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 ...