Congress is racing to complete work on some big-ticket items before adjourning for the August recess. CQ Roll Call's budget and appropriations reporter Kellie Mejdrich reports on a deal in the works to extend the debt limit and set spending levels for two years. And finance reporter Doug Sword explains why the House plans to vote on a bill to shore up struggling pension plans. Meanwhile, the Senate plans to give final approval of a permanent compensation fund for victims of the Sept. 11 terroris...
Jul 22, 2019•14 min
With new warnings that the U.S. could run out of money to meet its obligations, Congress and the Trump administration are racing to raise the debt limit before lawmakers head home for August, says CQ Roll Call’s appropriations reporter Jennifer Shutt. And tax reporter Doug Sword explains how oil refiners could get up to a $10 billion windfall with an expired tax credit unless Congress intervenes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jul 15, 2019•15 min
With only 25 days left with both the House and Senate in session before the new fiscal year begins, the Senate has yet to draft any of its 12 spending bills and has no plan in place to pass them. The result is likely another short-term stopgap funding measure as congressional leaders struggle to reach a bipartisan deal on overall spending limits. CQ Roll Call's chief budget reporter Paul M. Krawzak explains why Congress has reached this point. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm...
Jul 08, 2019•16 min
House Democrats passed the Financial Services spending bill that includes some controversial provisions, says CQ Roll Call's banking reporter Jim Saksa. Those include blocking money for a border wall, increasing funding to enforce sanctions on Iran, and allowing the District of Columbia to fund abortions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jul 01, 2019•11 min
House Democrats are pushing new changes to the tax code aimed at helping low income individuals and families, with some lawmakers calling for an increase to the corporate tax rate. In this episode, CQ Roll Call's Doug Sword explains who stands to gain and lose. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jun 24, 2019•15 min
As White House and congressional leaders prepare for another meeting this week to get a bipartisan spending caps deal, CQ Roll Call's Paul M. Krawzak unpacks the political sticking points, the pros and cons of a one-year or two-year agreement, and other potential obstacles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jun 17, 2019•15 min
House Democrats are packaging spending bills with the aim of completing all 12 by the end of the month, a goal that is likely to generate a lot of policy debates and amendments, explains Jennifer Shutt in this episode of the CQ Budget podcast. The first package contains five bills including the two largest, Defense and Labor-HHS-Education. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jun 10, 2019•10 min
In an usually candid interview with CQ Roll Call's budget reporter Paul Krawzak, the ex Congressional Budget Office director Keith Hall said the often secretive process the Republicans followed defeated their effort to repeal Obamacare in 2017. He also urged Congress to deal with the rising deficits that will fall on the backs of younger Americans, saying that in the coming decade 50 percent of federal funding will be spent on just 20 percent of the population — people who are 65 and older. Lear...
Jun 03, 2019•15 min
House lawmakers on Tuesday again will try to clear a $19.1 billion disaster aid package via unanimous consent after Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas blocked it Friday for a variety of reasons; delaying much needed funds for states still recovering from natural disasters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 28, 2019•11 min
House appropriators this week will take up the biggest of the 12 annual spending bills, the $690 billion Pentagon measure that includes some prickly issues such as funding for Taliban expenses for peace talks with the U.S. and money to give the Pentagon more F-35 fighter jets than it requested, says CQ Roll Call's senior defense reporter John M. Donnelly. He lays out what is likely to happen to the measure that assumes higher spending levels for fiscal 2020. Learn more about your ad choices. Vis...
May 20, 2019•16 min
Lawmakers are struggling to find agreement on an aid package to help states recover from natural disasters, says CQ Roll Call's budget and appropriations reporter Kellie Mejdrich. She lays out the issues preventing Congress from passing a disaster aid package. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 13, 2019•14 min
CQ budget and appropriations editor Peter Cohn games out the prospects of the ambitious $2 trillion infrastructure spending package touted by President Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer. And we preview the week ahead in the appropriations process. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 06, 2019•16 min
The writing of fiscal 2020 spending bills begins with the biggest nondefense measure, Labor-HHS-Education. CQ's health care reporter Andrew Siddons previews the bill and the partisan fights it triggers, including on gun violence research. And CQ's tax and finance reporter Doug Sword unpacks the new data on the future of Social Security. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 29, 2019•18 min
CQ Roll Call's appropriations reporter Kellie Mejdrich unpacks the demands and possible consequences of the Democratic party's progressives, who last week derailed plans to vote on raising the spending caps to prevent across-the-board spending cuts next fiscal year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 15, 2019•13 min
CQ Budget and appropriations editor Peter Cohn sat down with Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, one of the longest and most influential members of Congress. Grassley says that he sees a good opportunity to work with Democrats on several bipartisan initiatives including on an expansive infrastructure bill and reducing drug prices. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 08, 2019•15 min
The House Budget Committee may punt on a fiscal 2020 budget resolution to avoid exposing Democratic caucus fissures over tax and spending policy. But an effort to reach a deal to raise spending limits for the coming fiscal year could prove just as dicey, as Lindsey McPherson explains. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 01, 2019•14 min
A fund designed to help crime victims is also used by lawmakers as an annual budgetary gimmick to help pay for other programs. But the victims fund is starting to run dry, making appropriations decisions tougher, as our tax and fiscal policy reporter Doug Sword explains. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 25, 2019•12 min
The president has proposed deep cuts to planned spending in Medicare and Medicaid, while trying to uphold austere limits on nondefense discretionary spending. But Congress is already talking about a rewrite. CQ's Kellie Mejdrich explains what lawmakers might have in mind. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 18, 2019•15 min
President Donald Trump's fiscal 2020 budget request, due out next week, is likely to skirt a defense spending cap to boost the military while proposing deep cuts to nondefense programs. CQ's Paul M. Krawzak explains how the White House blueprint is sure to trigger a new showdown over spending limits, along with the need to increase the debt limit and the continuing battle over border wall funds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 04, 2019•16 min
CQ's award-winning defense reporter John M. Donnelly revealed that a Pentagon fund that President Donald Trump wants to use to pay for his wall is nearly depleted, forcing him to look elsewhere in the Pentagon budget for the money. Trump appears poised to break tradition and bypass Congress in this money transfer, and Donnelly says that "would tear a hole in the fabric of cooperation between the White House and the Congress.'' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 25, 2019•16 min
CQ defense reporter John M. Donnelly spells out how President Donald Trump's emergency action to raid Pentagon accounts to pay for a border wall could affect military facilities and programs already stretched thin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 19, 2019•11 min
A new snag over immigrant detention policy has thrown a monkey wrench into border security negotiations, as lawmakers look to prevent another government shutdown. CQ appropriations reporter Kellie Mejdrich explains what both sides are seeking and how the Trump administration is softening its demand on border wall funding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 11, 2019•12 min
Congressional negotiators are working to reach bipartisan agreement on a Homeland Security spending bill that can fend off another shutdown and thwart President Donald Trump's threat of declaring a national emergency, CQ appropriations reporter Kellie Mejdrich tells co-host Jennifer Shutt. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 04, 2019•18 min
CQ budget and appropriations reporters Kellie Mejdrich and Jennifer Shutt unpack what could happen in the next three weeks as lawmakers and the White House wrestle with how to prevent another government shutdown in three weeks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jan 28, 2019•16 min
The House and Senate are poised to consider legislation that could end the partial government shutdown — if the competing bills had any chance of passing both chambers, explains CQ budget and appropriations reporter Kellie Mejdrich. Listen for the latest details on how lawmakers are greeting President Donald Trump's immigration-related offer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jan 22, 2019•11 min
As the longest shutdown in modern history enters its fourth week, CQ's fiscal policy reporter Doug Sword assesses the options for ending the spending impasse. But none appear promising, as President Donald Trump rejected the latest proposals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jan 14, 2019•14 min
Within days of the government shutdown setting a record, federal agencies, employees and the general public will begin to feel the pain, says CQ budget and appropriations reporter Kellie Mejdrich. She also gives the latest developments in what is turning out to be a prolonged political battle. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jan 07, 2019•17 min
There is no plan at the moment to prevent a partial government shutdown at the end of the week over President Donald Trump's insistence for $5 billion for a border wall, explains CQ budget reporter Jennifer Shutt. She games out what the options are to fund the government as lawmakers try to guess Trump's next steps. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 17, 2018•13 min
Just when lawmakers thought they had breathing room to hammer out a year-end spending deal, President Donald Trump drops a request for an extra $4.76 billion, technically referred to as anomalies. CQ's budget and appropriations team, Kellie Mejdrich and Paul M. Krawzak explain what's at stake for government spending with co-host Jennifer Shutt. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 10, 2018•14 min
Lawmakers are racing against the clock to pass seven more spending bills, but their efforts are likely to be a struggle amid President Trump's insistence for $5 billion for the border wall that Democrats don't want to give him, says CQ budget editor Peter Cohn. And CQ tax writer Doug Sword brings us up to date with the latest GOP effort to pass new tax legislation that would renew some tax breaks while making corrections to last year's massive tax overhaul. Learn more about your ad choices. Visi...
Dec 03, 2018•16 min
