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Two-year Senate budget deal provides certainty and busts spending caps

Feb 7, 2018
Of course, the Senate deal has to be approved by the House and signed by President Donald Trump. But, assuming that happens, we wouldn’t have to worry about shutdowns or continuing resolutions until the end of fiscal 2019. So what then would a two-year spending plan mean for the federal government?  Click the audio player […]

Big cuts ahead for energy innovation programs

Jul 10, 2017
Funding for the much-lauded ARPA-E innovation program, which funds energy projects with serious potential, will be removed.
Aaron Palumbo looks into a furnace he helped develop in a lab on the University of Colorado campus in Boulder. His company, Big Blue Technologies, received a $3.6 million ARPA-E grant in 2014.
Dan Boyce for Marketplace

For advocacy groups, the federal budget is mainly a blueprint for battle

May 23, 2017
The federal budget released today is pretty much a fantasy document that will be dead on arrival when it gets to Congress, economists say. But even scaled back, proposed budget cuts to Medicaid, food assistance and other programs for the poor are likely to tear a hole in the safety net the likes of which […]

Video: The envelope, please?

Feb 27, 2017
On our weekly Facebook Live video, Kai and Molly talk about the Oscars historic snafu, the president's upcoming budget and more.

What the heck is reconciliation?

Jan 12, 2017
And how is Congress using it to dismantle Obamacare?

Short-term funding leads to long-term problems

Sep 30, 2015
Uncertainty can be expensive.

The budget as a starting point for tax reform

Feb 2, 2015
It will be months before we get detailed plans for tax reform from either party.

For public good, not for profit.

Obama proposes free community college plan

Jan 9, 2015
"No one with the drive and discipline" should be denied a college education, president says.

Budget deal aims to raise more for pension guarantees

Dec 11, 2013
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation backs up about 44 million people’s retirements … and it’s got problems.

Senate Democrats go nuclear, maybe blow up any chance for budget deal, too

Nov 22, 2013
Senate Democrats made a major change to Senate rules yesterday, and may have also destroyed any chance for a budget compromise.