government budget

More than 18 months later, many of those rural communities are still waiting for broadband. That is because a little-known Las Vegas company that won a bid to implement the program missed filing deadlines and failed to secure regulatory approvals needed to receive the money. The situation serves as a cautionary tale as the federal government rolls out yet another costly program—this one with a price tag of $42.5 billion—to deploy broadband to rural areas. “It’s frustrating to see that there were dollars…

WASHINGTON—President Biden said Monday that he may make a decision on seeking a pause to the federal gasoline tax by the end of the week, as Americans deal with soaring gas prices. Mr. Biden told reporters in Rehoboth Beach, Del., that he is considering a gas tax holiday. “I hope to have a decision based on the data I’m looking for by the end of the week,” he said. Gas prices started increasing last year and surged following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which disrupted the…

Federal policy makers should consider a temporary gasoline-tax holiday to ease the burden of soaring fuel prices, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Sunday. “Gas prices have risen a great deal and it’s clearly burdening households,” she said on ABC’s “This Week.” “That’s an idea that’s certainly worth considering.” Ms. Yellen’s comments come as several states, including Connecticut and Maryland, have completed plans to temporarily halt gasoline taxes at the state level.…

A global deal to introduce a minimum tax rate on company profits hit a fresh roadblock Friday after Hungary vetoed a European Union agreement to implement the measure, which is also stalled in the U.S. The deal to impose a 15% minimum tax on the profits of large corporations was agreed by 137 countries in 2021, paving the way for the most significant overhaul of international tax rules in a century. Governments had hoped to implement the changes next year, but mounting opposition in…

Congress struck a deal in December to raise the government’s debt limit to roughly $31.4 trillion. Photo: Patrick Semansky/Associated Press…

WASHINGTON—Congressional Republicans are beginning to detail their plans to combat inflation and soften its impact on households, indicating some tax, trade and regulatory policies they might pursue if they take control of the House and Senate in this fall’s midterm elections.Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) on Tuesday is proposing to adjust a tax-code provision for inflation and reduce some taxes on investments. Meanwhile, Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee are outlining their…

WASHINGTON—The federal budget ran a $66 billion deficit during May, a 50% decline from a year earlier as the government slashed spending on pandemic programs. Federal outlays in May fell by 24% to $455 billion, not adjusting for calendar differences, the Treasury Department reported Friday. That reflected a reduction in spending on pandemic programs at the Treasury and Labor Departments and the Small Business Administration. Government receipts for the month fell by 16% from…

WASHINGTON—Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the Biden administration is considering ways to reconfigure tariffs on imports from China as a means of helping to ease decades-high inflation. Ms. Yellen, speaking at a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on Wednesday, said she expected the administration to have additional information on its plans in the coming weeks, although there is no firm timeline. “I think some reductions may be warranted,” Ms. Yellen said of the tariffs, adding it could help to bring down the…

WASHINGTON—An unprecedented gush of income tax revenue is flowing into the federal government, driven in part by investors and business owners, and the size and speed of the increase has surprised even the nation’s fiscal-policy experts.Individual income tax collections are poised to reach $2.6 trillion, or 10.6% of the economy in the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That is up from 9.1% in 2021 and would mark a record in the 109-year history of the tax, topping the war-tax…

WASHINGTON—Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen denied that she tried to decrease the size of the $1.9 trillion rescue package Democrats approved in early 2021, defending legislation that is now a focus of debate about the causes of currently high inflation. Ms. Yellen’s statement Saturday comes after Bloomberg News reported that a forthcoming biography about Ms. Yellen states that she had sought to lower the amount of spending in the legislation. In the book,…