FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has money trouble.
It has less than $800-million dollars on hand to get through the end of the fiscal year, when ends September 30th.
In the federal government's ledger books, that's not much, especially when you consider that the cost of Hurricane Irene may exceed $10-billion, and the federal government will subsidize part of that.

Irene is estimated to top the list of a year of destructive and expensive disasters this year.
There were $9-billion in total losses after tornadoes hit the Southeast/Ohio Valley/Midwest states on April 25-30th. Joplin, Missouri was particularly hard hit in that disaster. About a month later, more tornadoes hit the Midwest/Southeast states causing $7-billion. And then the Southern Plains/Southwest states experience drought, a heatwave, and wildfires in the spring and summer of 2011 costing well over $5-billion.

After assisting with those and other disasters this year, FEMA says it is going to have to postpone some projects that have not been approved for previous disaster clean-up.

FEMA head Craig Fugate said earlier this week, "Going into September, being the peak part of hurricane season, and with Irene, we didn't want to get to the point where we would not have the funds to continue to support the previous impacted survivors as well as respond to the next disaster." (read more)

Another closed-door Capitol Hill meeting today as a bipartisan group of lawmakers and Vice President Biden try to hammer out a deal on the nation's debt limit. The Obama administration wants to raise it $2.4 trillion, but Republicans want matching spending cuts.

After the meeting, House Majority Leader and Virginia Republican Congressman Eric Cantor said, "There isn't a credible plan to manage down the debt and deficit in this country. That is what we are trying to produce here."

But the White House maintains that raising the debt ceiling "must happen." (read more)

Donald Trump, who has been rising in recent polls of 2012 Republican candidates, told a Tea Party rally in Boca Raton, Florida this afternoon, "You are my people. I love you guys."

While Trump says he has not decided if he will run for President in 2012, he said the country needs a leader who is a good negotiation, good at "making deals," including international deals, so that then the US has money to invest in infrastructure and other domestic needs.

He said, "If I decide to run and if I win, I will not be raising taxes but will be taking in billions of dollars from other countries, and will be creating a vast number of productive jobs.. and will rebuild our country."

Another possible 2012 GOP contender, Sarah Palin, addressed a Tea Party rally in Madison, Wisconsin today, and criticized President Obama for his federal spending, including the 2009 $787-billion stimulus legislation, which she suggested helped galvanize the Tea Party.

She told the crowd, "He's the inspiration for why it is that we're here today. That's right, the Tea Party wouldn't exist without Barack Obama."

President Obama has said that cutting spending is only part of the solution for the country's debt. He also says the wealthy - those who make over $250-thousand dollars - should pay more in taxes. (read more)

One day after Rep. Chris Lee resigned from Congress, his wife is getting some unsolicited advice from the woman who leaked the shirtless-flex photo of him to an online gossip site: Get tested

"I'm sure he hooked up with women from Craigslist who may have had, um, seedy paths," the anonymous 34-year-old Maryland woman told Gawker.com, the same site that released the photo and emails.

Lee, who resigned from Congress less than four hours after the material was made public, admitted to "profound mistakes" but did not confirm he had met the woman on Craigslist or had corresponded with her. There's no evidence to suggest he's done this before.

The woman also told Gawker she was surprised the married congressman would step down over "a few pictures and a few emails," but speculates, "I think maybe there's a bigger story behind his resignation. I'm sure there are other women out there he's met. My theory is, you don't get caught your first time out."

A House Judiciary subcommittee debated today what constitutes federal funding of abortion, and not surprisingly no consensus was reached.

At issue is specific language in HR-3, a bill before the House called the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act. In part, it prohibits any tax credits or tax deductions for "amounts paid or incurred for an abortion or with respect to amounts paid or incurred for a health benefits plan ... that includes coverage of abortion."

Democrats such as New York Rep Jerry Nadler say this amounts to a "huge tax increase" for people who "spend their own money on health insurance that covers abortion."

But the subcommittee's Chairman Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., contends tax credits and deductions are part of federal funding and says, "This legislation is really about whether the role of America's government is to continue to fund a practice that takes the lives of over one million little Americans every year."

The House bill would also make the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits taxpayer dollars from paying for abortions, permanent. Currently the amendment comes up for renewal each year. (read more)

President Obama, who delayed his Hawaii vacation until after the lame duck session of Congress concluded Wednesday night, said he was "persistent" during the traditionally sleepy post-election season to get key legislation passed before Democrats lose their majority in January.

Two former lawmakers say they were surprised by how much legislation was passed after November 15.

Former Texas Democratic Congressman Martin Frost says, "I was in Congress for 26 years and we had lame ducks of varying lengths. Generally lame ducks are not very productive."

Former Virginia Republican Congressman Tom Davis agrees. He said, "Most lame ducks end up being exactly that -- lame ducks; they kind of limp out of town. A punt and everybody goes home."

Although there have been exceptions, including the House's impeachment of President Clinton in December 1998. (read more)

President Obama says he wants a "real and honest discussion" at the White House on Tuesday morning, as Democratic and Republican House and Senate leaders meet to talk about the expiring Bush tax cuts and other issues.

In his weekly address, the President said, "I believe that if we stop talking at one another, and start talking with one another, we can get a lot done."

The main point of contention is what to do with the tax rates for American families making over $250,000.

Republicans say they should be included in any tax cut extensions.

The top Senate Republican, Mitch McConnell, who is expected to attend the meeting at the White House on Tuesday, said last week, "Americans don't think we should be raising taxes on anybody, especially in the middle of a recession."

But President Obama and Congressional Democrats, who argue the government can't afford to lose tax money coming in from the wealthy, want to extend the tax cuts for those families making $250,000 or less, about 98% of taxpayers.

The tax cuts expire at the end of this year.

New members of the House of Representitives started their day Friday playing the lottery. It's a lottery that determines which office they will receive on Capitol Hill.

The freshly-elected freshmen pick numbers between one and 85. Those who draw lower numbers move to the head of the line to choose their workspace while selecting higher numbers means picking an office from the leftovers.

Selecting an office is a major choice for new members.  The locations and sizes of congressional offices vary greatly and thus, the luck of the draw can dramatically affect a new member's time in Congress.

Here are some real-time updates of what new members are experiencing:

9:28 a.m. --Congressman Cory Gardner (R-CO) gets number one in lottery.

9:29 a.m. --Congressman Jeff Denham (R-CA) picks highest number so far: 82 out of 85.

--They are choosing numbers alphbetically.

9:30 a.m. --One of the House workers says people "who dance up to the selection box usually get the best numbers."

9:42 a.m. --Congressman Robert Hurt (R-VA) drew #85.

--Members meet back early this afternoon to choose their new offices.

Jake Gibson and Wes Barrett Contributed to this report.

Comedy Central host and satirist Jon Stewart says his intention at today's Rally to Restore Sanity And/Or Fear on the National Mall was to make the point that we "live in hard times, not end times" and that "we can have animus and not be enemies."

Stewart, along with fellow Comedy Central comedian Stephen Colbert, headlined the event. Stewart says it was not meant to be a political occasion or a counter to Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor rally in August. Beck is a host on Fox News Channel.

Still, Stewart and Colbert poked fun at cable news and unnamed others for constantly "telling us new things to be afraid of," although Stewart went on to argue that "most of those fears are overblown; they'll never come true."

He urged the crowd to use their TV remote controls as a "weapon...change the channel." (read more)

With economic issues dominating much of the midterm election debate, economists say the September housing start numbers show some signs of life, but also suggest that the housing market is recovering at a "very, very sluggish rate," according to Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors.

Housing starts, a measure of new home construction in the U.S., rose 0.3 percent in September, the Commerce Department said, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 610,000 units. That rate is the projected number of new privately-owned homes that would be started over a 12-month period, if the rate of growth stayed the same.

The September 2010 number is the highest rate since April 2010, when the homebuyer tax credit was expiring, but down significantly from one year ago, September 2009, when housing starts were up 4.1 percent. (read more)