CRS issued an updated report on OTA on April 29, 2020, that “describes the OTA’s historical mission, organizational structure, funding, staffing, operations, and perceived strengths and weakness. The report concludes with a discussion of issues and options surrounding reestablishing the agency or its functions.”
Continue reading “CRS Report: “The Office of Technology Assessment: History, Authorities, Issues, and Options””Tag: Leg Support Agencies
Capitol Police: Statement of Disbursements
Following up on our extensive review of US Capitol Police, we compiled the USCP’s Statement of Disbursements (the ones we could find). USCP is legally required to submit these statements to Congress, but they are not available online. Here’s our letter to USCP asking for the last five years of statements:
Continue reading “Capitol Police: Statement of Disbursements”How Has the Congressional Research Service’s Work Changed Over Thirty Years?
How has the Congressional Research Service’s work changed over the last 30 years? We gathered almost five decades of the agency’s annual reports and built a spreadsheet of its self-reported activities. We found interesting patterns, the absence of expected patterns, and lots of missing data. Our key findings:
First, CRS is decreasing its consultations with clients and shifting its resources to providing written products.
Second, CRS is creating more “new” written products and providing fewer “updated” written products, which suggests a shift away from creating and maintaining in-depth analytical products to comparatively superficial, fast-response pieces.
Third, there’s no apparent connection between the products CRS creates and public access to general distribution CRS reports.
Continue reading “How Has the Congressional Research Service’s Work Changed Over Thirty Years?”Congress Can Save Taxpayers Billions By Using Data Science to Stop Improper Payments
By Maggi Molina and Dan Lips
Congress faces major challenges in 2020—including the Coronavirus pandemic and addressing its significant disruptions to our way of life. With the Congressional Budget Office already forecasting trillion dollar federal deficits through 2030, lawmakers may have less flexibility to authorize new spending to address these problems.
One way for Congress to improve the government’s balance sheet would be to stop federal agencies from making improper payments. “Improper payments” doesn’t sound that bad — perhaps you used Paypal instead of Venmo — but they are essentially illegal payments. These are payments that should not have been made or that were made in incorrect amounts.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently reported that federal agencies made $175 Billion in improper payments in 2019. Of those, $75 Billion (or 42 percent) were reported as a “monetary loss, an amount that should not have been paid and in theory should or could be recovered.” More than two-thirds of the improper payments were concentrated in three programs: Medicaid, Medicare, and the Earned Income Tax Credit.
GAO warned that the problem could be even bigger: “The federal government’s ability to understand the full scope of its improper payments is hindered by incomplete, unreliable, or understated agency estimates,” among other issues. Indeed, a number of agencies do not accurately report this information.
Continue reading “Congress Can Save Taxpayers Billions By Using Data Science to Stop Improper Payments”Capitol Police Round Up: Week Ending April 2, 2020
For the week ending April 2, 2020, there were 4 Capitol Police incidents reported; 4 individuals arrested. Only 3 of the 4 incidents reported were within USCP jurisdiction. There were 3 traffic related incidents, including two invalid traffic permits. Numbers continue to decline as the US Capitol Complex stays closed and DC’s stay-at-home order goes into effect.
Continue reading “Capitol Police Round Up: Week Ending April 2, 2020”What Leg. Branch Receives in the Third Supplemental
Last week Congress enacted its third Coronavirus supplemental bill in an effort to stabilize the country. The legislation limped out of Congress, requiring unusual voting procedures, a stifling of debate, and an almost unprecedented level of unanimity.
The Senate supplemental bill totals $2 trillion, the largest stimulus in our history. While the bill addresses somes issues critical to the preservation of life and functionality of the country — while missing others — Congress failed to provide sufficient funding for the Legislative Branch to ensure it can continue to operate during the crisis.
The appropriations division of the Senate’s bipartisan coronavirus aid and economic relief agreement contains $330 billion in new funding. Title IX of S. 3548 includes $93.1 million in funding for the Legislative Branch, a number that is far too low. It represents roughly 1/2000 of the expenditure.
Continue reading “What Leg. Branch Receives in the Third Supplemental”April Update: Legislative Branch Appropriations Items Due Dates
Back in December 2019 – which feels like ages ago – Congress passed the Legislative Branch Appropriations bill for FY 2020, starting the clock on dozens of Leg. Branch projects and reports.
In January, our team reviewed requests from the Leg. Branch approps bill, broke them down by entity, and summarized the deadlines. For those interested in looking at the complete spreadsheet, you can access it here.
We will regularly post a list of items due from the Leg. Branch approps bill, broken down by entity. We also will include which items were due during the previous month at the end of the report.
Continue reading “April Update: Legislative Branch Appropriations Items Due Dates”Capitol Police Round Up: Week Ending March 26, 2020
For the week ending March 26, 2020, there were 4 Capitol Police incidents reported; 5 individuals arrested. There was 1 traffic related incident.
Here’s how this week’s activity was distributed:
Continue reading “Capitol Police Round Up: Week Ending March 26, 2020”Capitol Police Round Up: Week Ending March 19, 2020
For the week ending March 19, 2020, there were 13 Capitol Police incidents reported; 13 individuals arrested. There were 6 traffic related incidents, including 2 invalid permit arrests.
Here’s how this week’s activity was distributed:
Continue reading “Capitol Police Round Up: Week Ending March 19, 2020”2010 vs. 2020: How The Legislative Branch Distributes Its Funds
Congress is underfunded, plain and simple.
The Legislative Branch has received the smallest slice of the federal spending pie— less than 1% of all non-defense discretionary funds — for years. How does Congress allocate these limited funds? Have those priorities shifted over the last decade?
We took a look at the 2010 and 2020 Legislative Branch budgets, plus the proposed values for 2021 to find out. Historic values were adjusted to 2020 dollars; figures do not include supplemental appropriations or Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) appropriations.
Continue reading “2010 vs. 2020: How The Legislative Branch Distributes Its Funds”