Congress has passed a budget for Fiscal Year 2012. Did you miss it?If you did, that’s understandable, given all the noise coming out of Washington in recent weeks about extending the Social Security payroll tax holiday and unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed.But Congress actually did pass an FY2012 budget, albeit two and a half months after the fiscal year began on October 1st. It did so by passing an “omnibus” spending package that bundled together nine of the usual 12 annual appropriations bills into a single piece of legislation.In a normal year Congress passes and ...

This is the latest entry in NPP’s weekly Data Wednesday series, intended to introduce new users to our Federal Priorities Database.  All posts are archived here.

In last week’s Data Wednesday post, we showed you how to time travel on the Federal Priorities Database map. This week, we’ll discuss something important to keep in mind when comparing numbers between years: inflation.

Inflation is the change in purchasing power over time. For example, a dollar in 1993 bought more than a dollar would buy today. So when looking at a money-related dataset, you can’t compare a 1993 ...

Executive director Jo Comerford explains how budget reductions affect the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).

This week’s headlines from Washington have focused on an end of year budget deal that would avoid a federal government shutdown and the expiration of a temporary reduction in workers’ Social Security payroll deductions. Two important issues, to be sure, but left somewhere in the dust is another and arguably more important issue – the expiration of unemployment benefits for long-term unemployed workers.Last December, as part of a deal to extend the Bush era tax credits, the Obama Administration and Congress agreed to temporarily reduce employee Social Security contributions from 6.2 percent of their wages to 4.2 ...

This is the third installment of our weekly posts about NPP’s Federal Priorities Database.  If you missed installments one and two, we've archived everything here.

Last week, we took a look at the map that displays database search results. This week, I want to point out an important feature that works with the map: the year slider:

The Federal Priorities Database keeps historical information so you can track trends. The map, however, can only show one year of data at a time, and that’s where the slider—the horizontal bar immediately underneath the map—comes in:

After ...

Senior research analyst Mattea Kramer explains how the proposed extension of unemployment benefits would help keep the economy afloat.

Our latest data story focuses on the differences between unemployment and underemployment and how a long-term economic downturn affects their relationship.

Although unemployment is the number most people use when evaluating the state of the U.S. labor force, it’s also interesting to consider underemployment, a statistic that includes people who are no longer looking for work and part-time workers who would rather have full-time jobs. Between 2003 and 2007, underemployment was, on average, close to four percentage points above the unemployment rate. Beginning in 2008, the gap between these numbers began to increase and rose to seven percentage ...

In Monday’s budget brief, NPP’s senior research analyst Chris Hellman explained the payroll tax cut and President Obama's proposal to extend it. But the proposal is controversial—it's been criticized by both Democrats and Republicans. Republicans argue that President Obama must find a way to offset the tax cut by cutting expenditures elsewhere (the President has proposed paying for it by raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans, something that Republicans oppose).

Democrats have also expressed disapproval of the payroll tax cut extension, but for a different reason. The payroll tax is a special kind of tax ...

This is the second installment of our weekly posts about the Federal Priorities Database.  Last week, we ran a database search, creating a map of results.

The next step is interpreting the map. Here’s an example I created by running a search on Unemployment Insurance expenditures.

The three most important things to look at on the map are the title, the measures, and the legend:

The map’s title describes the dataset you’re looking at and also shows the year currently on display.

Some data can be viewed in different ways—for example, in per person amounts, as ...

In the latest installment of our weekly Budget Brief videos, senior research analyst Chris Hellman explains the payroll tax cuts enacted last year, the proposed extension of these cuts into 2012, and the debate over how to pay for them.

Visit the National Priorities Project YouTube channel to see our past Budget Briefs.

I stayed up half the night engrossed in this book.

It’s that compelling and well designed.  In fact, I’ve been an organizer and activist for 45 years, and I’ve never seen a resource as useful, timely and visually appealing as the just-released Dream of a Nation: Inspiring Ideas for a Better America.  We are proud to be one of over 60 collaborators contributing to this 400 page book of essays, over three years in the making  What’s so unique about this is book is that it covers so much ground, so thoroughly.  It’s an encyclopedia ...

We're introducing a new weekly data feature to showcase our Federal Priorities Database and help folks make the best use of it. Not sure what the database is? It's a collection of information we've pulled from many, many federal government agencies and compiled into one easy-to-use search tool. We think it’s important for people to see how the US spends money and how that money impacts our quality of life.

We’ll start at the beginning and describe how to run a database search in three easy steps.

Step 1: Where do you go?

To get ...

 Last week I wrote about how automatic, across-the-board cuts scheduled to take effect in 2013 may never take place—because a new Congress can choose not to uphold budget cuts legislated by our current Congress.

 But it’s also worth asking, if the next Congress does uphold these automatic cuts, called “sequestration,” what would they mean for the federal budget? The answer is big. Let me show you.

If sequestration takes place, we will live in a world very different from our current one. The blue line shows spending in fiscal year 2010, the last year for which complete data ...

The super committee's failure to come up with the required $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction over ten years triggers sequestration, across-the-board cuts to security and non-security spending. These cuts will slice about $55 billion from non-security spending for each of the next ten years. What does this mean to real programs, like the federal Work-Study program, which funds part-time jobs for undergraduates? In 2010 spending for the federal Work-Study program was around $32 per college-age person in the U.S. Sequestration, combined with other recent mandated spending cuts, will reduce non-security discretionary spending by around 28 percent relative ...

November 23rd is the deadline for the super committee, officially named the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. They’ve all but announced failure to come up with even $1 of their $1.2 trillion deficit reduction task. Since the creation of the super committee, we’ve been hearing there would be automatic, across-the-board cuts to security and non-security spending—called “sequestration”— if the committee failed its task.

Well, here we are. Bracing yourself?

If those cuts took effect, they would work out to around $55 billion cut from non-security discretionary spending every year for ten years, or roughly 13 ...

This data story focuses on LIHEAP, one of many programs that would see reduced funding if sequestration goes into effect.

The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) subsidizes heating and cooling costs for low income households. The proposed FY 2012 budget requested $1.98 billion for LIHEAP, 62% less than the $5.2 billion it received in 2010. If Congress fails to enact $1.2 trillion in deficit reductions by December 23rd, LIHEAP will be further cut as part of the across-the-board spending reductions known as sequestration.

View federal LIHEAP spending since 1993, as well as notes and sources ...

With its Nov. 23 deadline looming, members of the congressional “Super Committee” have a range of options as they try to find at least $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade. Here are some of the possibilities:A Grand Bargain:  President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner tried negotiating a much larger deficit reduction package earlier this summer that included reforming entitlement programs, cutting security and non-security spending and increasing tax revenues, but it found little support among House Republicans. This week a bipartisan group of 100 House members and 45 Senators urged the Committee to adopt ...

Just like last year, the new fiscal year began on October 1, 2011 with no federal budget in place. And just like last year, the U.S. government is being funded through a Continuing Resolution (CR) – temporary spending legislation that provides funding at current levels for any federal agency whose annual appropriations bill has not yet been enacted by Congress. And yes, just like last year, the new fiscal year began with none – as in zero – of the twelve annual appropriations bills enacted.Hopefully, that is where the similarities end. Hopefully, but doubtful. If there is to be a FY2012 ...

This data story compares the health insurance coverage rate of children under 18 and adults in the 18 to 64-year-old category.

Originally implemented in 1997, the Childrens Health Insurance Program (CHIP) was reauthorized in 2009 and funded through FY 2013. CHIP, jointly funded by federal and state governments, helps states provide health insurance coverage for uninsured children. During the recent economic downturn, even as the percentage of 18 to 64-year-olds with health insurance dipped below 80, the coverage rate for children held steady at just over 90 percent.

View health insurance coverage rates, as well as notes and sources, here.

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) between 1979 and 2007 income for the top 1 percent of households grew by 275 percent. The next 19 percent of households saw their income grow by 65 percent. Income grew 40 percent for the next 60 percent of households. The bottom 20 percent of households saw income growth of 18 percent. The figures were released in CBO's recent report  "Trends in the Distribution of Household Income Between 1979 and 2007." Further, CBO found that the share of income going to higher-income households rose, while the share going to lower-income households fell ...

It seems that these days, everyone has an opinion about how our federal budget should be spent, cut or balanced. 

Youth are disproportionately affected by budget cuts, but often don't have a voice in the debate -- until now.

The American Friends Service Committee and National Priorities Project are pleased to announce the second annual If I Had a Trillion Dollars (IHTD) national youth video contest.

The IHTD Youth Film Festival asks young people to speak out on the federal budget and to consider how our nation prioritizes spending and revenue generation.  

Who? The contest is open to individuals and ...

This week the Economic Policy Institute celebrates its 25th anniversary. We at National Priorities Project want to thank EPI for a quarter century of service, and for things like this chart, from the recent EPI report on income inequality:

This chart is a unique- and telling- way of examining the kind of income inequality that motivates many involved in the Occupy movement. The bottom 95 percent of Americans claimed 2.8 percent of capital income growth between 1979 and 2007. What is capital income growth? "Capital income" is money earned from investments like stocks and real estate. Thus, as capital ...

This data story explores the relationship between Department of Defense procurement spending and unemployment rates.

At the October 26th Super Committee hearing, some lawmakers discussed closing budget deficits by reducing military spending. Critics of this proposal point out that military contracts create work. Others argue that military programs are the least efficient means for creating jobs via government spending. Using the NPP database to get 2010 numbers on per-person Department of Defense procurement spending, we found no correlation between that number and lower state unemployment.

View Department of Defense procurement spending and unemployment rates, as well as notes and sources ...

There’s so much talk these days about federal deficits and cutting spending. So we at NPP thought it would be good to talk about tax revenues—the other half of the budget picture—and not just about spending (For some background on how the budget works, check out the People’s Guide to the Federal Budget)

Some folks say the government is “bankrupt,” but a look at Costoftaxcuts.com suggests that temporary tax cuts, enacted by President Bush and extended through 2012 by President Obama, have a lot to do with current deficits.

For example,

• Bush tax cuts for ...

Our friends at the Sunlight Foundation are working for a more transparent "Super Committee" process and have developed five recommendations:

Provide a live webcasts of all official meetings and hearings

Make available the Committee's report for 72 hours before a final committee vote

Disclose every meeting held with lobbyists and other powerful interests

Disclose all campaign contributions as they are received (on their campaign websites)

Provide financial disclosures of Committee members and staffers

Check out Sunight's campaign page at http://sunlightfoundation.com/opensupercongress/ with additional resources for individuals and groups to take action.

In addition to all the ...

Data from the Census Bureau show that the percentage of families in poverty rose between 2008 and 2010.1 And it's no secret that unemployment and underemployment numbers also rose during that time.2 So when reviewing the latest food insecurity numbers, I was surprised to see that the nationwide percentage of food insecure households was virtually unchanged between 2008 and 2010.3

The USDA defines food insecure as households that have difficulty providing enough food for all members; therefore, it seems logical that this number would go up along with poverty and underemployment.

Curious, I decided to see ...

$1,034,401,772,556.

That’s the cost to the U.S. Treasury since 2001 from Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 5 percent of Americans—as of the moment I started writing this blog post. National Priorities Project and Citizens for Tax Justice today released CostOfTaxCuts.com, a site that has a real-time ticker showing the cost of tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

A few highlights:

 The average tax cut in 2011 for a household in the wealthiest one percent is $66,384. The average tax cut for a household in the poorest 20 percent is $107 ...

This week's data story is inspired by an activist from Daytona Beach, Florida. Mattea Kramer, NPP's newest research analyst, met Shannon McLeish in DC at the Take Back the Dream conference and wrote about her work.

Mattea also crunched some Volusia County, FL numbers to come up with the following:

This data story honors Shannon McLeish, who is highlighting rising unemployment, homelessness, and increasingly scarce social services available in Volusia County, FL. That county has a 12% unemployment rate—a third higher than the national average of 9.1%. The database also shows that the average Volusia resident ...

This

week I (Mattea Kramer, research analyst here at NPP) traveled to Washington to

the Take Back the American Dream conference. What did I learn? I learned that the

American Dream Movement is about Shannon McLeish and others like her. Shannon

and I ate cheese quesadillas together on Monday night. Shannon has two

daughters, ages 6 and 7. She and her husband are self-employed; she has a tiny

editing business, and he sells things on Craigslist and eBay. They’re from

Daytona Beach, Florida.

Shannon

became an activist when chemical additives in her kids’ food made her concerned for their ...

Right now our elected officials are trying to balance the federal budget on the backs of the most marginalized Americans.

This crusade to drag government into the bathroom and drown it will,

over time, result in the erosion or near eradication of programs that

safeguard our collective well-being. Four years into an economic crisis,

the majority of our states remain in deficit and local communities are

far beyond cutting fat. We're now sawing at bone.

This year, fewer federal dollars will flow into my home state of

Massachusetts at a time when the Commonwealth budget is already short

$1 ...

This week's story from NPP's Federal Priorities Database concerns Pell Grants:

When adjusted for inflation, this dataset shows how the Federal Pell Grant program has recently benefitted from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (i.e., stimulus money). 2010 Pell Grant spending, $33.1B, is 102% greater than 2008 spending. The House Appropriations Committee has proposed reducing FY12 Pell Grant expenditures by changing eligibility criteria.

View the Pell Grants spending map here, as well as notes and sources, rankings, and downloads.

Followers of "Ask Kyle" may be surprised to see this, as our good friend and colleague Kyle Andrejczyk posted his last post on September 12. But so many people found Kyle's work to be so helpful in explaining the craziness that went on this summer in Washington around the federal budget that we at NPP are reluctant to let Kyle go. And with a complicated road still to be driven by Congress between now and the end of the year on the federal deficit and the national debt, we need Kyle more than ever.So Kyle is staying, at ...

As promised, NPP is continually improving our Federal Priorities Database, and this week we have two important updates to share (and it’s only Wednesday).  Now that we have some new and improved data, look for more data stories coming soon.PovertyWe’ve changed the source of our poverty numbers from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS) to its American Community Survey (ACS).  It sounds academic, but the change is important. Although the CPS presents poverty numbers by state, the Census folks don’t recommend comparing them over time, which of course is exactly what we want to ...

The featured data story this week is WIC benefits and participation:

In June the House passed a bill that would reduce funding for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women Infants and Children (WIC). WIC is not an entitlement program, so women who qualify could be denied assistance if funds run out. Average monthly benefits range from $27 in Texas to $52 in Mississippi.

Accompanying the story is this blog post: Deficit Reduction or Class Warfare?. Click here to view the interactive dataset behind these numbers, including maps, tables, downloads, and sources.

Here we go again.

For the second year in a row, Congress

will not complete the federal budget process in time

for the October 1 turn of the fiscal year.

Last year, we were dragged through

eight painful continuing resolutions lasting until mid-April –

leading ultimately to decreases – largely in non-security

discretionary spending – totaling $38 billion.

And this summer's political theatre

revolved around the debt ceiling and threats of a government

shutdown. Unfortunately, even as the Super Committee charts the next

decade of federal spending and revenue priorities, we're on track

this fall for more of the same nonsense ...

Obama's speech in the Rose Garden on

Monday outlined his proposal to control deficit spending, which

features the “Buffet Rule” to ensure that households earning over

$1 million do not pay a lower tax rate than middle-class Americans.

Critics of Obama's plan called this class warfare.

But in today's flagging economy, if

“class warfare” describes an assault on the highest earners, it

may also be an apt description for what's happening to more

vulnerable Americans. Census data released last week revealed that

more than 40 percent of households headed by women were impoverished

in 2010. For ...

President Obama presented the American

Jobs Act of 2011 on September 8th and sent it to Congress

on September 12th. Want to know what it's all about?

Here’s the rundown.

How does it help…

the unemployed? It makes it

illegal for employers to discriminate against unemployed job

applicants because of their unemployed status, and would extend

unemployment benefits, among other provisions.

employers? It cuts the payroll tax

in half for 98 percent of companies. It also gives a $4,000 bonus to

employers who hire the long-term unemployed.

veterans? It creates a “Returning

Heroes” tax credit to employers ...

10 numbers you need to know:

$1.26

Trillion –

Total amount appropriated by Congress for the wars in Iraq and

Afghanistan through the end of Fiscal Year 2011 (September 30, 2011)

– $797.3 billion for Iraq and $459.8 billion for Afghanistan.

$7.6

Trillion –

The total amount spent on “security” by the U.S. government

since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 (through the end

of Fiscal Year 2011).

96

Percent –

The percentage increase in “Security” discretionary spending

(Defense Department, weapons activities of the Department of Energy,

homeland security, international affairs and veterans affairs) from

FY2000 to FY2011 ...

National

Priorities Project announces the launch of its Federal

Priorities Database,

a tool which compares the way our nation spends money with the

social impact of these expenditures. The database tracks both

federal spending and social indicators (e.g., poverty rates,

renewable energy usage and enrollment in the State Children's Health

Insurance Program) and houses information at the state, county and

school district levels.

There's an

abundance of timely and vital stories in each of NPP's nine database

categories. At a time when all eyes are on the federal budget -- and census data in particular,

we hope ...

Now that schools everywhere are back in full swing, we’ve posted a new featured data story on our Federal Priorities Database. This one looks at two datasets:

School Lunch Participation: the number of students eating school lunch during the school year

School Lunch Program Expenditures: a US Department of Agriculture grant that provides school lunches to low-income children and subsidizes all other lunches

Over the years, the number of students eating school lunch has increased, reaching nearly 32 million for the school year ending in 2010.

These lunches were subsidized by the National School Lunch Program (NSLP).  Federal assistance ...

Do you remember (as unpleasant as it may be) the debt-ceiling fiasco that happened a little more than a month ago?  Well in case you need a refresher, the end result called for an immediate $917 billion in spending cuts over the next 10 years. The rest of the proverbial buck was passed onto to a joint congressional committee charged with finding an additional $1.2 – 1.5 trillion in savings. This is important because this newly formed “Super Committee” will potentially be deciding federal spending priorities for the next decade.I say potentially because there’s a possibility that ...

I. SummaryIn conjunction with Labor Day and our current featured data story on unemployment, we present a primer on the complex world of unemployment insurance. Unemployment Insurance (UI) is a joint venture between the federal government and the states: each state sets its own recipient critera based on federal guidelines.The federal government collects taxes from employers, which go into a Trust Fund that pays for administrative costs, state loans, and extended benefits. States collect employer taxes too; these fund the first 26 weeks of unemployment benefits.During long periods of economic downturn, the federal government has two ways to ...

Back in June, NPP soft-launched a new version of our Federal Priorities Database.  After incorporating some feedback, we’re ready for a wider audience.The Federal Priorities Database sits on top of information we’ve collected from various government agencies.  It provides a single interface for seeing everything from state emissions to average teacher salaries to the amount of money the US spends on food stamps.The goal? Show the local impact of federal spending , the trends in social indicators, and the relationship between the two. One way we'll do that is to feature data stories on NPP’s ...

England certainly seems like a long ways away my friends, both in terms of miles (or kilometers) and humor. And perhaps that’s a good thing considering the onerous prison sentences doled out as a result of the recent London riots. But as many of you on our Facebook page have been hinting at, the UK may actually be a little closer than we think…Much of the news media cited the slaying of Mark Duggan, a black man, by London police as the cause of the riots. However, as many people who spend their days thinking about these sorts ...

This is the first our data stories, short pieces to spotlight the role of the Federal Priorities Database in understanding the relationship between social indicators and federal spending programs. This week, we're featuring food stamp participation and unemployment rates:

Almost 45 million people, or 1 out of every 7 in the US, currently receive benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps). Between fiscal year 2008, when the recession began, and fiscal year 2010, when it officially ended, the number of food stamp recipients grew 42% nationwide and more in some states.

View the complete set of food ...

The

White House Office of Public Engagement has scheduled a series of ten

state calls (see list and specific invitation below). Note there are

two calls today (Wednesday) for folks in California and Colorado and

the rest through the end of this week. You are welcome to forward

this invitation far and wide.

White

House staff want to speak with constituents about the federal budget

deficit/debt deal. There will be an opportunity to ask questions. NPP

hopes you will be able to join in and ask a question and/or make a

comment. (Tip: Call facilitators often give instructions ...

NOTE: This article originally appeared on TomDispatch.com.The killing of Osama Bin Laden did not put cuts in national security spending on the table, but the debt-ceiling debate finally did. And mild as those projected cuts might have been, last week newly minted Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta was already digging in his heels and decrying the modest potential cost-cutting plans as a "doomsday mechanism" for the military. Pentagon allies on Capitol Hill were similarly raising the alarm as they moved forward with this year's even larger military budget.None of this should surprise you. As with all ...

In

the midst of Congressional debates about debt, budget cuts, and tax

increases, a “penny poll” was held in every

Maine county asking participants, “How would you like your federal tax

dollars spent?” Mainers Larry Dansinger and Lisa Savage were among the leading coordinators of this effort.Education, health care, and veterans’ benefits were the top choices

for federal spending among the1,552 Mainers participating in polls conducted in each of Maine's 16 counties.The

results -- determined after counting 15,377 pennies -- diverge considerably from

the actual spending by Congress, but were relatively consistent in

different parts of the ...

Well friends it's August 3, and despite their best efforts Congress and the President did finally pass a deal to raise the debt-ceiling. It's call the Budget Control Act of 2011. Happy days, right? Not so fast, Fonzarelli. Nearly every lawmaker who voted for the bill has described it as the legislative equivalent of a '87 Buick Wagon: not pretty, but it'll get you to work. Here in the halls of the National Priorities Project we've been mulling over the details of the plan extensively, which you can read about here and here. After looking at ...

Well, people, it's August 1, just hours away from the deadline for raising the debt-ceiling and avoiding a disastrous U.S. credit default. As this story has unfolded, we've had some laughs, shared some disappointments and frustrations I'm sure, as well as a renewed our appreciation for the nuances of the English language. But now Congress seems ready to strike a deal. So let's take one more debt-ceiling drive together, shall we? This is kind of a long read, but stick with me on this one! What's going on right now will affect us all ...

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There

are a deluge of budget proposals and compromises that Congress is

trying to quickly wade through as the August 2nd

date for default on our federal debt draws near. On one side, House

Republicans refuse to raise the debt ceiling without a deal to cut

spending, and have rhetorically reduced budget cuts to a dichotomy of

prosperity or decline. They insist on no new revenues and

social-program sacrifices to get our country back on track

financially. On other hand, there are a congeries of Democratic

voices that suggest everything from cutting entitlement programs ...

We left off last week with a Boehner-Obama breakup that would've made the writers of Dawson's Creek green with envy. On Friday, it was rumored the two were close to striking a deal on the debt-ceiling, but then Boehner started acting all weird and not returning Barry's phone calls. So Obama was all like "what's going on? I thought we had something here?" So then Boehner comes out and says "sorry, but I just don't feel the same way...it's not me, it's you." Then Obama was all like, "whatever, your loss." ...I ...

We left off last week with the White House talks crumbling, the GOP rallying around the sure-to-fail Cut, Cap & Balance Act, and Sen. Mitch McConnell's “last ditch” plan gaining traction, at least in the Senate. Here's what's happening this week with the debt-ceiling (and if you have time check out out this op-ed from Joe Scarborough, even if you don't agree with his politics he has some great insights on the topic):Sunday, July 17House Speaker John Boehner and House Minority Leader Eric Cantor meet with President Obama at the White House. Boehner's office later ...

A LOT of people have been asking me for details of what's been going on with the debt-ceiling. And rightly so, there's a flood of information out there. But here's the important stuff:On Thursday, July 7, President Obama met with Congressional leaders at the White House in an attempt to break the impasse in the debt-ceiling negotiations.  Previous talks among the Gang of Six (really 5), and the Biden Group both broke down. The thinking here was that the Presidential gravitas might help to break the stalemate and get a deal hammered out before the United ...

If you're anything like me, it's because you simply don't make enough money to be taxed at the top marginal rate. A “marginal rate” is the rate at which your last dollar of earned-income is taxed. These “marginal dollars” are the dollars at the very upper edge of your income. The “top marginal rate” is simply the highest marginal rate in the U.S. tax code...something that most of us will never see.With discussion of raising taxes on the wealthy going on in the debt-ceiling talks right now, I've been noticing a lot of ...

Everybody wants to reduce the deficit, right? Elected officials across the political spectrum, business  and labor groups, even 81% of everyday Americans (according to a poll by the Pew Research Center) — all would like to see the federal deficit reduced. The thing is, it's incredibly difficult to get all these people with disparate interests to agree on exactly how to do it. Everybody wants to cut the deficit, but no one wants to see funding cuts (or ending tax breaks) to their “sacred cows.” So everything (that I like) is amazing and nobody's happy (with that).“...After the ...

Oh Captain! My Captain! Our fearful trip is done; Our ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won; The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting! Well...not quite. Although I'm sure our elected officials across the political spectrum would like to claim the glory and honor ringing through Walt Whitman's timeless prose. But unfortunately, the budget battles going on in Washington right now do not reflect a spirit of Carpe Diem. Instead of our representatives in Washington “Seizing the Day,” the Day has essentially Ceased. (Forgive us our puns ...

If you're like most humans, when you see “Appropriations Committee Releases Fiscal Year 2012 Financial Services Appropriations Bill” your eyes probably wander to see if there's any grass growing or paint drying nearby. And if you're under 25 you probably didn't even read the whole thing, did you? Well you should've, because as Shelly M. from Rock Springs, Wyoming pointed out to me, the financial services bill contains several provisions that could impact your life in a big way. So close out of Reddit, leave StumbleUpon alone, and forget about your email and newsfeed for ...

Earlier this week I went to Washington, D.C. for the international conference of RESULTS, a nonpartisan organization working to end hunger and poverty by empowering individuals to exercise their personal and political power. The goal of RESULTS is captured in this quote by former Oregon Republican Senator Mark Hatfield:“We stand by as children starve by the millions because we lack the will to eliminate hunger. Yet we have found the will to develop missiles, capable of flying over the polar cap and landing within a few hundred feet of their target. This is not innovation. It is a ...

That’s the message that U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates got from President Hamid Karzai when he visited Afghanistan in December 2009. At that time, President Karzai told Sec. Gates that the Afghan government would not be able to shoulder the costs of the nation’s new security forces – both national police and military – before 2024.Days later, in testimony before the Senate, General David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in the region, estimated that the cost of supporting Afghan security forces would total $10 billion annually.With President Obama scheduled to make a major address on the ...

Right now in Baltimore, top elected officials from cities across the country are meeting for the 79th time since the founding of the U.S. Conference of Mayors during the Great Depression. The group consists of more than 1,200 mayors, representing cities with 30,000+ residents. This year's meeting marks a rare but significant event for the Conference: a foray into the realm of international affairs.The last time the US Conference of Mayors peeked out from behind the mantle of municipal management was some 40 years ago during the Vietnam War. Today, the current mayoral membership joined ...

Several folks wrote to me this past week with questions about all the debt ceiling talk going on in

Washington right now. But first, let me ask all of you something: Can you feel it? That electric tingle in the air? The almost palpable feeling of magic and wonder reminiscent of youthful summer days...days spent fawning over Winnie Cooper and listening to Joe Cocker's cover of “With a Little Help from my Friends?” Wait...that's actually just the opening credits to The Wonder Years. Anyways, it's that special time of year again: Flag Day. But this ...

Ask Kyle – Putting the “Bud” back in Federal BudgetWell...maybe. The actual answer is complicated. Although that might be an a reasonable conclusion to draw if you recently read that Congress was planning to slash more than $832 million from the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Nutrition Program. WIC helps low-income women and children receive such things as nutrition education, health care, and food....y'know, luxury items. According the Center on Budget Policies and Priorities, this loss could block assistance for up to 350,000 low-income women and children. Now keep in mind that $832 million represents just .02 ...

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On June 6th, 103

Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives lead by

Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) sent a letter to Speaker of the

House John Boehner (R-OH) and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor

(R-VA) calling for a “Cut, Cap, and Balance” strategy for dealing

with the nation's large federal debt. The letter comes amidst

pressure to raise the debt ceiling as we approach a possible

government default in August. While raising the debt ceiling is

nothing new – and indeed has been done ten times in the past decade

– this ...

That's the conclusion of a new analysis by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), in a report released last week: "Tenth Anniversary of the Bush-Era Tax Cuts: A decade later, the Bush tax cuts remain expensive, ineffective, and unfair."According to EPI's website, their mission "is to achieve shared prosperity by raising the economic status of low- and middle-income Americans."In the report EPI policy analysts Andrew Fieldhouse and Ethan Pollack detail ten findings: 1) The Bush tax cuts disproportionately benefited the wealthy – The top 0.1% of wage earners (those making over $3 million) received an average tax ...

Greetings All,My name is Kyle Andrejczyk (pronounced ann-dray-zik) and I'm here to help. I invite you to join me this summer as we all try to navigate the murky waters of the federal budgetary process. If last year's budget process is any indicator, then the course ahead will surely be laden with snags, chokers and rocks that could easily sink any ship. In trying to make sense of what's happening in Washington, you can become overwhelmed with information just as if you tipped a canoe far enough to watch the water rush in over the edge ...

Last week NPP published "U.S. Security Spending Since 9/11," an analysis of total federal spending on defense and homeland security since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The key findings of the report were:The United States has spent more than $7.6 trillion on defense and homeland security since the attacks of September 11, 2001.Total homeland security spending since September 11, 2001 is $635.9 billion.The "homeland security" figure is of particular interest because unlike other types of government funding – Pentagon spending, for instance – funding for homeland security isn't tracked or documented as ...

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On May 25, 2011 the full U.S. Senate

began work on its version of the FY2012 budget resolution with the

consideration of four separate budget proposals. These proposals

represent the broad range of options available as Congress moves

forward with its efforts to enact a budget while achieving meaningful

reductions in the annual deficit. The votes were procedural and

determined which of the proposals would be brought to the floor for

full debate, including possible amendments. None of the four

proposals were approved for further consideration.

The President's FY2012 Budget was

presented ...

A new analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) has identified between $1.1 trillion and $2.6 trillion in possible deficit reduction measures that are common to most or all of four of the major deficit reduction proposals circulating in Washington.CRFB found "significant overlap" among the fiscal plans proposed by President Obama, House Republicans, the White House's Debt Reduction Task Force, and the "Domenici-Rivlin" Commission plan. The areas of overlap came in discretionary spending cuts, some minor entitlement reform (not including Social Security) and closing some tax loopholes. Most changes where accepted by only ...

Half in Ten, the campaign to cut poverty in half in ten years, in partnership with the Coalition on Human Needs (CHN), which heads up the "SAVE for All" coalition, have launched the "Stories" website. Together they "are collecting videos and written testimony from affected individuals from across the country that highlight the ways that federal programs successfully build shared prosperity and what cuts to these programs would mean for families, communities and businesses across the country."Stories already on the site include "Heidi’s Story About Head Start and SCHIP," "Coretta’s Story About Child Care and Development Block ...

Yesterday the House Appropriations Committee released its 302(b) allocations for Fiscal Year 2012. These numbers reflect the amount of spending each appropriations subcommittee will have for the programs under their jurisdiction for the coming year. 302(b) allocations are based on the Budget Resolution which was introduced by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI), and which the House adopted back in April. The Budget Resolution serves as the framework within which appropriators will now build the detailed spending plans for FY2012.302(b) allocations represent the roughly one-third of federal spending that make up the discretionary budget – that ...

This week the Senate may begin its work on the FY2012 federal budget, while Vice President Joseph Biden holds a second high-level meeting with leading congressional figures on the budget.Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) is likely to release his FY2012 budget resolution sometime this week. As in the House, the Senate budget resolution serves as a framework for making budget decisions about spending and taxes and sets overall spending and revenue targets. (It does not, however, set specific spending amounts for particular programs.)Meanwhile, freshman Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA), a member of both the Budget and Joint ...

Our latest webinar Hitting the Debt Ceiling is a 45-minute presentation (with Q&A) that will introduce people to the current debate in Washington related to raising the legal limit on the U.S. national debt, which will shortly reach $14.3 trillion.The government is set to officially reach the debt limit by the middle of May. According to Treasury officials, however, emergency measures taken by the Treasury Department combined with higher than expected tax revenues will postpone a potential default until the beginning of August.Failure to raise the debt ceiling - the total amount that the U.S ...

National Priorities Project has released a new analysis of the competing budget plans issued by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan and the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

 In

addition to its new analysis, NPP provides a set of tools which

summarize the outcome of the FY2011 federal budget process and offer a

powerful foundation necessary for understanding the current FY2012

budget debate:Our recent analysis of the Fiscal Year 2011 budget agreement;A re-release of NPP's FY2012 budget materials (reflecting the impact of the FY2011 budget agreement);Our updated President's FY2012 Budget Webinar;Educational materials to help teach others ...

Friday, April 8, the House of

Representatives and the Senate worked until almost midnight to draft

and pass legislation to keep the government open. This seventh

Continuing Resolution cuts another $2

billion from the FY2011 budget in the span of a week. During the

week, Congress has pledged to pass an eigth and final Continuing

Resolution that will fund the government through September 30. This

last piece of budget work must be written and passed before midnight

April 15 to avoid a shutdown.

The House Committee on Appropriations

has released a list of proposed cuts for this final funding bill ...

Late Friday night, Democratic and Republican congressional leaders and President Obama reached agreement on a spending bill that will fund the government for the last six months of Fiscal Year 2011, which ends on September 30, 2011. The agreement is actually two bills -- a seven day continuing resolution that will allow time for the last minute work needed to enact the full spending package. That  package reportedly contains roughly $38 billion less for FY2011 than was requested by the Obama Administration back in February 2010. In doing so, Congress and the White House narrowly averted the first government shutdown since ...

It’s Cherry Blossom season in Washington, D.C. Each year at this time hundreds of thousands of people from across the country and around the world flock to our nation’s Capitol to stroll along the banks of the Tidal Basin, “ooo-ing” and “ahhh-ing” at the vibrant pink flowers on hundreds of trees, the air filled with falling petals and the sweet smell of their blooms.But on the eve of a possible shutdown of the federal government, the many tourists visiting Washington smell something rotten. On Saturday morning they may well awake to a city where much of ...

Chairman Ryan’s deep cuts would only achieve modest deficit reductions in 2012The budget proposal released by Rep. Paul Ryan’s this week includes a slew of cuts to “non-security” discretionary programs in 2012.  The deepest cuts are illustrated below.   Rep. Ryan proposes we spend less than half as much as President Obama proposed on both Transportation and International Affairs.   He would spend 46% less than the President on Energy.  (For a full comparison of President Obama’s and Rep. Ryan’s 2012 budget proposals see NPP’s factsheet.)However, these deep cuts would only have modest impacts on the ...

The US House of Representatives has proposed slashing the FY11 budget for open data from $34 million to $2 million, effectively shutting down sites like Data.gov and USASpending.gov.Open government data is crucial to our work at National Priorities Project, and we’re in a position to give these numbers some context.  Although $32 million may sound like a vast sum of money, it is actually .0009% of the proposed Federal FY11 budget.A percentage that small does not represent a true cost-saving initiative—it represents an effort to use the budget and the economic crisis to promote ...

To date, this space has been used by National Priorities Project's budget experts to supplement our datasets and other online resources.As NPP's new database manager, I'd like to add some technical commentary to the mix. There’s a few exciting projects in the works—projects that will extend the reach of our publications, analysis, and curated data.New Database Search InterfaceNPP’s online database is unique because it supplements Federal government spending numbers with demographic, education, environment, health, and military indicators.Truthfully, the database’s front-end is looking stale.  But later this spring we’re launching ...

On March 16, Senator John Cornyn (R-TX)

proposed an amendment to a bill reauthorizing two award programs

offered by the Small Business Administration. It has not gotten much

press, but it proposes serious, long-term changes to how Washington

does business and places eight members of Congress in charge of the

fate of all programs in the federal government.

Senator Cornyn wants to create what is

referred to as a “sunset commission or committee”, which has the

power to review federal agencies and programs for termination,

transfer, or reduction. It would draw a list of programs to be

considered every 10 ...

The Senate passed a sixth Continuing

Resolution on March 17, 2011, which cuts an additional $6 billion

from the Fiscal Year 2011 budget. The FY 2011 year ends September 30,

2011 and Republican leaders are under pressure to meet the $100

billion-cut-goal set by the House Appropriations Committee. As this

year's budget process grinds forward with a series of Continuing

Resolutions, the Republicans have less and less time in which to

enact those reductions before FY 2012 begins on October 1, 2011.

The latest Continuing Resolution goes

into effect on March 19, 2011 and funds the government for an ...

A new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) has updated data about the impact of the continued struggling economy on state budgets. According to CBPP's latest analysis, 44 states and the District of Columbia are projecting budget shortfalls totaling $112 billion for fiscal year 2012, which for most states begins on July 1, 2011.These figures are down slightly from previous years, both in terms of the number of states reporting shortfalls and the total deficit figures. According to CBPP, annual cumulative state shortfall totals were $110 billion in FY2009 (45 states and the District ...

I had the real privilege of

speaking at the Michigan Forum on Jobs and Human Needs on Saturday,

March 6, 2001. Sponsored by a great mix of labor, faith, peace and

student groups, the event was held in Lansing, Michigan, the state's

capital, which is located within Ingham County.

Many of the conference organizers

are affiliated with Our Nation's Checkbook (ONCB), a national budget

priorities organizing campaign run amazingly well out of Friends

Committee on National Legislation and supported by NPP's information.My task was to answer the

question: What the heck does the federal budget have ...

Congress is currently struggling to

pass a budget for FY 2011 (which began six months ago). The debate

has been overtaken by overwhelming concern about both the annual

deficit and the national debt which is approaching $14 trillion. In

the two-week continuing resolution passed on March 2, higher

education programs in the federal Department of Education will

lose $129 million in funding for just the next two weeks alone.

At the same time Congress is proposing cuts in federal aid, the

states themselves are experiencing fiscal crises and making difficult

budget choices for their FY 2012. Public higher education has ...

Budgeting Process

How does the

budget go from an idea to a law?

Each

February, the Office of Management and Budget, which is part of the

White House, releases the President's budget requests for the next

fiscal year, which starts October 1. The House of Representatives and

the Senate subcommittees hold hearings, make changes, and send the

final bills to the floor for a vote. Once each chamber has passed the

appropriations bills, the President signs it into law and the budget

officially takes effect on the first day of the next fiscal year. See

our Federal

Budget 101 ...

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On February 19, 2011 the House of

Representatives passed the Republican majority's version of the

Fiscal Year 2011 spending bill, which contains funding for the entire

federal government through the end of September. 162 amendments were

offered during consideration of the bill and 67 passed. Let's take a

look at some of the spending cuts proposed in the budget and what

they mean going forward.The spending cut that made the

headlines first was the vote

to remove funding for a second engine for the Pentagon's Joint

Strike Fighter program. Members ...

NPP

Provides State-Level Analysis of the President'sFiscal

Year 2012 Budget RequestToday

the White House released the Obama Administration's budget request

for Fiscal Year 2012, which begins on October 1, 2011.

As

expected, the estimated $3.7 trillion FY2012 request contains a

number of critical policy and fiscal goals, including:

Reducing

the government's annual deficit by placing a five-year freeze on

so-called "non-security" discretionary spending, while

eliminating a series of fossil fuel-related tax breaks and projecting

an end to the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans in 2012;

Investing

in education, with a goal of training more ...

To the Congress of the United States:America is emerging from the worst recession in generations. In 2010, an economy that had been shrinking began to grow again. After nearly 2 years of job losses, America’s businesses added more than one million jobs. Our capital and credit markets are functioning and strong. Manufacturing is coming back. And after teetering on the brink of liquidation just 2 years ago, America’s auto industry is posting healthy gains and returning money to the taxpayers who helped it through a period of turmoil. The determination and resilience of the American people and ...

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Now we move from the large, tumultuous

body of the House

of Representatives to the smaller and more deliberative Senate.

In the Constitutional compromise, the Senate is meant to prevent

hasty action by the House, serve as a check on the ambition of the

President, and protect the rights of individual states. To accomplish

these tasks, the Senate has a vastly different history, role, and

procedure than the House. Unlike the House, in the Senate individual

members have the power to control the legislative process.

In the original Constitution, Senators

were not elected by ...

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Those of us who remember our high

school U.S. Government classes know that the House of the

Representatives and the Senate are quite different in structure and

function. If we really paid attention, we might recall that the

House, which has 435 voting members, 5 non-voting delegates, and a

Resident Commissioner, was meant to be the chamber most closely tied

to the people's wishes. The Senate, which has 100 members, was meant

to represent the states' interests, and deliberate weighty issues

thoroughly. These distinctions are a result of compromise at the

founding ...

As one third of the country prepares

for winter weather this week, state and local governments are

struggling to find a way to pay for the aftermath. Snow and ice

removal is taking a toll on budgets across the country, and winter is

not yet over. Today we'll take a quick look at some of those

governments and how they are planning to meet their needs.

States that do not usually see snow in

the winter, particularly in the South, are finding other places in

the budget to take their snow removal money from. South Carolina, who

spent an ...

Tuesday night, the President delivered

his annual State of the Union address before a joint session of

Congress. Article II, Section 3 of the US Constitution requires the

President to “from time to time give to the Congress Information of

the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such

Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” Presidents

have historically sent a written State of the Union to Congress, but

every president since Woodrow Wilson has chosen to deliver it in

person.

With the government operating on a

continuing resolution instead of an actual budget, and control of ...

The Politics of Health Care PolicyEven before the November 2, 2010 elections catapulted them back into power in the U.S. House of Representatives, members of the Republican leadership were already announcing their intention to repeal “Obamacare” – the health care reform legislation enacted by Congress only eight months earlier – as one of their first legislative goals.True to their word, House GOP leaders introduced legislation to repeal the new health care law on January 5, 2011, the first day of the 112th Congress. It was the second piece of legislation introduced, preceded only by a bill setting out the rules ...

The United States has been borrowing

its way out of mounting obligations and lowered revenues for some

time. We rely on the federal government to provide a variety of

services across the country, including healthcare for veterans,

special education programs, and energy grants for those with lower

incomes. When tax income is down, the government cannot simply stop

providing for the public. Instead, Congress authorizes the federal

government to borrow to pays its bills, with the expectation that

those loans (and their interest) will be repaid down the line.

The United States Government began its

life with debt left from ...

The

American Friends Service Committee and National Priorities Project

are preparing to announce the six lucky winners of If

I Had a Trillion Dollars

(IHTD), a national video contest which asks young people to convey

how they would spend the more than $1 trillion dollars spent on the

U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

After

receiving 48 compelling video submissions from passionate young men

and women across the country, AFSC and NPP will be announcing first,

second and third place prizes in both the middle/high school and the

college level categories on January 17, 2011, the celebrated birthday ...

In the Continuing

Resolution passed by Congress on December 21, 2010 one line

specifies that the maximum Pell Grant award amount shall not exceed

$4,860. These grants, which do not have to be repaid, are an

essential part of making college affordable. However, not many are

aware of the history of the grant, who actually receives the money

and how much the grant is worth in the real world. NPP is here to

help!The Pell Grant came into existence as

the Basic

Educational Opportunity Grant via the Higher Education Act of

1965. In 1980, the program was renamed ...