The president's 2003 budget calls for increasing federal funds for abstinence education by one third, to $235 million.  Texas paid the Sherry Matthews Advertising Agency $395,000 in federal funds to produce a "Zip-It" campaign featuring hip-hop music, a close-up shot of a DJ scratching an LP, and the phrase "You Don't Have to Prove Your Love" flashing across the screen.  "The point was to make something really hip and cool for the kids," says Sherry Matthews.
-Washington Monthly (9/1)

French President Jacques Chirac proposed an international "globalization" tax to fight world poverty at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg.
-Swissinfo (9/2)

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officialsthe lobby representing state departments of transportationwants to create a Transportation Finance Corporation (TFC), a centralized entity analogous to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, that would issue taxable tax-credit bonds to fund transportation infrastructure projects.
-The Bond Buyer (9/3)

World-respected Jane's Aviation publication concludes that airport security is only slightly better now than a year ago.  Jane's says measures taken thus far are mostly designed to get people flying again, and contribute little to flight security.
-CBS News (9/3)

Washington, D.C. is the only city in the nation that can legally dump toxic sludge in its waterways.  The Environmental Protection Agency issues special discharge permits to the Army Corps of Engineers to transport--in the dead of night--chemically treated sludge from the Washington Aqueduct, a water purification facility, to the Potomac River, where it is dumped in violation of the Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts.  The Corps has admitted dumping as much as 241,500 milligrams of suspended solids per liter into the river.  The maximum allowed limit for most states is about 30.  The nation's power elite are content with insisting that everyone else comply with burdensome environmental regulations while they ignore them.
-Wall Street Journal (9/4)

The growing phenomenon of celebrities testifying before Congress is turning the nation's capitol into a sideshow, many critics charge.  Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) made headlines in June after he boycotted a hearing because the witnesses included Backstreet Boy Kevin Richardson.  "It's just a joke to think that this witness can provide members of the United States Senate with information on important geological and quality issues," Voinovich told reporters.  Moreover, celebrity testimony may be influencing spending priorities in perverse ways.  As an example, public funds to spinal cord injury research have increased $20 million since Christopher Reeve began lobbying on the issue.  By comparison, lupus, which afflicts 1.4 million Americans five times those with spinal cord injuries receives only two-thirds the funding.
-USA Today (9/4)

The House rejected a bill making permanent the education tax breaks enacted last year as part of the $1.3 trillion tax cut.
-New York Times/AP (9/5)

The White House is now asking Congress for money it once lectured lawmakers against adding to the president's budget.  The White House acknowledges it needs an extra $825 million to fight Western forest fires, and it submitted a separate request of nearly $1.1 billion Wednesday to cover everything from airport security to stopping the spread of AIDS in Africa.
-Wall Street Journal (9/5)

The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has rehired hundreds of retired employees over the past six years, paying some of them top salaries in addition to their retirement benefits, in a program the Office of Personnel Management has asked the Justice Department to end.  The INS has 131 dually compensated employees on its payroll, including five Spanish instructors who receive more than $100,000 a year in retirement benefits and current salary.  Twenty-eight employees make more money with dual pay than the $138,000 salary paid to INS Commissioner James W. Ziglar.
-Washington Post (9/6)

The federal government has spent nearly $37 billion in response to the Sept. 11 attacks and is on track to spend 10 times that much to counter terrorism in the next ten years. Anti-terror spending may reach $443 billion over the next decade, amounting to more than 5 percent of overall discretionary spending.
-New York Times (9/6)

A continuing resolution (CR), necessary to keep the government running after the government's fiscal year ends at midnight on Sept. 30, is likely to increase spending overall if emergency funds are factored in.  If the House, Senate, and president agree on a 2003 defense bill costing about $354 billion, thus keeping it out of the CR, then factor in domestic spending bills at 2002 levels including post-Sept. 11 emergency funding, the 2002 baseline upon which a CR would probably be calculated would be something like $766 billion.
-CQ (9/9)

In just 15 years, Social Security will begin to run a deficit, spending more on benefits than it takes in through taxes.  Social Security has promised $25 trillion more in benefits than it can afford to pay.  An average American born in the 1970s will pay more than $200,000 into the program over his or her lifetime; by the time he or she retires, the program will be completely insolvent.
-National Review Online (9/10)

The Navy has demanded that Boeing and General Dynamics pay $2.3 billion in cash to settle a lawsuit stemming from then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney's 1991 decision to kill the A-12 bomber program.  Cheney was given glowing reports on the program's progress during the early part of 1990.  But by the end of the year, after the Navy had spent $3.1 billion on the program, a Pentagon investigation revealed the program was deeply troubled: 18 months behind schedule and $2.7 billion over budget.
-Fort-Worth Star-Telegram (9/10)

In the wake of a 70 percent increase in farm subsidies on account of the 2002 farm bill, the Senate voted overwhelmingly to provide another $6 billion in aid to farmers and ranchers for drought relief.  The Bush Administration opposes the measure as part of its strategy to hold the line on overall spending.
-ABC News (9/10)

In a move that will further aggravate the jostling between the House and Senate over federal spending, the Senate is expected to announce efforts to add what it says is $9 billion in new spending to the Labor/HHS appropriation under consideration.  Some budget analysts say the amount is actually closer to $15 billion.  The new spending will add $225 billion to total federal outlays over the next 10 years if enacted.
-UPI columnist Peter Roff (9/10)

The state of West Virginia spent $90,000 to sponsor a car in four NASCAR Busch Series stock car races.  Democratic Gov. Bob Wise championed the project, saying it would help create "a motorous identity" for the state.  Unfortunately, 13 laps into the 250-lap race, the car smashed into a wall, posting a 42nd-place finish in a field of 43.
-CQ (9/12)

A month after inspectors first discovered cracks underneath Acela Express locomotives, Amtrak says the equipment problems cost about $9 million in ticket revenue and an estimated 76,000 passengers last month.  Twelve of the trains are now running each weekday, compared to 15 normally.
-AP (9/13)

Six months after President Bush raised tariffs on imported steel, the gambit has backfired on almost every front.  Steel prices are up more sharply than Bush advisors anticipated, luring mills around the world to produce more steel, worsening the glut.
-Wall Street Journal (9/13)

Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve, warned that the economy would suffer if Congress refused to keep the federal deficit under control.  But he advised against Democratic efforts to replenish government coffers by rolling back or delaying the $1.3 trillion tax cut signed into law last year by President Bush.
-New York Times (9/13)

Congress is falling further behind in accomplishing its most basic task: passing the 13 spending bills needed to keep the government running after the new fiscal year begins on Oct. 1.  Not one spending bill has been passed.  Congress will probably end up skipping town and rushing home for the fall campaign season, leaving spending at 2002 levels and delaying all budget decisions until the next budget year.
-Houston Chronicle (9/16)

 The Bush administration is fighting with itself over how much money should be spent to rebuild Afghanistan.  The State Department and the CIA are quietly urging Congress to increase foreign aid to Afghanistan.  But the Office of Management and Budget is resisting and helped wipe out $134 million in disaster and refugee assistance.  The House Appropriations Committee voted to require $295 million in economic assistance (more than the double the administration's request), citing the need to rebuild a 600-mile highway linking Kabul and Herat. 
-Wall Street Journal (9/16)

The war on terror is being used as a ruse to justify all kinds of new spending. Of the programs that Congress and the President control directly, spending is up a whopping 13 percent this fiscal year. Only about $30 billion of has been spent on homeland security and the war on terror.
-Fortune Magazine (9/16)

Instead of spending $5,000 each to upgrade thousands of battle-tested but aging M-60 machine guns favored by special ops in the war on terrorism, the Navy is dropping millions to develop a $15,000 replacement weapon that won't be completed until 2004.
-U.S. News & World Report (9/17)