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 ...

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 ...

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }a:link { }

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }a:link { }

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 ...

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }a:link { }

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 ...