The one-two punch of a looming government shutdown and the reliance on stop-gap spending measures to fund the government is a stark reminder of the rampant dysfunction in the halls of Congress.

There are just a few days left before Oct. 1, the start of the federal government’s new fiscal year and the deadline for Congress to pass some sort of a spending bill in order to avoid a government shutdown.

As Congress tackles the 2014 budget, tax reform is happening in secret.

Last week, I attended the Data Transparency Coalition’s inaugural conference: Data Transparency 2013. Although the usual open government data suspects from nonprofits and the public sector attended, the conference was largely sponsored by and attended by private sector companies hoping to profit from government data. The meat of Data Transparency ...

The tax code is so full of tax breaks that this year will cost the federal government more than $1 trillion – as much as all discretionary spending in the federal budget. Tax breaks are all different kinds of credits, deductions, and exclusions that allow people to reduce the amount they ...

If the U.S. Treasury estimated that something cost the government $1.13 trillion (that's $1,130,000,000,000) in 2013 alone, would you want to know about it?

Congress failed to make funding decisions for fiscal 2014 on its regular time-frame, and now the debate on Syria has jumped to the front of the line. That means Congress is going to make some very last-minute decisions about spending in the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. Even more last-minute than they had already planned.

Congress returns from August recess this week, and they face a busy fall. In addition to a vote on Syria, there are two looming issues that could result in a government shutdown if they’re not resolved in the next few weeks. No Federal Budget U.S. fiscal year 2013 will end ...

U.S. forces would use Tomahawk Cruise Missiles to attack Syria. On our brand-new Cost of National Security site, you can see the real-time cost of the Tomahawk Cruise Missile program. In 2013, the program is projected to cost U.S. taxpayers $320 million – or $36,563 every hour.

Congress returns to Washington next week, and they have a lot of work to get done. Use our fact sheets to brush up on the issues.