The United States economy rebounded strongly in the second quarter of the year, shaking off the negative effects of an unusually harsh winter and stirring hopes that it might finally be establishing a solid enough footing to put the lingering effects of the recession squarely in the past.
The Senate has passed a bill to rescue highway and transit funding that House Speaker John Boehner says he won’t accept, keeping the specter of a “highway cliff” alive with just days before Congress is set to leave for its August recess.
After six weeks of contentious, closed-door negotiations, the House and Senate have reached a deal to overhaul the Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system — just in time for senators to vote on a bill before they leave Washington for a monthlong break.
Social Security and Medicare are marching steadily toward bankruptcy though Medicare’s finances improved over the last year, according to a report released Monday by the trustees for the two entitlement programs.
Members of Congress are set to leave town for the “August” recess (which will actually last through Sept. 8) in just over a week’s time. When they return they’ll have a number of headaches on their hands, including must-pass legislation like a bill to keep the government open past Sept. 30 when the current funding expires, and should-pass legislation, like a still-elusive bipartisan compromise to overhaul the Veterans Affairs Department. With the election less than two months later, none of these battles are likely to be pretty.
Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill are united on one thing: The best strategy this election year is to punt on any big decisions.
Lawmakers will wrestle this week with responses to the ongoing border crisis and escalation of Ukraine tensions following the downing of a Malaysian commercial airliner, while also trying to complete time-sensitive legislative matters before a congressional recess that is less than two weeks away.
Since ratification of the constitutional authority given to Congress to tax and spend in 1788, our government has struggled to manage the federal budget. After numerous failed budget concepts and commissions, the Budget Act was finally enacted in 1974 to establish the modern-day budget process. Almost exactly 40 years since the Budget Act was signed into law, there is growing consensus among policymakers and budget observers that the system no longer functions as intended.
Say your doctor told you that your weight problem is imperiling your health. So you lose a few pounds, but that’s not nearly enough for the doctor to lay off the warnings.
The federal budget outlook may be brightening for now, but a new government report says there are dark clouds over the horizon.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson met with moderate Democrats Monday night to discuss the immigration crisis on the Texas border. And while the lawmakers did not emerge united on President Barack Obama’s request for $3.7 billion in emergency funding or with an agreement on new legislation to expedite the return of Central American minors, Johnson called the discussions “productive.”
Thursday will see this year’s most consequential vote in the once-mighty House Ways and Means Committee — to propose one of the more assertive legislative punts in recent memory.