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Federal Budget Online
Citizens wanting to learn more about President Barack Obama’s 2012 budget can browse an authenticated copy via the government’s federal digital system. Along with the budget, there are three other budget volumes of interest:
Read Michigan Governor’s Budget
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s proposed executive budget for fiscal years 2012 and 2013 is available at the State Budget Office’s website, along with other budget documents.
In anticipation of the planned February 17 release of the state budget, readers may want to take a look at Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s 2011 Citizen’s Guide to Michigan’s Financial Health. The 25-page report takes a look at how the state spends the public’s dollars, the state’s fiscal health and the key demographic and economic trends that have emerged in Michigan.
The federal government has released a final report on the causes of the economic and financial crisis of 2007-2010. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report was written by the National Commission on the Causes of the Financial and Economic Crisis of the United States. President Obama created the commission in May 2009 and the ten-member bipartisan commission reviewed millions of documents, interviewed 700 persons and held 19 days of public hearings across the country. The 662-page report includes the commission’s conclusions and 126 pages of dissenting views.
The Commission advising the president on the April BP Deepwater Horizon well blowout has released its final report. The 380-page report, Deep Water: The Gulf Oil Disaster and the Future of Offshore Drilling, details the events that killed 11 workers and dumped nearly 5 million barrels of crude oil in the Gulf of Mexico. The report also outlines changes that should be made in company behavior, government oversight, and energy investments in the wake of the spill. The National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling also released a separate 63-page report with its recommendations.
How safe is the nation's food supply? Preventing food borne illness and regulating the food industry has been the subject of spirited debate in recent years, and Congress took a key step recently in approving the Food Modernization Safety Act. To read the text of the act, visit the link for H.R. 2751 at Thomas, the website for Congress. A summary of the legislation is posted at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)'s website. For additional information on food safety, visit FoodSafety.gov, the federal gateway to food safety facts and information; the Food Safety section of the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC); the Food page of the FDA; the Safety and Inspection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA); and the USDA's Food and Nutrition Services page.
The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 was signed on December 17, 2010. President Obama signed the $858 billion tax bill into law that extends the Bush tax cuts for two more years and extends unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed for 13 months. Obama has called it a compromise plan and it has generated spirited political debate.
The Moment of Truth: the report of the National Commission On Fiscal Responsibility and Reform was published on Dec. 1, 2010. The recommendations of a bipartisan commission examining the nation’s deficit released its findings in early December. The commission was created in February and charged with coming up with ways to bring the federal budget in primary balance by 2015 and to improve the nation’s long-term fiscal outlook. The commission was chaired by Alan Simpson, former Republican senator from Wyoming, and Erskine Bowles, chief of state to former Democratic President Bill Clinton.
The Congressional Oversight Panel scrutinizing the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) has released its latest report about how well the Treasury Department has overseen the private companies and contractors carrying out the program' s work.
Congress created TARP to stabilize the economy in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, and numerous reports have been released since. Read the Treasury Department' s recently-released two-year retrospective report on TARP, along with a number of reports the General Accounting Office (GAO) has written about the program. See the GAO' s reports on: TARP support for insurance giant AIG; the government' s role as shareholder in AIG, Citigroup, Chrysler and General Motors; the Home Affordable Modification Program, which is intended to help struggling mortgage holders; and government efforts to help U.S. automakers.
A wide variety of government sources are available about BP’s oil spill in the Gulf. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration maintains a comprehensive site offering fact sheets, maps, publications and advisories on the oil spill and its impact on the gulf, marshland, sea life and the fishing industry.
The National Institutes of Health has created a comprehensive list of government websites carrying information about the human health risks of the release of crude oil in the Gulf. Visit the Institutes' Crude Oil Spills and Health link to access a wide range of sites detailing the health risks; the impact on the environment, wildlife and seafood; the Environmental Protection Agency's stand on the dispersants being used; the response from the Gulf Coast states; the impact of oil well fires; and the hazards facing clean-up workers.
Do you want to know more about the newly passed health care reform bill? Read the authenticated electronic copy of the bill on the U.S. Government Printing Office’s Federal Digital System (FDsys). Access H.R. 3590, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and H.R. 4872, Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.
