Appropriations
Negotiations over a government funding framework are almost certain to slip to January, when lawmakers return from the holiday recess with just two weeks to strike a deal on spending limits and reconcile their differences over several spending bills before the first of two shutdown deadlines on Jan. 19…
The U.S. military’s top leaders are urging Congress to pass a Pentagon budget for fiscal 2024, issuing detailed warnings about how continued dysfunction will derail plans to stand up to China, modernize the armed services and fix faltering recruitment efforts…
California
California’s push to phase out gasoline-powered vehicles will cut state tax revenues by $4.4 billion over the next decade, raising questions about how to fund transportation priorities, a state report…
A projected $68 billion deficit has prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom's Department of Finance to urge cost savings across state agencies…
Congress passed legislation Thursday, 12/14, to speed up the transfer of seven Coast Guard military transport planes to Cal Fire…
President and Administration
About 52,000 people on Medicare overdosed on opioids last year, but few beneficiaries receive medication for substance use disorder, according to a new report by the HHS Office of Inspector General…
On Tuesday, 12/12, NHTSA announced request for information in advance of a potential rule intended to prevent people from driving while intoxicated, a step toward fulfilling a mandate from the bipartisan infrastructure law and the crusade of surviving relatives from a 2019 drunk driving crash that killed a family of five…
The Biden administration wants to ensure the government and consumers don’t pay more than other countries for certain new drugs — if pharmaceutical companies used funds from the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response to research the treatments…
A long-standing federal food assistance program could be short $1 billion next year, leaving two million parents and young children without access to its support, a report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said Tuesday (12/12)…
The Supreme Court has agreed to consider a case that could impact hundreds of Jan. 6 felony prosecutions — and could impact special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of former President Donald Trump…
U.S. wind and solar power generators are projected to produce more electricity than coal for the first time next year, according to a new outlook released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Tuesday, 12/12…
Electric car giant Tesla is voluntarily pulling more than two million of its vehicles off the road after a national investigation identified safety issues with the steering feature used in its “Autopilot” technology…
About 40 percent of federal student loan borrowers missed their first monthly payment this fall as the unprecedented pandemic-era freeze on student debt expired, the Biden administration announced on Friday, 12/15…
The World Health Organization has called for a blanket ban on flavored e-cigarettes as it ups the ante in its broadside against the products…
Congress
The Congressional Budget Office is out with new economic projections through 2025, finding that inflation will approach the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2 percent this year…
On Thursday, 12/14, the Republican-controlled House passed a final $886 billion defense policy bill, even after many conservative provisions had been stripped through negotiations with the Senate…
Education
Enrollment at traditional district public schools fell at an alarmingly high rate early in the pandemic, and despite the belief that students would return after schools reopened, our latest report finds district enrollment is now flat for the second straight year…