This report summarizes issues surrounding the federal budget, examines policy changes relevant to the budget framework for FY2018, and discusses recent major policy proposals included in the President's FY2018 budget. It concludes by addressing major short- and long-term fiscal challenges facing the federal government.

This report provides brief descriptions of the budget volumes and related documents, together with Internet addresses, Government Publishing Office (GPO) stock numbers, and prices for obtaining print copies of these publications. It also explains how to find the locations of government depository libraries, which can provide both printed copies for reference use and Internet access to the online versions. This report will be updated as events warrant.

This report discusses the Marine Corps development and funding requests for the the 2018 fiscal year for Amphibious Combat Vehicles (ACV) and Marine Personnel Carriers (MPC). The Department of Defense's FY 2018 Budget Request requests $340.5 million dollars for 26 ACVs. Potential issues for Congress include an increase in Marine Corps end strength and force structure resulting in an increase in overall ACV requirements and the challenges and risks associated with the Marines' new MPC/ACV acquisition strategy.

This report discuses the Trump Administration's 2018 fiscal year budget request for the National Science Foundation which proposed significant funding cuts across the agency's major research, education, and construction accounts. Overall, the request includes $6.653 billion for NSF, $819 million (11%) below the FY2017 enacted amount of $7.472 billion (P.L. 115-31).

This report discuses two competing 2018 fiscal year budget requests for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) from President Trump and from the CFTC themselves. The Presidential request is $250 million, which is the same amount the CFTC had the past year, while CFTC is requesting an additional $31.5 million in funding for a total request of $ 281.5 million. The process of submitting budgets to the President and Congress is discussed as well as ways to reconcile the two conflicting budget requests.

This report discusses the 2017 fiscal year appropriations received for child welfare programs and the fiscal year 2018 budge request for the same.

This report discusses U.S. economic and security assistance to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

This report discusses the federal budget request for fiscal year (FY) 2018 released by the Trump Administration on May 23, 2017.

This report discusses how differing uses of the term "readiness" affect congressional debate, but does not evaluate the current state of the U.S. military or provide a conclusive definition of readiness. It also considers how the different uses of the term readiness relate to certain issues: Is there a readiness crisis? What should the U.S. military be ready for? How should readiness be measured? How does the FY2018 budget request affect the U.S. military's readiness?