Finalizing 2015 Funding

We just issued several short pieces on congressional negotiations over funding levels for this fiscal year. They explain:

• Why Congress shouldn’t pass another stopgap funding bill but instead agree on funding levels for the rest of the fiscal year.
• Why 2015 will almost inevitably be another year of shrinking real (inflation-adjusted) resources for non-defense discretionary programs, which include everything from law enforcement and homeland security to veterans’ medical care, scientific and medical research, public health, education, and environmental protection.
• Why the Senate approach to 2015 funding for non-defense discretionary programs better protects domestic priorities than the House approach.
• Why the President’s requested funds to respond to the Ebola epidemic shouldn’t count against the 2011 Budget Control Act’s funding caps.
• Why Congress should give the Census Bureau what it needs to prepare for the next census in 2020.