgetown Heating Plant, blasted the General Services Administration for its handling of excess federal properties.
June 20, 2012