Budget Matters Blog


Data Story: Pell Grants

The Federal Priorities Database shows how the Federal Pell Grant program has recently benefitted from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (i.e., stimulus money).


Kyle Announces NPP's "One (Bumpy) Year in the Life of the Federal Budget" – and Some Fun Stuff

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 ...

Updated Data: 38 Expenditures

38 datasets have been updated to reflect yesterday's release of the FY 2010 Consolidated Federal Funds Report, which tracks federal government expenditures or obligations.


Two Big Federal Priorities DB Updates

This week, NPP released 2 major updates to the Federal Priorities Database: poverty numbers are now pulled from the American Community Survey and include last week's release, and all 38 expenditure datasets are now current through FY 2010. Click through for more details, and be sure to keep up by subscribing to the database's blog or Twitter account.

Updated Data: Poverty

The people, children, and families in poverty datasets are now current through 2010 and reflect the latest American Community Survey (ACS) findings.


We hear you Mr. Norquist but we will not yield!

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 ...

Data Story: WIC Benefits and Participation

Our new featured data story is WIC benefits and participation.


Deficit Reduction or Class Warfare?

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 ...

New Data: County Unemployment

Our unemployment data is now available at the county level as well as the state level.


The Scoop on the American Jobs Act of 2011

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 ...