Congress has stealthily packed $15.3 billion worth of earmarks into its 2019 fiscal year budgets despite its moratorium on the practice, according to a new report. 
California congressman T.J. Cox (D.) shut down his Capitol Hill office for two days last week to fly his staff to a small town in Fresno County for a retreat. 
After Democrats took control of the House with many candidates stressing the importance of passing a budget, party leadership has punted the idea of passing a budget due to internal divides over spending priorities and taxes. 
Federal agencies are not monitoring how taxpayer funds are being spent, or whether research grants are being properly disclosed to the public. 
Federal agencies billed taxpayers millions for lobster tail, alcohol, standing desks, golf carts, and more frivolous expenditures before budgets ran out at the end of the fiscal year. 
The National Institutes of Health is spending over $250,000 to study the "under-researched" group of "older same-sex partner caregivers." 
A group of prominent freshman House Democrats released a joint statement that they wouldn't vote for a bipartisan deal to keep the government open, saying "abusive agencies" under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security didn't deserve a funding increase. 
A new Mississippi River crossing in the Capital Region may cost more than $1 billion, and tolls would only pay for a small portion of that cost, a state transportation official said Tuesday. 
The National Institutes of Health is spending roughly $1.5 million on a study of the sleep habits of Mexican Americans living along the U.S. border. 