President Joe Biden will veto the first two appropriations bills to be voted on by the House if they reach his desk, according to White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) statements released on July 24. The statements are a shot across the bow of the Republican-controlled House as it has begun to legislate…

The word “shutdown” has been bandied about Capitol Hill as the standoff over raising the nation’s debt ceiling has morphed into an appropriations battle in the House between hardline Republicans and Democrats. An outline for 2024 federal spending was hammered out in negotiations between Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and President Joe Biden, culminating in the…

The House Republican Study Committee (RSC) released a 2024 budget proposal that would balance the federal budget in seven years while advancing conservative values, stabilizing Social Security, strengthening national defense, and slashing taxes on businesses and individuals. “It all boils down to something we’ve heard the president [Joe Biden] say quite a few times this…

Commentary I don’t know when the debt ceiling will be raised, but it will be raised. Every time federal spending bumps up against the debt ceiling, we witness the same drama, a drama so predictable that you could almost call it a ritual: Republicans, citing a need for fiscal restraint, demand some cuts to federal…

The Biden administration turned up the heat on budget ceiling negotiations set for May 16 by releasing a pair of statements highlighting the urgency of a possible default on the nation’s financial obligations and detailing the spending cuts necessary to meet Republican budget targets. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had notified Congress on May 15 that…

A House committee hearing on the 2024 budget proposal for the Department of Homeland Security became a veritable trial of Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whom Republicans accused of intentionally failing to secure the U.S. border with Mexico. Committee Democrats tried, with little success, to turn the April 19 hearing of the Committee on Homeland Security back…

Persistent underfunding, an aging population, and workforce attrition created a perfect storm that resulted in significant delays in processing applications for Social Security disability benefits. “The pandemic, combined with high attrition, created backlogs. Initial disability claims pending have now reached over 1 million,” Kilolo Kijakazi, acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA), said at…

President Joe Biden’s 2024 budget proposal assumes that government income will be 19.6 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), a figure Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) found hard to believe, saying the country has never generated more than 17.5 percent over 50 years and suggesting the administration was “being dishonest with the American public.”…

A national gun rights organization is decrying the expansion of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) in President Joe Biden’s $6.8 trillion budget proposal for 2024. “GOA is extremely concerned at the massive surge in ATF funding in recent years—doubling the size of the agency since the end of the Obama administration,”…

Surrounded by painters, dry-wallers, and apprentices, President Joe Biden took the podium at a union training center in Philadelphia to announce his plan to invest in American jobs, education, health care, and tech innovation, all while reducing the nation’s deficit. The speech on Mar. 9 unveiled the president’s budget for 2024, and showcased his economic…