Tag: congress

COVID-19 RELIEF BILL DOUBLES HEALTH CARE BUDGET — FOR CONGRESS

IN A FLURRY of last-minute legislating over coronavirus relief, congressional leaders abandoned hazard pay for essential workers and emergency funding for local governments that may be on the brink of municipal bankruptcy.

But lawmakers did find funding to dramatically increase the budget for the exclusive government-run health clinic that serves Congress. 

The Office of Attending Physician, which provides medical services to lawmakers, received a special boost of $5 million, more than doubling its annual budget, which is currently around $4.27 million. 

Keep reading

Pentagon Fails Another Audit, Will Likely Get Budget Increase From Congress Anyway

The third time wasn’t the charm for the Pentagon, which has once again failed to successfully complete an audit.

Thomas Harker, the Pentagon’s comptroller, told Reuters that it could be another seven years before the department can pass an audit—something that it has never accomplished. Previous attempts in 2018 and 2019 turned up literally thousands of problems with the Pentagon’s accounting system and millions of dollars’ worth of missing equipment.

In a statement, the Pentagon lauded the fact that auditors had “cleared” more than 500 issues identified in previous audits. That serves as compelling evidence that the effort is worth it, even if a clean review is still impossible. The Pentagon had resisted being audited for years. Though Congress passed a law in 1990 requiring all federal departments to be audited every year, it still took nearly two decades for the first Pentagon audit to be attempted. The department now says it is benefiting from the process.

A full report on this year’s audit, which covered more than $2.7 trillion in military assets, is expected to be released in January.

Before that, Congress is likely to sign off on a boost in military spending. As part of a new $1.4 trillion discretionary spending bill expected to be passed during the upcoming lame-duck session, the Pentagon is expected to get about a $10 billion boost in funding. That will happen in spite of another failed audit and regardless of the fact that America’s budget deficit has soared to record highs in the past year as the COVID-19 pandemic has taken its toll.

Keep reading

Congress Moves to Ban Milling Machines That Can Make Guns

Democrats in Congress have introduced an anti-gun measure to regulate machinery that is designed for manufacturing firearm frames or receivers.

The bill, titled H.R.7468, and referred to as the “Stop Home Manufacturing of Ghost Guns Act of 2020” aims to restrict ownership of firearms manufacturing devices for private citizens without a FFL or a manufacturer that produces these machines for FLL’s.

The bill has the support of anti-gun advocates such as Everytown.

The definition of a “firearms manufacturing device” is not clear and has some questioning how far the bill will actually go to ban milling devices that can be used for generic metal milling and customization work.

Keep reading

Secret Holds

In the odd inner workings of Congress, there’s something called a “legislative hold.” It gives any individual senator the power to stop a nominee or a bill— put a hold on them. The idea is to encourage negotiations between those for and against. But sometimes the Senator making the hold keeps his name secret. Senator Chuck Grassley tells why he’s been trying for a decade to stop the secrecy.

Sen. Grassley: So why do you put a hold on? Lot of times, people put a hold on because they want to negotiate something, or they want to use it as a lever to get something else. So I use holds, but I’ve always put a statement in the record of why I’m putting a hold on an individual nominee or a bill. So people know who it is, come and talk to Chuck Grassley and I’ll tell you what the problems is I’ve got. And you can negotiate then, whatever you want to negotiate.

Keep reading