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(a) Transmittal of special message Whenever the President, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the head of any department or agency of the United States, or any officer or employee of the United States proposes to defer any budget authority provided for a specific purpose or project, the President shall transmit to the House of (1) the amount of the budget authority proposed to be deferred; (2) any account, department, or establishment of the Government to which such budget authority is available for obligation, and the specific projects or governmental functions involved; (3) the period of time...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has announced a deal with Senate Democrats to fund the government and set spending levels for defense and nondefense programs over the next two years. The legislation would avert a government shutdown on Friday, when federal funding is due to expire, and boost defense and nondefense programs. It also lifts the debt ceiling to March 2019, which White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders hailed as a decision that would move Congress away from "crisis-to-crisis budgeting." The deal is backed by McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), and will almost certainly be...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced on the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon that a deal had been reached to fund the government for 2 years, which includes raising military spending but excludes a DACA provision. Why it matters: The budget lifts sequestration caps, increasing discretionary spending by $300 billion over two years. The deal extends CHIP for 10 years instead of two and includes disaster relief and opioid response funding.

BREAKING: Senate leaders have reached an agreement on a two-year budget deal, adding billions of dollars in federal spending. The bipartisan accord would lift statutory budget limits by more than $200 billion, provide tens of billions of dollars in disaster relief funding. Senate leaders unveiled the deal Wednesday after months of negotiations -- and after Senate Democrats agreed to set aside immigration policy demands. The plan still faces head winds -- particularly in the House, where conservative Republicans are balking at the increased spending and liberal Democrats want further assurances on immigration. The announcement came as Congress faces yet another...

Top Senate leaders were working Tuesday to finalize a sweeping long-term budget deal that would include a defense spending boost President Trump has long demanded alongside an increase in domestic programs championed by Democrats. As negotiations for the long-term deal continued, the House passed a short-term measure that would fund the government past a midnight Thursday deadline and avert a second partial shutdown in less than a month.

Some people have called for a balanced budget amendment to our Constitution as a means of reining in a big-spending Congress. That's a misguided vision, for the simple reason that in any real economic sense, as opposed to an accounting sense, the federal budget is always balanced. The value of what we produced in 2017 — our gross domestic product — totaled about $19 trillion. If the Congress spent $4 trillion of the $19 trillion that we produced, unless you believe in Santa Claus, you know that Congress must force us to spend $4 trillion less privately. Taxing us is...

WASHINGTON - The threat of yet another government shutdown looms in about eight days amid speculation that next year’s budget deficit could speed past $1 trillion. Despite a fast-approaching Feb. 8 deadline, Congress appeared no closer to passing a budget, after it approved a stop-gap bill last month, giving lawmakers more time to reach agreement on a variety of divisive issues, including immigration. A growing number of lawmakers in both parties were complaining about out-of-control figures in both domestic and defense spending. Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee called the large increase in military spending “grotesque,” while Rep. Mark...

No one is paying much attention, but Congress is preparing a two-year budget that would blow past bipartisan spending caps to the tune of $216 billion through 2019. That might be a best-case scenario. The budget watchers at FreedomWorks estimate that when hurricane disaster relief, funding for the border wall, added Obamacare money for the bankrupt insurance markets, and other last-minute spending "emergencies" are thrown in the mix, the two-year spending blitz could exceed $300 billion. President Donald Trump had better get his veto pen handy. All of this is happening because Republicans have fallen into the Democrats' fiscal trap....

The Senate broke its budget impasse Monday as Democrats joined Republicans in voting to end debate on a short-term spending bill that would reopen the government and provide funding through Feb. 8. The upper chamber was expected to quickly approve the bill, and House members were told to await a possible vote Monday afternoon, raising the possibility that the shutdown would end after just three days. "We will vote today to reopen the government," Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a speech on the Senate floor. The vote was 81-18 to move ahead on the spending bill.

<p>Trump tweeted, “Just signed Bill. Our Military will now be stronger than ever before. We love and need our Military and gave them everything — and more. First time this has happened in a long time. Also means JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!”</p>

Senate leaders reached a two-year budget deal, but Sen. Rand Paul is holding up a Senate vote. Congress must pass a deal before midnight to avoid a shutdown. The government will shut down. The Senate is in recess until 12:01 a.m. The Senate has gone into recess until 12:01 a.m. ET, which means the government will shut down at midnight. The next procedural vote to advance the budget deal will not happen before 1 a.m. ET.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is preventing a two-year budget deal from passing, as the White House advised federal agencies to prepare for the government to start shutting down at midnight. Congressional negotiators were scrambling earlier Thursday to lock in enough votes in the House, and that was before Paul, a Republican, made public his dissatisfaction with the deal, which would raise government spending, avert a government shutdown and lift the debt ceiling. A senior administrative official said the White House is instructing agencies to begin shutdown preparations in the event that Congress fails to pass a budget before the midnight...

Sen. Rand Paul was blocking the Senate's move to quickly pass its massive budget deal Thursday with only hours until government funding lapses. For the Senate to hold a vote on the spending package Thursday, all senators must agree. The Kentucky Republican held out as he sought a vote on an amendment to maintain budget caps. "All Senator Rand Paul is asking for is a 15-minute vote on his amendment to restore the budget caps. He is ready to proceed at any time," Paul spokesman Sergio Gor said in a statement. As Paul railed against lifting spending caps, the nonpartisan...

With all the talk about a possible government shutdown due to an impasse on immigration reform, no one seems to be paying attention to a story of even bigger long-term consequence. Congress is preparing a two-year budget that blows past bipartisan spending caps to the tune of $216 billion through 2019. These are the latest stunning tallies from an analysis by Congressional Quarterly. (See chart). That may be a best-case scenario. The budget watchers at Freedom Works estimate that when hurricane disaster relief, funding for the border wall, added Obamacare money for the bankrupt insurance markets, and other last-minute spending...

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) met with Jake Tapper on CNN's State of the Union Sunday morning to discuss the government shutdown and who deserves the blame for Capitol Hill's current quandary. Paul, a libertarian who tends to stray away from conventional GOP thinking, offered a "doable" solution that allows the legislative process to work itself out. Paul said the American people see though "partisanship and gamesmanship," when politicians claim the opposing party does not want to fund the military and pay our soldiers. "Republicans and Democrats and everybody trying to say 'Oh, you don’t want to fund the military', everybody wants to...

The neighbor of Sen. Rand Paul who is accused of attacking the Kentucky Republican has been charged with a federal crime, the Department of Justice announced Friday. Rene Boucher, 58, of Bowling Green, Ky., has been charged with assaulting a member of Congress, resulting in personal injury, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana Josh Minkler announced. On Nov. 3, Boucher allegedly "had enough" after seeing Paul stack brush onto a pile near the senator's property, according to court documents. Boucher then ran onto Paul's property and tackled him, leaving him with six broken ribs, the documents state. Paul...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 17, 2018 Contact: Press@paul.senate.gov, 202-224-4343 ICYMI: Dr. Rand Paul: ‘President Trump Has Had a Year of Accomplishments’ WASHINGTON, D.C. – In his latest op-ed for TIME, U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) looked back on President Trump’s achievements during his first year in office. “I do not always align with President Trump — and I have voiced my opposition at times, including voting against some of his nominees and initiatives. But I will tell you, he has had some great success through his first year, and I look forward to what 2018 will bring,” Dr. Paul stated...

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that charges of racism against President Donald J. Trump are unfounded in part because of the 45th president's large financial contribution to Dr. Paul's2015 Haiti medical mission trip. “I think it’s unfair to sort of paint him, ‘oh well, he’s a racist,’ when I know for a fact that he cares very deeply about the people of Haiti because he helped finance a trip where they would get vision back for 200 people in Haiti,” Paul said. In 2015, Rand Paul was part of a group of U.S. doctors who...

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul brushed off suggestions that President Trump holds a racial animus against Haitians because he once supported Paul’s trip to the Caribbean nation to do eye surgeries on poor Haitians. Paul said on NBC’s “Meet The Press” Sunday that Trump donated money to a medical mission trip Paul took before he was president. Paul did about 200 surgeries on Haitians that allowed them to see while he was on the trip, and he said that’s evidence Trump isn’t prejudiced against the country. “It is unfair to draw conclusions from a remark that I think wasn't constructive is...

On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Wolf,” Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) stated that while he will vote for money for barriers along the border, he’s still a fiscal conservative and won’t vote to spend $40 billion on these barriers.