Budget Tracker Extra

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.''

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.

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.

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.

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.