In the News

Letter to the Editor: Congess Adds to the Pentagon’s Budget Bloat

Walter Pincus hit the nail on the head with his Aug. 27 Fine Print column, “The defense appropriations shuffle.” There are still billions of...

SAVANNAH PORT:  Slowdown Dims Aura of Gaeorgia’s Ports

BRUNSWICK --- More than 635,000 Kias, Toyotas and Caterpillar tractors moved in and out of this brawny port last year. Wood pellets from...

Why Do We Subsidize Inter-City Rail When Buses Can Do the Job?

Liberals love buses — at least when the buses are run by municipally owned enterprises with union workforces and operate at a loss that...

Landrieu inserts controversial flood insurance provision into spending bill

A major battle is unfolding in Congress over the troubled National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The fight pits homeowners in...

House could vote on Piketon project money as soon as tonight

The U.S. House could vote as soon as later tonight on an amendment that would strip USEC of federal dollars. An amendment by Rep. Michael...

Congress’ Latest Ridiculous Investment

Today's post is a bad news/good news story. The bad news is that deep in the fiscal year 2014 Energy and Water Development Appropriations...

Are drivers of electric cars saints or freeloaders?

Are drivers of electric and hybrid cars saints who reduce fuel use, emissions and global warming? Or are they freeloaders who...

Immigration debate continues for Tennessee senators

Even though Tennessee's senators insist otherwise, critics say the immigration reform legislation they helped pass amounts to amnesty for...

Blog del Narco: Bill Calls for 40 helicopters on the Border with Mexico & Boon to US Companies

A fleet of 40 helicopters will be deployed along the border with Mexico if the security amendment included in the immigration reform bill is...

D.C. group blasts KABATA as geotech work for bridge begins

This week the Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority announced the start of geotechnical work in Anchorage and a national watchdog group gave...

Alaska Ear: We win again

WE WIN AGAIN ... Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan national watchdog organization, has awarded our apparently eternal Knik Arm...

KABATA announces Government Hill tunnel survey, catches national flak

A critical legislative audit and an attempt at transferring project management has failed to slow down the Knik Arm Bridge and Toll...

Knik Arm Bridge Under Fire From Taxpayer Advocacy Group

Many efforts have been made to find an alternative means of moving people and vehicles from the Mat-Su Valley to Anchorage and points...

Fantasy Budgeting Won’t Make Us Safer

The watchword in Washington has been “cut” for some time. But the House of Representatives headed in the opposite direction when it adopted...

Watchdog: Man caves hidden in government warehouse

Contractors at an Environmental Protection Agency warehouse were careless with inventories, and used government furniture and appliances to...

Lets Wise Up About Defense Spending

The House Armed Services Committee is voting on the fiscal year 2014 National Defense Authorization Act this week and will turn it over to...

Growing Economy Absorbing Sequestration Cuts

Sequestration, the mandated across-the-board budget cuts activated in March, has not triggered the financial apocalypse predicted by...

Congress Poised To Make Crop Insurance Subsidies More Generous

For decades, farmers have been getting checks from the federal government as part of a safety net to help protect against, for instance, the...

Making a mess of a road project

State taxpayers, including those in Hampton Roads, are on the hook for as much as $300 million for a highway in Charlottesville that does...

Barnum’s beaming: The Greatest bypass on Earth!

Have you ever walked into a store soon after opening hours to find the advertised sale item "all sold out?” Come to the Holiday Inn...

Flood Insurance Amendment Could Lead to More Borrowing, Critics Say

An amendment to water resources legislation that would freeze flood insurance premiums for five years could force the Federal Emergency...

Shelby provision in water bill would benefit state docks

WASHINGTON — Ports that move large amounts of energy resources, including the Port of Mobile, would share a new pot of federal money to...

Bill would stop feared Louisiana levee

WASHINGTON -- The water-projects bill the U.S. Senate passed this week could promote investment in ports and protect the Coast from...

Senate-passed water resources bill includes Mississippi River navigation study

WASHINGTON – A major water resources bill approved Wednesday by the U.S. Senate calls for more public-private partnerships in river and...

Senate votes to extend federal water projects law

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Wednesday put aside its partisan differences to extend the federal government's main water resources law,...

Taxpayers Feel the Pain of Washington Arm-Twisting

Ever wonder why the federal budget is so hard to tame? Sure, there are philosophical differences, with conservatives pushing for reductions...

McCaskill tackling ‘ghosts of earmarks past’

WASHINGTON • Leave it to senators to create something called the Infrastructure Deauthorization Commission to do a job that they might...

Critics taking aim at water resource bill

WASHINGTON — Environmental and fiscal deficit hawk groups teamed up Monday to criticize the water resources infrastructure bill by Sen....

Senators Reach Deal for First Votes on Water Bill

Senate negotiators reached an agreement Tuesday to phase out the diversion of money from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund to offset other...

White House Raises Concerns About Water Bill

The White House registered strong opposition Monday to water resources legislation the Senate is set to take up, saying it doesn't...

Senate to vote today on bill to fund locks, dams, ports

WASHINGTON -- The Senate is poised to vote today to allow construction on locks, dams, ports and other water resources to move forward after...

Port of Rochester funds in U.S. Senate bill

The U.S. Senate is expected to take up a controversial water resources bill this week that boosts the Port of Rochester. U.S. Sen. Kirsten...

Water infrastructure bill could drain taxpayer dollars with little oversight

The Water Resources Development Act of 2013 gives more than $12 billion to the Army Corps of Engineers - with little oversight It could...

Scientists angry about budget cuts come out of the lab and onto the streets

WASHINGTON -- To the ranks of civil rights and anti-war activists who’ve marched on Washington, get ready to add white-frocked...

Senate limits debate on the CR

Congress will be knee deep in the Continuing Resolution this week, as lawmakers work to avert a government shutdown. Steve Ellis, vice...

Taxpayers for Common Sense Releases Cliff Roadmap

The nonpartisan watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense chimed into the chorus surrounding the fiscal cliff Wednesday, releasing its own...

Politico Morning Defense 11/28/2012

IS TODAY THE DAY FOR THE NDAA? Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said yesterday he plans to bring the defense authorization bill to the...

White House: Consumer Spending Will Decline Unless Congress Averts Fiscal Cliff

It was a blockbuster weekend for retailers, as Americans took advantage of big discounts to ring in the holiday shopping season.  But you...

Columbia River Crossing Bridge knocked by taxpayer group

The watchdog taxpayer group, Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS), has included the Columbia River Crossing Bridge in its list of what it terms...

Solution to Fiscal Cliff Should Include Senator Coburn’s $68 Billion in Pentagon Spending Cuts

By Christopher Preble The fiscal cliff is looming and Washington is scrambling to reach a deal to avoid a Thelma and Louise ending in...

Obama Administration Spent $180,000 on “Official Portraits” This Year

Because what would the nation do without an official portrait of EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson at a bargain basement $40,000. And it is...

Op-Ed: Saks, Ellis: Sandy a Reminder of Need for National Mitigation Strategy

Communities across the country are recovering after the wrath of Hurricane Sandy and, once again, tens of millions of taxpayer dollars will...

Joint Op-Ed: Pass a fiscally responsible Farm Bill extension

Written By: Steve Ellis, Taxpayers for Common Sense and Scott Faber, Environmental Working Group It’s too late for Congress to pass a...

After Sandy: Reassessing the Nation’s Flood Fund

By Jennifer Scholtes, CQ Staff Until a week ago, it looked as if Congress had acted in the nick of time this summer to save the...

Sandy might turn the tide for embattled beach-building program

Written By: Annie Snider If a storm that reportedly killed more than 100 people in 10 states and caused untold billions in damage can...

NFIP May Need Additional Borrowing Authority Post-Sandy

Written By: Arthur D. Postal The National Flood Insurance Program will likely need to go to Congress for additional borrowing authority...

Sandy to test revamped federal flood insurance program

By: Roberta Rampton Superstorm Sandy is threatening to drag the U.S. government's debt-ridden flood insurance program back into the...

Missing info made for weak points

By: Dennis Roooker In the Oct. 21 Daily Progress, George Will’s column included the following: “America’s bold premise is the possibility...

Costly aftermath? Another battering for homeowners

New Jersey is not Florida North quite yet. But the widespread wreckage left by Sandy, the nor’easter-tropical storm hybrid that...

Costly aftermath? Insurance rates may soar in aftermath of Sandy

New Jersey is not Florida North quite yet. But the widespread wreckage left by Sandy, the nor’easter-tropical storm hybrid that...

The Cost of Natural Disasters, By the Numbers

By Amy Harder   As Washington approaches the fiscal cliff and looks to save money in every budgetary corner it can find, experts are...

Who will pay to rebuild after Sandy?

How will New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority pay for major damage to aging track, stations and equipment in the flooded...

In areas hit by Sandy, lawmakers ask U.S. to pay the whole cost

By Richard Simon WASHINGTON — Uncle Sam is picking up the full cost of providing emergency power and public transportation in areas hard...

The Hill’s 2012 Top Lobbyists

2012 hasn’t been the best year for K Street, but it’s too soon to call it a bust. A divided government and the demands of campaigning have...

Alexander: We Found $2 Trillion in Cuts; Why Can’t Politicians?

Special to Roll Call.   The direction of America won’t be determined just by what happens on Election Day but also by how official...

Managing the Pain of Likely Cuts

With spending cuts looming and lawmakers eyeing major entitlement and tax reform in the coming months and years, no sector--transportation...

$11.4 Billion Cut in Federal Transportation Spending Recommended

$11.4 Billion Cut in Federal Transportation Spending Recommended Pub Date: Oct 09, 2012 Written By: Larry Ehl The fiscal cliff and...

You can reduce the deficit without touching entitlements. But that won’t make it more popular.

You can reduce the deficit without touching entitlements. But that won’t make it more popular. The Washington Post Posted by Suzy Khimm...

Ryan Alexander, Taxpayers for Common Sense, discusses how the U.S. could avoid the fiscal cliff with cuts almost twice the size of sequestration.

How to Avoid Fiscal Cliff With Less Pain CNBC Mon 01 Oct 12 | 04:50 PM ET Ryan Alexander, Taxpayers for Common Sense, discusses how the...

Taxpayer group maps out an escape plan for 2013’s ‘fiscal cliff’

Taxpayer group maps out an escape plan for 2013's 'fiscal cliff' By Erik Wasson - 10/01/12 12:42 PM ET   The nonpartisan Taxpayers for...

Obama says Romney could take away middle class tax deductions

President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are in a battle for the trust of the middle class. The group might be hard to define, but most...

Nonsensical plan

Although ProtectingAmerica.org’s co-chairs claim in their Aug. 19 Other Views column, Still not prepared 20 years after Hurricane Andrew,...

Transportation Bill Jammed with Budget Gimmickry (Dallas News)

President Barack Obama’s signing ceremony for the federal transportation bill was like the graduation ceremony for a school’s most unruly,...

N.J. Will See No Gain in Federal Transportation Aid (NorthJersey.com)

By Herb Jackson The state Department of Transportation will get nearly $1 billion to spend on projects such as eliminating the Little Ferry...

Congress Needs to Act This Week on Two Bills (Journal Sentinal)

Congress should approve the Senate's version of a national transportation bill and an extension of the current interest rate for student...

White House threatens to veto House bill… (Politico Morning Transportation)

By Burgess Everett & Adam Snider ...WAY ACROSS THE AISLE: It’s not just the White House campaigning against the House transportation bill;...

GOP breaks up transportation bill (Politico)

By Adam Snider House Republicans are splitting up their mammoth transportation and energy bill in an effort to overcome rising GOP and...

Could Focusing on Repairs Please Everyone? (The National Journal)

I have been interviewing staffers on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee as part of a broader project for National Journal...

The Most for Our Money: Taxpayer Friendly Solutions for the Nation’s Transportation Solutions (Bacon’s Rebellion)

OP-ED: Publisher’s note:  Shirley Ybarra served as Virginia’s Secretary of Transportation from 1998-2002 and now works at the nationally...

Syria: Excuse 535 To Not Cut the Deficit

Volume XVIII No. 37 Possible action in Syria has become the most recent excuse du jour for Pentagon boosters...