Department of Energy Loan Guarantees: $8 Billion Allocated for Fossil Fuel Projects

While the program was intended for emerging energy technologies, mature industries like coal and nuclear are eligible as well. Congress provided the program with funding in several areas including advanced nuclear reactors, renewable and energy efficiency, front-end nuclear fuel cycle technology, and advanced fossil fuels....

With Agriculture Disaster Aid Congress Pays Now, Hopes to Save Later

Citing record drought conditions throughout the country, the House is debating today legislation to retroactively extend four...

Coal Industry Profits

For centuries the federal government has been in the business of providing billions in subsidies to coal companies in order to ensure...

Taxpayers Lose with More Unnecessary Farm Subsidy Layers

Federal farm programs are ripe for reform, especially those that lock in record high prices and guarantee farmers’ expected income. As...

Turning a Drought into a Fiscal Disaster

Politicians on both sides of the aisle are trying to take advantage of the drought crisis to foist a trillion-dollar farm bill on...

Zombie Earmarks in Defense Spending Bill

The Fiscal Year 2013 defense spending bill heading to the House floor Wednesday is a lesson in why it’s so hard to cut defense spending...

House Farm Bill Draft Analysis: Squanders Savings, Recycles Wasteful Ideas, and Creates New Subsidy Entitlement Programs

Yesterday, the House Agriculture Committee released its 2012 Farm Bill draft which eliminates some wasteful commodity programs but...

Senate’s New Way to Lock in Unlimited Farm Subsidies

On June 21, the Senate passed a few long-awaited reforms to the farm subsidy maze. Unfortunately, at the same time, they also increased...

Congress Relies on Billions from Treasury in Transportation Reauthorization

A quick note: This analysis is based upon best available data at the time it was written. As of this posting (6:20pm), the final...

Green Scissors 2012

Left-Right coalition identifies practical steps Congress could take to slash deficits, save natural resources....

Engineering Boondoggles

While Washington is wringing its hands about the automatic across-the-board budget cuts known as...