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Tag: U.S. Congress
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In Washington, D.C. … Now that Congress and the president have agreed to a plan to reduce spending and the federal deficit, we are awaiting the details of which federal programs will be reduced and by how much. Congress is on a four-week recess, returning after Labor Day. THE MOST IMMEDIATE REACTION to the recent...
Khan Mohabbat
The U.S. stock market took a beating Thursday, and investors’ jitters have some justification — but perhaps only in the short term, according to Khan Mohabbat, a professor of economics at Northern Illinois University. “Investors certainly are worried a great deal about where to put their money right now,” Mohabbat says. Among the key reasons...
In Springfield … The Illinois General Assembly comes back in session today. The purpose of this session is to deal with some outstanding issues, most importantly, the capital bill. The Senate had added an amendment that included more than $400 million in additional funding, including $17 million for the Monetary Assistance Program. The House had refused to...
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The Senate and the House of Representatives have both taken a week of district time over the last several weeks, with both chambers scheduled back this week. The major issue facing Congress and the Obama administration is the need to increase the nation’s debt ceiling before the U.S. government begins to default on its borrowing,...
Congress came back in session last week after several weeks of spring recess. The two main agenda items they have been dealing with are the issue of raising the debt ceiling and the FY2012 budget. I previously reported that the U.S. government will reach the limits of its authority to borrow any additional funds this month. However,...
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We are hearing details about the compromise Continuing Resolution (CR) that was approved last week that will fund the federal government for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2011 (through Sept. 30, 2011). The final CR includes nearly $40 billion in reductions from FY 2010 levels. For higher education programs, there is good and bad news. The...
The White House
The current Continuing Resolution (CR) that has been keeping the federal government running is set to expire Friday, April 8. President Obama announced this week that he will not sign another stopgap bill without first reaching an agreement with Congress over the 2011 budget, even if it means a government shutdown when the current CR expires....
NIU communication professor Laura Vazquez this week will screen her award-winning documentary on homelessness, titled “on the edge,” before an audience that will include members of Congress. Vazquez spent four years working with Diane Nilan, a nationally known advocate for the homeless, to tell the stories of seven women and their children struggling to find...
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Congress has approved, and President Obama has signed, the sixth short-term Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep the federal government running. This latest CR is set to expire Friday, April 8. It contains an additional $6 billion in spending cuts, mainly from funding rescissions, reductions and program terminations. No accounts impacting higher education were cut in this CR....
Hugo Jacobo
NIU senior political science major and honors student Hugo Jacobo is interning this spring in Washington, D.C., with Congressman Luis Gutierrez, for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. According to the institute’s website, the purpose of the internship is to “expose young Latinos to the legislative process and to strengthen their professional and leadership skills, ultimately promoting...
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Congress continues to struggle with the Fiscal Year 2011 budget. Last week, the Senate defeated both H.R. 1, the Continuing Resolution passed by the House of Representatives that would cut spending by $61 billion, and the Senate Democratic counter-proposal that would cut federal spending by about $6.5 billion. With the defeat of both bills and...
Congress returned from its recess last week. The top agenda item remained the FY 2011 budget. To avert a government shutdown when the current Continuing Resolution (CR) expired Friday, March 4, both the House and Senate agreed to a two-week extension of the CR until Friday, March 18. Included in this CR was $4 billion in cuts;...
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