2015 United Kingdom general election party spending investigation
The United Kingdom General Election 2015 – Party Spending Investigation was a probe involving the UK Electoral Commission, numerous police forces, and the Crown Prosecution Service into spending by political parties and candidates, primarily during the 2015 general election campaign. This co-ordinated investigation has been described as 'an unprecedented and extraordinary situation'.


2015 United Kingdom general election party spending investigation
At national party level, the Electoral Commission fined the three largest parties for breaches of spending regulations, levying the highest fines since its foundation: £20,000 for Labour in October 2016, £20,000 for the Liberal Democrats in December 2016, and £70,000 for the Conservative Party in March 2017. The higher fine for the Conservatives reflected both the extent of the wrongdoing and 'the unreasonable uncooperative conduct by the Party'.


2015 United Kingdom general election party spending investigation
At constituency level, related alleged breaches of spending regulations led police to begin investigations into possible criminal conduct of between 20 and 30 Conservative Party MPs. Charges were not brought against most of those investigated, but on 9 January 2019, a Conservative Party activist, Marion Little, was found guilty on two counts relating to falsifying election expenses and given a nine-month suspended sentence and £5000 fine.


2015 United Kingdom general election party spending investigation, Background
Elections held in the UK are governed by the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 and spending on elections is governed under the Representation of the People Act 1983. Shortly before the election, the Government increased the amount of money that parties and candidates were allowed to spend on the election by 23%, against the advice of the Electoral Commission.


2015 United Kingdom general election party spending investigation, 2014 and 2015 elections, Conservative Party, Electoral Commission investigation
From 18 February 2016 to 16 March 2017, the Electoral Commission investigated the Conservative party at national level for breaches of spending regulations in the 2014 parliamentary by-elections in Clacton, Newark and Rochester and Strood; the 2014 European Parliament election; and the 2015 general election. (No irregularities were found regarding the European election.)


2015 United Kingdom general election party spending investigation, 2014 and 2015 elections, Conservative Party, Electoral Commission investigation
The Commission was informed by an investigation by Channel 4 News, which revealed that the Conservative Party had spent many thousands of pounds centrally on 'battlebuses' to transport activists, and hotel accommodation for the activists, who went to campaign in marginal constituencies, finding that this expenditure might breach limits on election spending per constituency.


2015 United Kingdom general election party spending investigation, 2014 and 2015 elections, Conservative Party, Electoral Commission investigation
On 12 May 2016, the Commission took the unprecedented step of launching court action to force the Conservative Party to release documents.


2015 United Kingdom general election party spending investigation, 2014 and 2015 elections, Conservative Party, Electoral Commission investigation
The Commission fined the Party £70,000, noting its lack of co-operation during the investigation.


2015 United Kingdom general election party spending investigation, 2014 and 2015 elections, Conservative Party, Electoral Commission investigation
The Commission found that Simon Day may not have fulfilled his obligations under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 and referred him for investigation to the Metropolitan Police Service.


2015 United Kingdom general election party spending investigation, 2014 and 2015 elections, Conservative Party, Police investigation
Claims of overspending in the 2014 elections came to light too late for police investigations due to a statute of limitations on such cases. However, the Commission found cause for concern that campaigns in some constituencies breached the Representation of the People Act 1983, and could constitute criminal activity; its report referred the Conservative Party treasurer Simon Day for investigation to the Metropolitan Police Service, and the Commission passed evidence to relevant police forces for investigation and possible referral to the Crown Prosecution Service.


2015 United Kingdom general election party spending investigation, 2014 and 2015 elections, Conservative Party, Police investigation
Widely publicised criminal investigations of individual MPs, agents, and other officials followed from the allegations (by mid-June 2016, 17 police forces were investigating 20–30 sitting Conservative MPs). As well as the "battlebus" campaign, letters sent out in the name of David Cameron have been implicated.


2015 United Kingdom general election party spending investigation, 2014 and 2015 elections, Conservative Party, Police investigation
14 police forces referred cases to the Crown Prosecution Service for possible prosecution, concerning over 30 people (not all of whom were MPs). These forces were: Avon & Somerset, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Devon & Cornwall, Gloucestershire, Greater Manchester, Kent, Lincolnshire, Metropolitan, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire, West Mercia, West Midlands, and West Yorkshire.


2015 United Kingdom general election party spending investigation, 2014 and 2015 elections, Conservative Party, Police investigation
Journalistic commentary noted that the law in this area is complex. Defendants may be found guilty of merely 'illegal practice' (where there is no alleged dishonesty) or the more serious 'corrupt practice' (involving dishonesty). Anyone convicted would have a right to appeal. In June 2016, the journalist David Allen Green opined that 'unless compelling evidence emerges of wrongful and dishonest intention – either on a personal level or as part of a conspiracy – then it is hard to see any charges or criminal prosecutions in respect of the allegations as they currently stand'. However, according to The Independent, 'in theory election results in individual seats could be declared invalid if laws are found to have been broken', and this could lead to new by-elections. No conviction would affect the legal standing of legislation previously passed with the involvement of convicted MPs.


2015 United Kingdom general election party spending investigation, 2014 and 2015 elections, Conservative Party, Police investigation
On 10 May 2017, the Crown Prosecution Service announced that it would press no charges in almost all cases, commenting that 'to bring a charge, it must be proved that a suspect knew the return was inaccurate and acted dishonestly in signing the declaration. Although there is evidence to suggest the returns may have been inaccurate, there is insufficient evidence to prove to the criminal standard that any candidate or agent was dishonest'.


2015 United Kingdom general election party spending investigation, 2014 and 2015 elections, Conservative Party, Police investigation
However, on 2 June 2017, charges were brought under the Representation of the People Act 1983 against Craig Mackinlay, who was elected Conservative MP for South Thanet in 2015, his agent Nathan Gray, and a party activist, Marion Little. Appearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 4 July 2017, the three pleaded not guilty and were released on unconditional bail pending an appearance at Southwark Crown Court on 1 August 2017. The investigation of Party Treasurer Simon Day remained ongoing.


2015 United Kingdom general election party spending investigation, 2014 and 2015 elections, Conservative Party, Police investigation
Following some delays to the trial, Gray was acquitted on 13 December 2018 and Mackinlay on 9 January 2018. Little, however, was convicted of two counts relating to falsifying election expenses and given a nine-month suspended prison sentence and fined £5,000. The court concluded that Mackinlay and Gray had signed documents falsified by Little "in good faith, not knowing what she had done".


2015 United Kingdom general election party spending investigation, 2015 General Election, Labour Party
In October 2016, the Labour Party was fined £20,000 by the Electoral Commission for under-reporting of election expenses at national level, which at the time was the largest fine the commission had imposed since being founded in 2001. The Commission noted the party's co-operation in its investigation. The same Channel 4 investigation that identified the Conservative Party's questionable spending failed to find substantial evidence of similar problems in the Labour campaign.


2015 United Kingdom general election party spending investigation, 2015 General Election, Labour Party
At constituency level, police investigated allegations that several MPs breached local spending limits. In May 2016, Lancashire Constabulary announced that an investigation had been opened into Labour Party expenses following allegations that Cat Smith, MP for Lancaster and Fleetwood broke election spending laws. However, in November 2016 they cleared Smith of any wrongdoing and fully exonerated her. Other cases seem likewise to have been dropped.


2015 United Kingdom general election party spending investigation, 2015 General Election, Liberal Democrat Party
In December 2016, the Liberal Democrats were also fined £20,000 for undeclared spending at national level; again, the Electoral Commission noted their co-operation with the investigation.


2015 United Kingdom general election party spending investigation, 2015 General Election, Liberal Democrat Party
Although a few MPs saw police investigating allegations of breaching spending limits, all cases appear to have been swiftly dropped.


2015 United Kingdom general election party spending investigation, Responses
In March 2017, the chair of the Electoral Commission, John Holmes, argued in response to the investigations that the sanctions at the Commission's disposal needed to be extended, saying that 'there is a risk that some political parties might come to view the payment of these fines as a cost of doing business; the Commission therefore needs to be able to impose sanctions that are proportionate to the levels of spending now routinely handled by parties and campaigners'.


2015 United Kingdom general election party spending investigation, Responses
When the UK Government called the 2017 United Kingdom General Election in April 2017, there was widespread press speculation that one motivation was fear of impending prosecutions of Conservative MPs, most prominently by Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon.


2015 United Kingdom general election party spending investigation, Responses
Responding to the CPS's decision not to prosecute most individuals, the Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May claimed on 10 May 2017 that 'we have seen all the major parties, and the Scottish nationalists, being fined', but in fact the Scottish National Party had not transgressed electoral law and accordingly had not been fined. May also commented that the CPS had 'confirmed what we believed all along and said all along which was the local spending was properly reported and the candidates have done nothing wrong', which journalists also noted to be untrue.


2015 United Kingdom general election party spending investigation, Responses
Karl McCartney, who had been elected Conservative MP for Lincoln in 2015 and had been investigated, said the police investigation was 'no more than a politically-motivated witch-hunt', called for the resignation of 'the Executive Team and Senior Management Group' of the Electoral Commission, and the abolition of the Commission itself. Emails leaked in March 2017 had previously revealed him saying 'we didn't create this mess, the clever dicks at CCHQ (Conservative Campaign Headquarters) did'. The Electoral Commission responded that 'the commission’s investigations team carry out independent, robust and impartial investigations, acting fully in accordance with our enforcement policy and with complete impartiality'.


2015 United Kingdom general election party spending investigation, Responses
In the course of the case against Mackinlay, the Supreme Court judged that 'the statutory requirement for an election candidate to declare “notional” expenditure incurred on his or her behalf during a campaign, as might arise where a national party provided additional campaigning support in the constituency, was not limited to campaigning activity that had been authorised by the candidate or his agent'. In May 2019, it emerged that the government was in consequence considering introducing primary legislation so that candidates for election, and their agents, would no longer automatically be held responsible if resources were donated to the campaign (including by their own national parties).


2015 United Kingdom general election party spending investigation, Related investigations, Unlawful spending by UKIP
In 2016-18, the European Parliament found that the United Kingdom Independence Party had unlawfully spent over €173,000 of EU funding on the party's 2015 UK election campaign, via the Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe and the affiliated Institute for Direct Democracy. The Parliament required the repayment of the mis-spent funds and denied the organisations some other funding. It also found that UKIP MEPs had unlawfully spent EU money on other assistance for national campaigning purposes during 2014-16 and docked their salaries to recoup the mis-spent funds.


2015 United Kingdom general election party spending investigation, Related investigations, Information Commissioner's Office
On 17 May 2017, the Information Commissioner's Office opened an investigation into data analytics for political purposes, whose purview included the 2015 general election, as well as possible unlawful campaigning in the 2016 EU referendum. The investigation issued a report, but was not at the time able to include information on UKIP due to their lack of co-operation. As of April 2019, the investigation was in this respect ongoing.


2015 United Kingdom local elections
The 2015 United Kingdom local elections were held on Thursday 7 May 2015, the same day as the general election for the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.


2015 United Kingdom local elections
With the exception of those areas that have had boundary changes, the council seats up for election in England were last contested in the 2011 local elections.


2015 United Kingdom local elections, Background
Elections would have been due in Northern Ireland given the previous elections to all 26 local councils in 2011, but these councils have since been scrapped and replaced by 11 super-councils, which had their inaugural elections in 2014.


2015 United Kingdom local elections, Background
All registered electors (British, Irish, Commonwealth and European Union citizens) who will be aged 18 or over on the day of the election were entitled to vote in the local elections. Those who will be temporarily away from their ordinary address (for example, away working, on holiday, in student accommodation or in hospital) are also entitled to vote in the local elections, although those who have moved abroad and registered as overseas electors cannot vote in the local elections. Those who are registered to vote at more than one address (such as a university student who has a term-time address and lives at home during holidays) are entitled to vote in the local elections at either address, as long as they are not in the same local government area.


2015 United Kingdom local elections, Analysis
In 2015, direct elections were held in 279 of the 293 local districts in England: 36 metropolitan boroughs, 194 of the second-tier districts, and 49 of the unitary authorities. There were no local elections in London, Scotland, or Wales.


2015 United Kingdom local elections, Analysis
There were also six elections for directly elected mayors, as well as elections to many parish councils and town councils, and a few local referenda.


2015 United Kingdom local elections, Analysis
As was the case in the simultaneously-held general election, the Conservative Party was considered the clear winners of the local elections, winning overall control of more than thirty local councils, mostly from councils that before the election had no overall control (i.e., no majority held by any one party). The Conservatives retained control of the Solihull and Trafford councils, the only two metropolitan boroughs that it held before the election, slightly increasing its majority on both. Among the unitary councils, the Conservatives won control of Bath and North East Somerset for the first time.


2015 United Kingdom local elections, Analysis
As was the case in the general election, the Labour Party and Liberal Democrats performed poorly. Labour lost control of the Walsall metropolitan borough and the Plymouth and Stoke-on-Trent unitary authorities, both to no overall control.


2015 United Kingdom local elections, Analysis
The Green Party of England and Wales lost their status as the largest party on Brighton and Hove City Council to Labour.


2015 United Kingdom local elections, Analysis
The UK Independence Party won control of the Thanet District Council, going from two to 33 seats on that council. This marked the first time that UKIP won control of a local council.


2015 United Kingdom local elections, Analysis
According to an analysis by Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher, more than three-quarters of councils across the UK are now under the majority control of the two largest parties, Conservative and Labour—the highest percentage since the 1970s local government reform. The dominance of the Conservative and Labour parties was not limited to control of councils, but also extended to a seat count, with the two parties holding 77% of seats, the highest since 1980. Rallings and Thrasher found that the decline of the Liberal Democrats accounted for part of this trend. They concluded that "much is said about multi-party Britain but it is time instead to talk about two-party local government."


2015 United Kingdom local elections, Metropolitan boroughs
In 35 of the 36 English metropolitan borough councils one-third of their seats are up for election. In Doncaster, all seats are up for election due to ward-boundary changes there.


2015 United Kingdom local elections, Unitary authorities, Whole council
In 30 English unitary authorities the whole council is up for election.


2015 United Kingdom local elections, Unitary authorities, Whole council
These were the last elections to the unitary authorities for Bournemouth and Poole, as they are set to be merged into one, along with the area covered by Christchurch District Council into one new authority in 2019.


2015 United Kingdom local elections, Unitary authorities, Third of council
In 19 English unitary authorities one third of the council is up for election.


2015 United Kingdom local elections, Non-metropolitan districts, Whole council
In 128 English district authorities the whole council is up for election.


2015 United Kingdom local elections, Non-metropolitan districts, Whole council
These were the last elections to councils in Christchurch, Corby, East Dorset, East Northamptonshire, Forest Heath, Kettering, North Dorset, Northampton, Purbeck, South Northamptonshire, St Edmundsbury, Suffolk Coastal, Taunton Deane, Waveney, Wellingborough, West Dorset and West Somerset.


2015 United Kingdom local elections, Non-metropolitan districts, Whole council
These councils are either being merged into larger districts, specifically those in Somerset and Suffolk at the 2019 local elections, while those in Northamptonshire and Dorset are due to have their county councils abolished and converted into 4 unitary authorities, with the new Dorset authorities electing in 2019 and the Northamptonshire authorities electing in 2020 - thus meaning all of the district and borough councillors in Northamptonshire have their terms extended for one year.


2015 United Kingdom local elections, Non-metropolitan districts, Third of council
In 66 English district authorities one third of the council is up for election.


2015 United Kingdom local elections, Local referendums results
A local referendum in Bedfordshire was held on a proposal by Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner Olly Martins, to fund one hundred additional police officers through a 15.8% increase in the police precept (the portion of the council tax set by the police and crime commissioner). The proposal would provide an additional £4.5 million in revenue. The referendum was triggered because the proposed tax increase was above the 2% threshold. Voters decisively rejected the proposal, with 30.5% (91,086 votes) voting yes and 69.5% (207,551 votes) no.


2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference
The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21 or CMP 11 was held in Paris, France, from 30 November to 12 December 2015. It was the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 11th session of the Meeting of the Parties (CMP) to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.


2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference
The conference negotiated the Paris Agreement, a global agreement on the reduction of climate change, the text of which represented a consensus of the representatives of the 196 attending parties. The agreement enters into force when joined by at least 55 countries which together represent at least 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. On 22 April 2016 (Earth Day), 174 countries signed the agreement in New York, and began adopting it within their own legal systems (through ratification, acceptance, approval, or accession).


2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference
According to the organizing committee at the outset of the talks, the expected key result was an agreement to set a goal of limiting global warming to "well below 2 °C" Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels. The agreement calls for zero net anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions to be reached during the second half of the 21st century. In the adopted version of the Paris Agreement, the parties will also "pursue efforts to" limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C. The 1.5 °C goal will require zero emissions sometime between 2030 and 2050, according to some scientists.


2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference
Prior to the conference, 146 national climate panels publicly presented a draft of national climate contributions (called "Intended Nationally Determined Contributions", INDCs). These suggested commitments were estimated to limit global warming to 2.7 °C by 2100. For example, the EU suggested INDC is a commitment to a 40 percent reduction in emissions by 2030 compared to 1990. The agreement establishes a "global stocktake" which revisits the national goals to "update and enhance" them every five years beginning 2023. However, no detailed timetable or country-specific goals for emissions were incorporated into the Paris Agreement – as opposed to the previous Kyoto Protocol.


2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference
A number of meetings took place in preparation for COP21, including the Bonn Climate Change Conference, 19 to 23 October 2015, which produced a draft agreement.


2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Background
According to the organizing committee of the summit in Paris, the objective of the 2015 conference was to achieve, for the first time in over 20 years of UN negotiations, a binding and universal agreement on climate. Pope Francis published an encyclical letter called Laudato si' intended, in part, to influence the conference. The encyclical calls for action against climate change: "Humanity is called to recognize the need for changes of lifestyle, production and consumption, in order to combat this warming or at least the human causes which produce or aggravate it." The International Trade Union Confederation has called for the goal to be "zero carbon, zero poverty", and its general secretary Sharan Burrow has repeated that there are "no jobs on a dead planet".


2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Location and participation
The location of UNFCCC talks is rotated by regions throughout United Nations countries. The 2015 conference was held at Le Bourget from 30 November to 12 December 2015.


2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Location and participation
To some extent, France served as a model country for delegates attending COP21 because it is one of the few developed countries in the world to decarbonize electricity production and fossil fuel energy while still providing a high standard of living. As of 2012, France generated over 90% of its electricity from zero carbon sources, including nuclear, hydroelectric, and wind.


2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Location and participation
The conference took place two weeks after a series of terrorist attacks in the 8th ward of Paris, Saint-Denis. Martial law was declared and national security was tightened accordingly, with 30,000 police officers and 285 security checkpoints deployed across the country until after the conference ended.


2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Location and participation
The European Union and 195 nations (see list in reference) were the participating parties.


2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Negotiations
The overarching goal of the Convention is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit the global temperature increase. Since COP 17 this increase is set at 2 °C (3.6 °F) above pre-industrial levels. However, Christiana Figueres acknowledged in the closing briefing at the 2012 Doha conference: "The current pledges under the second commitment period of the Kyoto protocol are clearly not enough to guarantee that the temperature will stay below 2 °C and there is an ever increasing gap between the action of countries and what the science tells us."


2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Negotiations
During previous climate negotiations, countries agreed to outline actions they intended to take within a global agreement, by 1 October 2015. These commitments are known as Intended Nationally Determined Contributions or INDCs. Together, the INDCs would reduce global warming from an estimated 4–5 °C (by 2100) to 2.7 °C, and reduce emissions per capita by 9% by 2030, while providing hope in the eyes of the conference organizers for further reductions in the future that would allow meeting a 2 °C target.


2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Negotiations
Think-tanks such as the World Pensions Council (WPC) argued that the keys to success lay in convincing officials in the U.S. and China, by far the two largest national emitters:"As long as policy makers in Washington and Beijing didn't put all their political capital behind the adoption of ambitious carbon-emission capping targets, the laudable efforts of other G20 governments often remained in the realm of pious wishes. Things changed for the better on 12 November 2014 when President Obama and General Secretary Xi Jinping agreed to limit greenhouse gases emissions."


2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Negotiations
President Obama insisted on America's essential role in that regard: "We've led by example [...] from Alaska to the Gulf Coast to the Great Plains [...] we've seen the longest streak of private job creation in our history. We've driven our economic output to all time-highs while driving our carbon pollution down to its lowest level in nearly two decades.


2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Negotiations
And then, with our historic joint announcement with China last year, we showed it was possible to bridge the old divide between developed and developing nations that had stymied global progress for so long [...] That was the foundation for success in Paris." Harvard University published a case study on one aspect of the negotiations, focussing on the protection of forests.


2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Outcome
On 12 December 2015, the participating 196 countries agreed, by consensus, to the final global pact, the Paris Agreement, to reduce emissions as part of the method for reducing greenhouse gas. In the 12-page document, the members agreed to reduce their carbon output "as soon as possible" and to do their best to keep global warming "to well below 2 degrees C".


2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Outcome
In the course of the debates, island states of the Pacific, the Seychelles, but also the Philippines, their very existence threatened by sea level rise, had strongly voted for setting a goal of 1.5 °C instead of only 2 °C. France's Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, said this "ambitious and balanced" plan was an "historic turning point" in the goal of reducing global warming. However, some others criticized the fact that significant sections are "promises" or aims and not firm commitments by the countries.


2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Outcome, Non-binding commitments, lack of enforcement mechanisms
The Agreement will not become binding on its member states until 55 parties who produce over 55% of the world's greenhouse gas have ratified the Agreement. There is doubt whether some countries, especially the United States, will agree to do so, though the United States publicly committed, in a joint Presidential Statement with China, to joining the Agreement in 2016.


2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Outcome, Non-binding commitments, lack of enforcement mechanisms
Each country that ratifies the agreement will be required to set a target for emission reduction or limitation, called a "nationally determined contribution," or "NDC," but the amount will be voluntary. There will be neither a mechanism to force a country to set a target by a specific date nor enforcement measures if a set target is not met. There will be only a "name and shame" system or, as János Pásztor, the U.N. assistant secretary-general on climate change, told CBS News, a "name and encourage" plan.


2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Outcome, Non-binding commitments, lack of enforcement mechanisms
Some analysts have also observed that the stated objectives of the Paris Agreement are implicitly "predicated upon an assumption – that member states of the United Nations, including high polluters such as China, US, India, Canada, Russia, Indonesia and Australia, which generate more than half the world's greenhouse gas emissions, will somehow drive down their carbon pollution voluntarily and assiduously without any binding enforcement mechanism to measure and control CO2 emissions at any level from factory to state, and without any specific penalty gradation or fiscal pressure (for example a carbon tax) to discourage bad behaviour."


2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Outcome, Institutional investors' contribution to limiting fossil fuels
Speaking at the 5th annual World Pensions Forum held on the sidelines of the COP21 Summit, Earth Institute Director Jeffrey Sachs argued that institutional investors would eventually divest from carbon-reliant firms if they could not react to political and regulatory efforts to halt climate change: "Every energy company in a pension fund's portfolio needs to be scrutinized from purely a financial view about its future, 'Why is this [a company] we would want to hold over a five- to 20-year period?'... If we continue to hold major energy companies that don't have an answer to a basic financial test, we are just gambling. We have to take a fiduciary responsibility – these are not good bets."


2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Outcome, Institutional investors' contribution to limiting fossil fuels
Some US policy makers concurred, notably Al Gore, insisting that "no agreement is perfect, and this one must be strengthened over time, but groups across every sector of society will now begin to reduce dangerous carbon pollution through the framework of this agreement."


2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Declarations of non-state parties
As is usual before such major conferences, major NGOs and groups of governments have drafted and published a wide variety of declarations they intend to seek a consensus on, at the Paris conference itself. These include at least the following major efforts:


2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Financing
The conference was budgeted to cost €170m (US$186.87m at the time). The French government said that 20% of the cost would be borne by French firms such as EDF, Engie (formerly known as GDF Suez), Air France, Renault-Nissan and BNP Paribas. Sponsors were among others BMW, Avery Dennison, Carbon Trade Exchange, Cool Effect, The Coca-Cola Company, the Climate Resources Exchange and Vattenfall.


2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Demonstrations
Around the world, 600,000 took part in demonstrations in favour of a strong agreement, such as the Global Climate March organized by 350.org (and other events such as Alternatiba, Village of Alternatives). Paris had a ban on public gatherings in the wake of recent terrorist attacks (state of emergency), but allowed thousands to demonstrate on 12 December against what they felt was a too-weak treaty. There was also an illegal demonstration in Paris, including violent clashes between police and anarchists, ten policemen were injured and 317 people arrested.


2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Demonstrations
On 30 November, the first day of the conference, a "climate strike" was organised by students in over 100 countries; over 50000 people participate.


2015 United Nations Security Council election
The 2015 United Nations Security Council election was held on 15 October 2015 during the 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly, held at United Nations Headquarters in New York City. The elections are for five non-permanent seats on the UN Security Council for two-year mandates commencing on 1 January 2016. In accordance with the Security Council's rotation rules, whereby the ten non-permanent UNSC seats rotate among the various regional blocs into which UN member states traditionally divide themselves for voting and representation purposes, the five available seats are allocated as follows:


2015 United Nations Security Council election
The five members will serve on the Security Council for the 2016–17 period. The countries elected were Egypt, Senegal, Uruguay, Japan, and Ukraine. In each vote there were as many vacancies as there were candidates on the ballot.


2015 United Nations Security Council election
This was the last time a Security Council election was held in the month of October. On 18 September 2014, the General Assembly adopted Resolution 68/307 to push the elections back to six months prior to the beginning of the newly elected Council members' terms.


2015 United SportsCar Championship
The 2015 IMSA Tudor United SportsCar Championship (TUSC) was the second season of the International Motor Sports Association's Tudor United SportsCar Championship and last to be held under that name. It was also the 45th overall season of the IMSA GT championship tracing its lineage to the 1971 IMSA season. It began January 24 with the 24 Hours of Daytona. and ended on October 3 at Petit Le Mans.


2015 United SportsCar Championship, Classes
2015 will see the introduction of two awards for the top-finishing Pro-Am drivers in Prototype (P) and GT Le Mans (GTLM). The Jim Trueman Award will be given to the top finishing Pro-Am pairing in Prototype, while the Bob Akin Award will be for the top GTLM pairing. The top Pro-Am pairings from these classes at the end of the year will be given automatic entries to the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, with the Trueman award winner eligible for the LMP2 class, while the Akin Award winner would be for the LM GTE Am class. To be eligible for these awards, the drivers must at a minimum contest the North American Endurance Cup events.


2015 United SportsCar Championship, Schedule, Race schedule
The 2015 schedule was released on August 10, 2014 and features twelve rounds. One major change to the rules for 2015 was a slight reduction of race time to fit television constraints. Two and three hour races, which were 15 minutes shorter than their times, will have their race times reduced five more minutes, so that they would be 1:40 and 2:40, respectively, instead of 1:45 and 2:45, as was the case in the previous years. The races set for 6, 10, 12, and 24 hours will remain at the respective lengths.


2015 United SportsCar Championship, Entries, Prototype Challenge
All entries use an Oreca FLM09 chassis powered by a Chevrolet LS3 6.2 L V8.


2015 United SportsCar Championship, Championship standings, Points Systems
Championship points are awarded in each class at the finish of each event. Points are awarded based on finishing positions as shown in the chart below.


2015 United SportsCar Championship, Championship standings, Points Systems, Drivers Points
Points are awarded in each class at the finish of each event. Drivers must complete a minimum driving time (outlined to teams prior to each event) in order to score points. A driver does not score points if the minimum drive time is not met.


2015 United SportsCar Championship, Championship standings, Points Systems, Drivers Points
In addition, for each car credited with a race start, each driver nominated in that car also receives one additional “starting point.”


2015 United SportsCar Championship, Championship standings, Points Systems, Team Points
Team points are calculated in exactly the same way as driver points, using the point distribution chart and “starting points.” Each car entered is considered its own “team” regardless if it is a single entry or part of a two-car team.


2015 United SportsCar Championship, Championship standings, Points Systems, Manufacturer Points
There are also a number of manufacturer championships which utilize the same season-long point distribution chart, minus the “starting points” used for the driver and team championships. (The “starting point” is not used in manufacturer championship points.) The manufacturer championships recognized by IMSA are as follows:


2015 United SportsCar Championship, Championship standings, Points Systems, Manufacturer Points
Each manufacturer receives finishing points for its highest finishing car in each class. The positions of subsequent finishing cars from the same manufacturer are not taken into consideration, and all other manufacturers move up in the order.


2015 United SportsCar Championship, Championship standings, Points Systems, Manufacturer Points
The points system from the 2014 season is the same as in 2015.


2015 United SportsCar Championship, Championship standings, Points Systems, North American Endurance Cup
The points system for the North American Endurance Cup is different from the normal points system. Points are awarded on a 5-4-3-2 basis for drivers, teams and manufacturers. The first finishing position at each interval earns five points, four points for second position, three points for third, with two points awarded for fourth and each subsequent finishing position.


2015 United SportsCar Championship, Championship standings, Points Systems, North American Endurance Cup
At Daytona (24 hour race), points are awarded at six hours, 12 hours, 18 hours and at the finish. At the Sebring (12 hour race), points are awarded at four hours, eight hours and at the finish. At Watkins Glen (6 hour race), points are awarded at three hours and at the finish. At Road Atlanta (10-hour race), points are awarded at four hours, eight hours and at the finish.


2015 United SportsCar Championship, Championship standings, Points Systems, North American Endurance Cup
Like the season-long team championship, North American Endurance Cup team points are awarded for each car and drivers get points in any car that they drive, in which they are entered for points. The manufacturer points go to the highest placed car from that manufacturer (the others from that manufacturer not being counted), just like the season-long manufacturer championship.


2015 United States E. coli outbreak
The 2015 United States E. coli outbreak is an incident in the United States involving the spread of Escherichia coli O157:H7 through contaminated celery which was consumed in chicken salad at various large retailers. A product recall covering more than one dozen states and over 155,000 products has taken place as a result of the incident.


2015 United States E. coli outbreak, Cases
Nineteen cases  of E. coli were linked to the outbreak, across seven states, primarily in the western half of the United States. Of these reported cases, five resulted in hospitalization, with two patients developing hemolytic-uremic syndrome, a type of kidney failure; no deaths occurred as a result of the outbreak. This outbreak was therefore the second largest to occur in the U.S. in 2015, behind the far more severe Chipotle outbreak, which totaled about sixty cases.


2015 United States E. coli outbreak, Locations affected
A total of 19 cases of E. coli linked to the outbreak were reported, throughout seven states: California, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Utah, Virginia, and Washington. Recalls of Costco rotisserie chicken salad, which was deemed the source of the outbreak, occurred throughout the entire United States, with Costco claiming to have removed all infected products by November 20, 2015.


2015 United States E. coli outbreak, Epidemiology
The epidemiologic evidence collected during the outbreak suggested that rotisserie chicken salad made and sold in Costco Wholesale stores in several states was the likely source of the outbreak.


2015 United States Grand Prix
The 2015 United States Grand Prix (formally known as the 2015 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race that took place on 25 October 2015. The race was contested over fifty-six laps and held at the Circuit of the Americas. It was the sixteenth round of the 2015 season and marked the thirty-seventh time that the United States Grand Prix was run as a round of the World Championship since its inception in 1950, and the fourth time that the event was hosted at this circuit.


2015 United States Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton was the defending race winner and entered with a 66-point lead in the Drivers' Championship over Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari, with Hamilton's Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg a further seven points behind. The three-day event was run in torrential conditions; as a result, the second practice session and the final qualifying session were cancelled, while the whole of qualifying was delayed until the morning of the race day.


2015 United States Grand Prix
Hamilton won the race, passing Nico Rosberg in the later stages, and thereby secured his third Drivers' Championship, as Sebastian Vettel finished third. An incident-packed race saw only twelve cars reach the finish line, with Max Verstappen repeating his best result of the season in fourth and Jenson Button finishing a season-best sixth. After starting in damp conditions, both Red Bull drivers were initially able to challenge the Mercedes for the lead, but later dropped back as the track dried, with Daniil Kvyat retiring after a crash and Daniel Ricciardo eventually finishing tenth.


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Background
Alexander Rossi became the first American to drive in the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas, returning to Manor Marussia after Roberto Merhi had raced for them in Russia. The Sauber team celebrated their 400th Grand Prix in Formula One. The weather was forecast to be wet all weekend, with especially treacherous conditions on Friday afternoon and Saturday, while the race day itself was expected to be slightly less wet.


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Background
Fernando Alonso ran a new power unit in his McLaren over the weekend, one that he had already used once during practice for the previous race in Russia, having taken the grid penalty for it there. Teammate Jenson Button hoped for Alonso to "annihilate" him, adding: "It's unusual to say that, but in our situation it's about getting it on the car." McLaren also introduced new aerodynamic parts to their cars for the Grand Prix. Both Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen of Ferrari needed to exchange their power units.


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Background
Having already used the allowed four units for the season, both drivers received ten-place grid penalties. Manor Marussia's Will Stevens was placed back twenty grid spots for a change of his engine, turbocharger and MGU-H unit. Renault used eleven of their twelve remaining token for changes to their power unit. However, both customer teams, Red Bull and Toro Rosso chose not to run with the update, saying its performance advantage was not worth taking the grid penalties.


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Background
Both Red Bull and McLaren used new front wings, emulating a concept introduced by Mercedes supposed to create more downforce by directing the airflow towards the outside of the front tyres. Similar changes were made by Ferrari to their SF15-T. In preparation for the effects of the high altitude in Mexico, Mercedes added two "ears" at the top of the airbox in order to improve cooling to the Energy Recovery System of their power unit.


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Background
The race used the same two DRS zones as previous races at the track. The first was between turns eleven and twelve, and the second on the start/finish straight between turns twenty and one. Pirelli supplied teams with the white-banded medium tyre as the prime compound and the yellow-banded soft tyre as the option selection, with the manufacturer citing the characteristics of the circuit with "a wide range of corners and elevations" as the reason the two middle compounds were chosen.


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Background
Coming into the weekend, Mercedes had already secured the Constructors' Championship, having done so at the previous race in Russia. Ferrari was in second place on 359 points, 139 points ahead of Williams. In the Drivers' Championship, Lewis Hamilton led with 302 points, 66 ahead of Sebastian Vettel and 73 ahead of his teammate, Nico Rosberg. This meant that Hamilton would be able to win the title with three races to spare, as long as he gathered nine points more than Vettel and two more than Rosberg at the Grand Prix.


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Free practice
Per the regulations for the 2015 season, three practice sessions were scheduled, two 1.5-hour sessions on Friday and another one-hour session before qualifying on Saturday. However, with treacherous weather conditions including flood warnings, the second practice session was cancelled due to heavy rain and a thunderstorm. The other two practice session were run in wet conditions.


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Free practice
Nico Rosberg topped the timesheets on Friday, ahead of the two Red Bull cars of Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo. The session started on a very wet track, but with no more rain falling, it dried out as the practice progressed, with drivers soon switching to intermediate tyres. Lewis Hamilton was fifth fastest, behind Carlos Sainz Jr.. Despite going off the track late in the session, Fernando Alonso was ninth fastest in the McLaren with the new power unit. A gearbox problem meant that Pastor Maldonado was unable to take to the track, while at Sauber, Raffaele Marciello replaced Felipe Nasr, ending the session three-tenths of a second quicker than teammate Marcus Ericsson.


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Free practice
The practice session on Saturday was run without spectators to ensure their safety. On track, Lewis Hamilton was fastest, ahead of his closest championship rival Sebastian Vettel. With conditions worsening over the course of the session, Vettel spun out twice. Max Verstappen ended the session last, while Force India's Nico Hülkenberg was third, ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Sainz.


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Qualifying
Inclement weather continued to disrupt the Saturday's proceedings as qualifying was delayed multiple times before being ultimately rescheduled for Sunday morning. Many drivers backed the decision, with Jenson Button saying: "It was the right thing to do [...]. In one respect, maybe if we decided three hours earlier it would have been better for the fans. But we wanted to get out there and drive and put on a show. Delaying it every half an hour was the way it had to be."


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Qualifying
During the waiting period on Saturday, many teams had engaged in tomfoolery in the paddock to entertain the crowds, such as bowling or ballroom dancing between Red Bull teammates Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat. Ferrari later condemned the behaviour of their fellow teams, with team principal Maurizio Arrivabene saying: "We are a Formula One team, not the Cirque du Soleil." Kimi Räikkönen backed him, stating: "I think this is F1 and not the circus. The people are obviously not happy when we're not running but we cannot make them happy with whatever we do apart from running."


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Qualifying
Qualifying was scheduled to consist of three parts, 18, 15 and 12 minutes in length respectively, with five drivers eliminated from competing after each of the first two sessions. The first part of qualifying (Q1) was disrupted after a little more than five minutes, when Sainz crashed at turn four, bringing out red flags. Due to the prospect of worsening rain and the chance that qualifying could be brought to an end by the weather at any point, the teams fought for grid positions early on, with Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Daniel Ricciardo setting the fastest times. Apart from Sainz, both Manor Marussia drivers were eliminated, along with the two Sauber cars of Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr. Sebastian Vettel, after making contact with a barrier, finished Q1 in fifteenth place, barely making it into Q2.


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Qualifying
In Q2, lap times improved and the two Mercedes drivers led the way, with Rosberg a little over a tenth of a second ahead of teammate Hamilton. Fernando Alonso went faster than Valtteri Bottas and looked to make it into Q3, when Max Verstappen went faster and eliminated the McLaren driver. Also not in the top ten were both Lotus and the second McLaren of Jenson Button. Conditions soon worsened, preventing faster lap times. Many drivers spun out in the latter part of the session, complaining about aquaplaning.


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Qualifying
With more rain falling, the decision was made to cancel the third part of qualifying and use the results of Q2 to determine the grid. Therefore, Nico Rosberg secured his third consecutive pole position, ahead of Hamilton, Ricciardo, and Daniil Kvyat. Fifth fastest was Sebastian Vettel for Ferrari, but his grid penalty meant that the third row on the grid was made up by the two Force India cars of Sergio Pérez and Nico Hülkenberg respectively.


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Qualifying
The penalties for both Ferraris saw Fernando Alonso move up to ninth on the grid, the highest grid position for McLaren at that point of the season. Following his third pole in a row, Rosberg said he wanted to win the race "really badly", after being passed by Hamilton in Japan and retiring from the Russian Grand Prix whilst in the lead. Sainz required permission from the stewards to start the race, after failing to set a time within 107% of Ricciardo's fastest lap in Q1. He was later allowed to start and did so after his team was able to repair his car in time for the start. Following a gearbox change, Valtteri Bottas received a five-place grid penalty, moving him from eleventh to sixteenth on the grid.


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Race
While the rain had stopped come race time, the track was still wet and slippery and all drivers opted to start on intermediate tyres. Hamilton got away better at the start, entering the first corner alongside pole-sitter Rosberg and, by forcing the German wide, took the lead exiting turn one. Getting off track saw Rosberg lose additional positions, running fifth behind Hamilton, Kvyat, Ricciardo and Pérez.


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Race
Further back, a collision involved Alonso, Massa, the two Sauber cars of Ericsson and Nasr as well as Bottas, who made a pit stop after the first lap, as did Nasr, who was the first to fit slick tyres, as the track was starting to dry. Will Stevens was touched from behind by teammate Alexander Rossi, breaking his rear wing and forcing him to retire. Having started from the back of the grid, Carlos Sainz profited from the incidents and was up to tenth by the end of the first lap.


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Race
While Rosberg soon took back fourth from Pérez, Hamilton in front came under pressure from Kvyat, with the Red Bull drivers running fast in the damp conditions. With Kvyat just half a second behind the championship leader, a virtual safety car period was declared on lap five to clear the debris from the first corner incident. On lap 7, Valtteri Bottas retired with a damper failure caused by the turn one contact. When the virtual safety car ended on lap 8, Rosberg made an immediate move on Ricciardo to move into third, overtaking Kvyat for second on the same lap.


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Race
Romain Grosjean became another victim of the accident on lap one, when he came into the pit lane for a second time on lap 12 and retired. By the same time, Sebastian Vettel had moved up into sixth place from thirteenth on the grid. Up front, Kvyat went wide while trying to overtake Rosberg, allowing teammate Ricciardo through into third; Ricciardo in turn made a successful manoeuvre on Rosberg to move up into second.


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Race
A battle for the lead developed between Hamilton and Ricciardo, until the Australian moved around Hamilton on lap 15. With the grip of the intermediate tyres deteriorating, there were many overtaking manoeuvres on track. Rosberg unsuccessfully tried to overtake teammate Hamilton for second on lap 16, while Verstappen took sixth place from Vettel one lap later, only to run wide and lose the position again. On lap 18, Rosberg moved ahead of Hamilton, who was the first of the front runners to change tyres at the end of the lap, going for a dry compound.


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Race
The other frontrunners followed suit over the next couple of laps. Following the pit stops, Ricciardo led from Rosberg, Kvyat and Hamilton. The two Mercedes drivers moved ahead of their respective Red Bull rivals on laps 22 and 23, while Vettel, now in fifth, closed on the leading quartet. On lap 24, he reached Kvyat and overtook him for fourth, while Rosberg extended his lead to Ricciardo to nine seconds by lap 25. Hamilton took second place from Ricciardo one lap later. At the same time, Kimi Räikkönen was forced to retire. So had Massa on lap 24, suffering the same problem that had forced his teammate to stop.


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Race
On lap 27, Marcus Ericsson's Sauber came to a halt on track, bringing out the proper safety car. At this halfway point of the race, the order stood as: Rosberg, Hamilton, Ricciardo, Kvyat, Verstappen, as Vettel used the safety car period for a tyre change, moving him back into sixth. When the safety car pulled into pit lane at the end of lap 32, Vettel was back in fifth after Verstappen had also made a pit stop for new tyres.


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Race
The German moved ahead into fourth at Kvyat's expense into turn one at the restart and went on to overtake the other Red Bull of Ricciardo some turns later. However, Ricciardo fought back to regain the place in the next corner. Vettel was able to make the move stick going into turn one on the subsequent lap. Meanwhile, Kvyat was further demoted when Verstappen moved ahead into fifth, followed by Hülkenberg. On lap 35, Verstappen overtook the second Red Bull of Ricciardo to move into fourth.


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Race
When Nico Hülkenberg attempted to do the same one lap later, he and Ricciardo collided, forcing the German to retire. Ricciardo was able to continue, but was overtaken by his teammate, with Jenson Button behind in seventh place. When another virtual safety car period was declared to clear Hülkenberg's car, Rosberg decided to pit, moving him back to fourth behind Hamilton, Vettel and Verstappen. By lap 40, when the safety car period was over, Rosberg was up into third at the expense of Verstappen, while Alonso moved up several places into sixth, with teammate Button in fifth. Running on newer tyres, Rosberg was able to overtake Vettel on lap 42.


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Race
One lap later, Kvyat suffered a heavy impact at the penultimate corner, causing another safety car period. Both Hamilton and Vettel used this to change tyres again, as did Button on lap 45. The safety car came back in at the end of lap 46, with the order being: Rosberg, Hamilton, Verstappen, Vettel, Alonso, Pérez, Button and Maldonado. At the restart, Verstappen tried to move past Hamilton but failed and was in turn overtaken by Vettel. On lap 48, Rosberg lost the lead to Hamilton after sliding off track due to wheelspin in his rear tyres.


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Race
The German later declared that his mistake was caused by a strong gust of wind. Hamilton soon opened up a gap to his teammate, while Button moved up into sixth ahead of Alonso on lap 50, but lost the position again to Sainz before the end of the race. His teammate Alonso had been running fifth, but a loss of power from his engine moved him down the order to eventually finish eleventh. In the closing laps, Vettel edged closer to Rosberg in second, but was unable to overtake. This meant that Hamilton, who crossed the line as race winner, also took his third career championship title, with both Vettel and Rosberg now too far behind.


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Post-race
At the podium interviews, conducted by Elton John, Nico Rosberg expressed his disappointment at the outcome of the race. He had visibly vented his anger in the cool down room, when he was seen throwing his podium cap back at Lewis Hamilton after Lewis threw it to him, an incident he later played down as "just our typical games". Sebastian Vettel on the other hand was delighted with his performance, saying that the team had "exceeded all expectations".


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Post-race
Newly crowned world champion Hamilton called his third title "the greatest moment of my life", thanking his father and his family for their support. Comparing the title win to his two previous ones, he said: "the last two times were really climactic in the last race. This one still feels just as special if not more special [...]. It has kind of topped last year for me – it's equalling Ayrton [Senna]". He described equalling his idol's title tally as "a very humbling experience", saying that he felt "very blessed".


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Post-race
However, more friction appeared at Mercedes, when Nico Rosberg called Hamilton's manoeuvre at the start "very, very aggressive". Hamilton in turn said of the incident: "It was very close with Nico at the beginning. It wasn't intentional. We both braked deep and there is no grip there and he was turning and I wasn't turning." The team's executive director Toto Wolff said that the incident would need to be discussed, a notion dismissed by Hamilton, who said: "There is no need. Everyone has a right to an opinion but it doesn't matter. I won the race."


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Post-race
Manor Marussia's Alexander Rossi was delighted with his result in twelfth, feeling that it could be "the start of great things", after he had equalled the team's best result of the season. Daniel Ricciardo called for the FIA to clear up the regulations of the virtual safety car, following him being overtaken easily at the first restart by Nico Rosberg, saying that he had not gotten a warning about the end of the period. Kimi Räikkönen was equally displeased, complaining about the rules concerning driving standards.


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Post-race
Following his on-track battle with Max Verstappen, he demanded clarification on whether Verstappen's aggressive driving style was legal, saying: "I just wanted to ask if it's OK when you are next to another car, at some point on the exit of the corner are you allowed to always push the other car up on the kerbs [...]. Apparently it's fine. As long as everybody has the same rules that's OK." Concerning the collision between Nico Hülkenberg and Ricciardo, Force India revealed that damage to Hülkenberg's front wing had caused him to lose downforce and slide into the Red Bull.


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Post-race
Following the turn one collision between their two drivers, Sauber's team principal Monisha Kaltenborn announced that she intended to "have a word" with her drivers, saying: "The bottom line of this is that these kind of things simply must not happen. It is OK if you have decent and healthy competition which they do – both drivers are respectful to each other. [ ...] I'm upset. These mistakes shouldn't happen. We are much better than this."


2015 United States Grand Prix, Report, Post-race
Following the Grand Prix, Bobby Epstein, chairman of the Circuit of the Americas spoke of a "tough weekend" for the organisers. According to Epstein, the weekend had been "financially devastating [...] for the company" that runs the track. This was caused in large parts by the weather conditions over the weekend, while the return of the Mexican Grand Prix also played a role.


2015 United States H5N2 outbreak
In 2015, an outbreak of avian influenza subtype H5N2 was identified in a series of chicken and turkey farming operations in the Midwestern region of the United States. By May 30, more than 43 million birds in 15 states had been destroyed as a result of the outbreak, including nearly 30 million in Iowa alone, the nation's largest egg producer. In the Midwestern U.S., the average price of eggs had increased 120% between April 22 and May 30. The effects however were seen nationwide, with prices in California up 71% in the same timeframe.


2015 United States H5N2 outbreak
The virus was first identified in Minnesota in early March. Prior to April 20, it affected commercial turkey farms almost exclusively, in the states of Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and at 28 farms in Minnesota, where the virus was initially identified. Migratory waterfowl are assumed to have brought the disease to the Midwest, but how it made its way into poultry barns is undetermined. No human cases have been reported, and human infection is almost impossible.


2015 United States H5N2 outbreak, Spread to hen farms
On Monday, April 20, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that 5.3 million egg-producing hens at a northwest Iowa farm must be destroyed after the virus was confirmed. The number at this operation alone comprised a little over 1% of egg-laying hens in the United States. This infection would be the first in a series at large hen operations in Iowa, Nebraska, and other states.


2015 United States H5N2 outbreak, Spread to hen farms
As of May 27, over 25 million chickens had either died of the infection or been euthanized in Iowa alone. Nebraska's toll at the same date was 7 million—a majority of the state's 9.45 million egg-laying hens.


2015 United States H5N2 outbreak, Spread to hen farms, Table of infections
This table shows large bird farm infections during the 2015 outbreak. All birds affected either died of the H5N2 infection itself, or were destroyed as a precautionary measure. While 205 total infections were confirmed through June 1, only larger outbreaks (affecting >200,000 hens or >50,000 turkeys) are displayed here.


2015 United States H5N2 outbreak, Control
When an infection is confirmed, all birds at the affected farm are destroyed per USDA guidelines. The birds are culled by pumping an expanding water-based foam into the barn houses, which suffocates them within minutes. The birds are then composted, usually at the location.


2015 United States House of Representatives elections
There were three special elections to the United States House of Representatives in 2015 during the 115th United States Congress.


2015 United States House of Representatives elections
All of the elections were won by the party previously holding the seat. Therefore, there were no net changes in party.


2015 United States House of Representatives elections, New York's 11th district
A special election was held on May 5, 2015 to fill the vacancy of Michael Grimm, who resigned from Congress on January 5, 2015 after pleading guilty to tax evasion. Local party leaders in Brooklyn and Staten Island selected their nominees, replacing a primary. Republican nominee Dan Donovan was elected to the seat, defeating his Democratic challenger Vincent J. Gentile.


2015 United States House of Representatives elections, Mississippi's 1st district
Representative Alan Nunnelee died on February 6, 2015 after health complications with his brain. Governor Phil Bryant called for a nonpartisan blanket primary to be held on May 12, 2015, with a runoff between the top two finishers on June 2, 2015. The primary consisted of thirteen candidates, with all but one being affiliated with the Republican Party. In the runoff, Republican Trent Kelly defeated Democrat Walter Zinn by a wide margin.


2015 United States House of Representatives elections, Illinois's 18th district
A special election was held on September 10, 2015 following the resignation of Aaron Schock on March 31, 2015 amid a scandal involving his use of public and campaign funds. Primary elections were set for July 7 to comply with the UOCAVA, despite Illinois law calling for a stricter deadline. Republican nominee Darin LaHood defeated Democratic nominee Rob Mellon by over thirty percentage points.


2015 United States Men's Curling Championship
The 2015 United States Men's Curling Championship was held from February 14 to 21 at the Wings Stadium in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It was held in conjunction with the 2015 United States Women's Curling Championship. The winning John Shuster rink went on to represent the United States at the 2015 Ford World Men's Curling Championship in Halifax, Nova Scotia.


2015 United States Men's Curling Championship, Teams
Ten teams participated in the 2015 national championship. The teams are listed as follows:


2015 United States Mixed Doubles Curling Championship
The 2015 United States Mixed Doubles Curling Championship was held from December 3-7, 2014 at the Eau Claire Curling Club in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Sarah Anderson and Korey Dropkin won the tournament, earning the right to represent the United States at the 2015 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship in Sochi, Russia.


2015 United States Women's Curling Championship
The 2015 United States Women's Curling Championship was held from February 14 to 21 at the Wings Stadium in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It was held in conjunction with the 2015 United States Men's Curling Championship. The Aileen Sormunen rink will represent the United States at the 2015 World Women's Curling Championship in Sapporo, Japan.


2015 United States Women's Curling Championship, Teams
There will be ten teams participating in this year's national championship. The teams are listed as follows:


2015 United States elections
The 2015 United States elections were held (for the most part) on Tuesday, November 3. The off-year election included a special election for Speaker of the House. There were also gubernatorial and state legislative elections in a few states; as well as numerous citizen initiatives, mayoral races, and a variety of other local offices on the ballot.


2015 United States elections
None of the three congressional seats that were up for special elections changed party hands. The Democrats picked up the governorship in Louisiana, while the Republicans picked up the one in Kentucky and held onto the governorship in Mississippi. The Republicans also picked up other various statewide offices. This led NPR to call the 2015 elections "a stinging rebuke to President Obama ... cap[ping] off yet another disappointing election cycle for Democrats", who have performed poorly against the Republicans in midterm and off-year elections during Obama's tenure. According to The Washington Post, the election results were characterized by deepening political polarization, as the Democrats held their own or even gained ground in Democratic-leaning cities and states, while Republican gains were concentrated in Republican-leaning states.


2015 United States elections, Federal elections
The following special elections were held to replace Senators or House Representatives who either died or resigned while in office:


2015 United States elections, Federal elections, Congressional leadership election
After John Boehner of Ohio's 8th congressional district announced his resignation from the position of Speaker of the House on September 25, a special election to replace him was initially scheduled for October 8. However, after initial frontrunner Kevin McCarthy, the current House Majority leader of California's 23rd congressional district, suddenly withdrew from the race the day of the nomination vote, Republican leadership decided to move the election further back, to an unknown date later in October, if not beyond that.


2015 United States elections, Federal elections, Congressional leadership election
Both the second Republican frontrunner, Jason Chaffetz of Utah's 3rd congressional district, and Chairman of the Government Oversight and Reform Committee, and Bill Flores of Texas's 17th congressional district, withdrew on October 20 and 22, respectively, to express their support for Paul Ryan, the vice presidential candidate in 2012, Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, and representative of Wisconsin's 1st congressional district, who entered the race on October 22 after long being considered a potential frontrunner.


2015 United States elections, Federal elections, Congressional leadership election
The only other Republican candidate was Daniel Webster of Florida's 10th congressional district, a member of the highly-conservative Freedom Caucus that caused both Boehner to resign and McCarthy to withdraw. The Democratic candidate was current Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi of California's 12th congressional district. On October 29, Ryan was elected Speaker with 236 of the 432 votes cast. Pelosi received 184, and Webster received 9. Jim Cooper, John Lewis, and Colin Powell all received 1 each.


2015 United States elections, State elections, Statewide executive offices
Three states held elections for statewide executive offices in 2015:


2015 United States elections, State elections, State legislatures
Legislative elections were held for four states in 2015: Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey and Virginia.


2015 United States elections, Local elections
Various elections were held for officeholders in numerous cities, counties, school boards, special districts and others around the country.


2015 United States elections, Tables of partisan control results
These tables show the partisan results of the Congressional special elections and gubernatorial races in 2015. Bold indicates a change in control.


2015 United States federal appropriations
Every year, the United States Congress is responsible for writing, passing, reconciling, and submitting to the President of the United States a series of appropriations bills that appropriate money to specific federal government departments, agencies, and programs for their use to operate in the subsequent fiscal year. The money provides funding for operations, personnel, equipment, and activities. In 2014, Congress was responsible for passing the appropriations bills that would fund the federal government in fiscal year 2015, which runs from October 1, 2014 to September 30, 2015.


2015 United States federal appropriations
There are twelve regular appropriations bills that are supposed to be passed by October 1 each year. As of June 18, 2014, the United States House of Representatives had passed five regular appropriations bills and was debating another. The United States Senate had not passed any appropriations bills by June 18, 2014, but was working on a "minibus" appropriations bill that would take the place of three of the regular appropriations bills.


2015 United States federal appropriations, Appropriations bills
An appropriations bill is a bill that appropriates (gives to, sets aside for) money to specific federal government departments, agencies, and programs. The money provides funding for operations, personnel, equipment, and activities. Regular appropriations bills are passed annually, with the funding they provide covering one fiscal year. The fiscal year is the accounting period of the federal government, which runs from October 1 to September 30 of the following year. Appropriations bills are under the jurisdiction of the United States House Committee on Appropriations and the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations. Both Committees have twelve matching subcommittees, each tasked with working on one of the twelve annual regular appropriations bills.


2015 United States federal appropriations, Appropriations bills
There are three types of appropriations bills: regular appropriations bills, continuing resolutions, and supplemental appropriations bills. Regular appropriations bills are the twelve standard bills that cover the funding for the federal government for one fiscal year and that are supposed to be enacted into law by October 1. If Congress has not enacted the regular appropriations bills by the time, it may pass a continuing resolution, which generally continues the pre-existing appropriations at the same levels as the previous fiscal year (or with minor modifications) for a set amount of time. The third type of appropriations bills are supplemental appropriations bills, which add additional funding above and beyond what was originally appropriated at the beginning of the fiscal year. Supplemental appropriations bills can be used for things like disaster relief.


2015 United States federal appropriations, Appropriations process
Traditionally, after a federal budget for the upcoming fiscal year has been passed, the appropriations subcommittees receive information about what the budget sets as their spending ceilings. This is called 302(b) allocations after section 302(b) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974. That amount is separated into smaller amounts for each of the twelve Subcommittees. The federal budget does not become law and is not signed by the President. Instead, it is a guide for the House and the Senate in making appropriations and tax decisions.


2015 United States federal appropriations, Appropriations process
However, no budget is required and each chamber has procedures in place for what to do without one. The House and Senate now consider appropriations bills simultaneously, although originally the House went first. The House Committee on Appropriations usually reports the appropriations bills in May and June and the Senate in June. Any differences between appropriations bills passed by the House and the Senate are resolved in the fall.


2015 United States federal appropriations, Appropriations bills for fiscal year 2015, Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies
The Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015 (H.R. 4800; 113th Congress) would appropriate $20.9 billion.


2015 United States federal appropriations, Appropriations bills for fiscal year 2015, Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies
The funding would go to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and its programs and services, such as the United States Secretary of Agriculture, the National Appeals Division, the Under Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education, and Economics, the Economic Research Service, the National Agricultural Statistics Service, the Agricultural Research Service, the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the Office of the Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the Agricultural Marketing Service, the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration, the Under Secretary of Agriculture for Food Safety, the Food Safety and Inspection Service, the Under Secretary of Agriculture for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services, the Farm Service Agency, the Risk Management Agency, and other related agencies. One controversial provision of the bill was the provision that would waive the requirement that schools follow certain nutritional requirements in their school lunches, requirements that first lady Michelle Obama has been a strong supporter of.


2015 United States federal appropriations, Appropriations bills for fiscal year 2015, Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
The Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015 (H.R. 4660; 113th Congress) would appropriate $51.2 billion, approximately $400 million less than fiscal year 2014. The bill would fund the United States Department of Commerce, the United States Department of Justice, and various related agencies.


2015 United States federal appropriations, Appropriations bills for fiscal year 2015, Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
Those related agencies included the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Commission on Civil Rights, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the International Trade Commission, the Legal Services Corporation, the Marine Mammal Commission, the Office of the United States Trade Representative, and the State Justice Institute.


2015 United States federal appropriations, Appropriations bills for fiscal year 2015, Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
The Senate amended H.R. 4660 to use it as a legislative vehicle for a "minibus" bill that would appropriate funding for the United States Department of Agriculture, the United States Department of Transportation, and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, as well as the Departments of Commerce and Justice covered by the original House bill. The bill would appropriate $120 billion total for all of those agencies.


2015 United States federal appropriations, Appropriations bills for fiscal year 2015, Department of Defense
The Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2015 (H.R. 4870; 113th Congress) would provide funding for the United States Department of Defense for fiscal year 2015 of approximately $491 billion. The bill included a provision that forbade the transfer of Guantanamo Bay prisoners, a reaction to the controversial exchange of five prisoners in exchange for the return of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl from the Taliban. Two amendments from Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) failed.


2015 United States federal appropriations, Appropriations bills for fiscal year 2015, Department of Defense
The first would have prohibited the use of any funds for use with the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 in order to give the Iraq War "an official, legal end." The amendment was voted down 31-17, with Rep. Frelinghuysen arguing that there were no funds devoted to Iraq in the bill and all the troops had left in 2011. Lee's second amendment would have required the executive branch to report to Congress on actions taken under the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists from 13 years ago. This amendment was also defeated, 27-21, with Frelinghuysen arguing that it could give away classified information.


2015 United States federal appropriations, Appropriations bills for fiscal year 2015, Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies
The Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015 (H.R. 4923; 113th Congress) would make appropriations for energy and water development and related agencies for FY2015. The bill would appropriate $34 billion, which is only $50 million less than these agencies currently receive. The appropriations for the United States Department of Energy and the United States Army Corps of Engineers are made by this bill.


2015 United States federal appropriations, Appropriations bills for fiscal year 2015, Financial Services and General Government
The Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2015 (H.R. 5016; 113th Congress) would make appropriations for the United States Department of the Treasury, the United States federal courts, the Executive Office of the President of the United States, and Washington, D.C. The bill would appropriate $21.285 billion. The Hill described this bill as "one of the most contentious of the annual 12 appropriations bills."


2015 United States federal appropriations, Appropriations bills for fiscal year 2015, Legislative Branch
The Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2015 (H.R. 4487; 113th Congress) would appropriate $3.3 billion to the United States Congress for fiscal year 2015. The bill is considered one of the two easiest appropriations bills to pass each year. The House and Senate customarily defer to each other regarding each chamber's spending levels, so this bill only includes funding for the House and not the Senate.


2015 United States federal appropriations, Appropriations bills for fiscal year 2015, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies
The Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015 (H.R. 4486; 113th Congress) would appropriate $71.5 billion to the United States Department of Veterans Affairs and for military construction, approximately $1.8 billion less than fiscal year 2014 due to a decrease in the need for military construction. The bill is considered one of the two easiest appropriations bills to pass each year.


2015 United States federal appropriations, Appropriations bills for fiscal year 2015, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies
The Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015 (H.R. 4745; 113th Congress) would appropriate $17 billion to the United States Department of Transportation and $40.3 billion to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. It would spend $1.8 billion less than in fiscal year 2014. President Barack Obama and his administration strongly opposed the bill. The White House released a statement saying that the bill "fails to make needed investments in our Nation's infrastructure, provides insufficient support for critical housing programs for low-income Americans and the homeless, and includes objectionable language provisions."


2015 United States federal appropriations, Legislation passed
On September 9, 2014, Rep. Hal Rogers introduced the Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2015 a continuing resolution that would fund the federal government of the United States through December 11, 2014 by appropriating $1 trillion. This was necessary because the Senate had not passed any of the House's approved appropriations bills. On September 17, 2014, the House voted in  to pass the bill 319-108. On September 18, 2014, the United States Senate voted in  to pass the bill 78-22.


2015 United States federal appropriations, Legislation passed
OnDecember 11, 2014, the House passed the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015, popularly called the "cromnibus" bill, combining an omnibus spending bill funding the federal government through October 2015, with a continuing resolution for the Department of Homeland Security through February 2015. The House passed a two-day continuing resolution (a "CR" for short) at the same time, to prevent a government shutdown untilthe Senate could take action.


2015 United States federal appropriations, Legislation passed
On February 27, 2015, a one-week continuing resolution was passed just hours before the Department of Homeland Security was to shut down. The full-year appropriations bill was passed on March 3, after Republican House leadership dropped demands to attach provisions rolling back Obama's executive actions on immigration.


2015 United States federal appropriations, History
Although writing and passing annual appropriations bill is a basic and essential task for Congress, it often fails to meet the appropriate deadlines. Between fiscal year 1977 and fiscal year 2014, Congress only passed all twelve regular appropriations bills on time in four years - fiscal years 1977, 1989, 1995, and 1997. Every other fiscal year since 1977 has required at least one continuing resolution.


2015 United States federal appropriations, History
In 2013, Congress failed to agree on any regular appropriations bills prior to the start of fiscal year 2014. An attempt was made to pass the Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2014 (H.J.Res 59) prior to October 1, but the House and Senate could not agree on its provisions, leading to the United States federal government shutdown of 2013. The federal government resumed operations on October 17, 2013 after the passage of a continuing resolution, the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2014, that provided funding until January 15, 2014. On January 15, 2014, Congress passed another continuing resolution,  Making further continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2014, to provide funding until January 18, 2014. Congress finally passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014, an omnibus appropriations bill, on January 17, 2014 to provide funding for the remainder of fiscal year 2014.


2015 United States federal appropriations, History
In reaction to the events of 2013, House Committee on Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers stated that his goal is to pass all twelve regular appropriations bills for 2015 before Congress has a recess in August because he wants to avoid a similar situation. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) shared this goal of finishing all of the appropriations bills on time.


2015 United States federal appropriations, History
In debating whether Congress would succeed at this, analysts looked at several issues. On the one hand, Congress has successfully agreed on an overall spending level of $1.014 trillion as part of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013. There was also "pent-up demand in Congress to influence the actions of federal agencies through the setting of spending priorities." On the other hand, different parties controlled the House and the Senate.


2015 United States federal appropriations, History
As of May 29, 2014, Senator Mikulski had set the goal of having all of the annual appropriations bills reported by the Senate Appropriations Committee by July, an "aggressive timetable," and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) had left two weeks open in both June and July for the consideration of appropriations bills. Republicans, however, have been upset with the strict limits that Reid has been placing on the amendment process and want open amendments on these appropriations bills.


2015 United States federal appropriations, History
When the Senate began considering its first "minibus" bill, Senator John Thune (R-SD) said that "we'd like a process that at least allows us to get votes on amendments." Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) also wanted a more open amendment process, saying that "as long as members are allowed to bring amendments as long as they want to, I'm certainly prepared to defend the (agriculture) portions of the bill." However, Republicans were not expecting an open amendment process being allowed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.


2015 United States federal appropriations, History
The House began working on its sixth appropriations bill during the week of July 7, 2014. At that time, The Hill reported that "it remains likely that both chambers will ultimately pass a short-term measure in September to keep the government funded at current levels through the midterm elections," due to a stalled appropriations process in the Senate over a dispute about the amendment process.


2015 United States federal budget
The 2015 United States federal budget was the federal budget for fiscal year 2015, which runs from October 1, 2014 to September 30, 2015. The budget takes the form of a budget resolution which must be agreed to by both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate in order to become final, but never receives the signature or veto of the President of the United States and does not become law. Until both the House and the Senate pass the same concurrent resolution, no final budget exists. Actual U.S. federal government spending will occur through later appropriations legislation that would be signed into law.


2015 United States federal budget
The government was initially funded through a series of three temporary continuing resolutions. Final funding for the government with the exception of the Department of Homeland Security was enacted as an omnibus spending bill, the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015, enacted on December 16, 2014. Homeland Security was funded through an additional two continuing resolutions, and its final funding was enacted on March 4, 2015 as the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2015.


2015 United States federal budget, Overview
According to the Congressional Research Service, the federal budget is "a compilation of numbers about the revenues, spending, and borrowing and debt of the government. Revenues come largely from taxes, but stem from other sources as well (such as duties, fines, licenses, and gifts). Spending involves such concepts as budget authority, obligations, outlays, and offsetting collections."


2015 United States federal budget, Overview
The process of creating a federal budget often publicly begins with the President's budget proposal, a spending request submitted to the U.S. Congress which recommends funding levels for the next fiscal year. The fiscal year in the United States is the 12-month period beginning on October 1 and ending on September 30 of the next calendar year. Current federal budget law (31 U.S.C. (a)) requires that the President submit his or her budget request between the first Monday in January and the first Monday in February. In recent times, the President's budget submission has been issued in the first week of February.


2015 United States federal budget, Overview
Congress can, and often does, work on its own proposals independently of the President. The congressional budget resolutions are under the jurisdiction of the United States House Committee on the Budget and the United States Senate Committee on the Budget. Traditionally, after both houses pass a budget resolution, selected representatives and senators negotiate a conference report to reconcile differences between the House and the Senate versions. The conference report, in order to become binding, must be approved by both the House and Senate. Because the budget resolution is a concurrent resolution, it is not signed by the President and "does not have statutory effect; no money can be raised or spent pursuant to it".


2015 United States federal budget, Overview
The budget does not determine the actual spending of the federal government. Instead, the budget establishes the amounts that appropriations subcommittees are allocated to spend (called 302(b) allocations) on the various agencies, departments, and programs within the purview of each. The twelve regular appropriations bills or, in their absence, a continuing resolution or omnibus spending bill, must be enacted by October 1 in order to fund the government, regardless of whether a budget resolution is ever agreed to in Congress. House rules allow the House to begin considering appropriation bills after May 15 whether a budget resolution has been agreed to or not.


2015 United States federal budget, Budget proposals, Obama administration proposal
President Barack Obama submitted his fiscal year 2015 budget request on March 4, 2014. This budget proposal was one of several proposed budgets considered in the process of creating the 2015 United States federal budget. President Obama's proposed budget was for $3.9 trillion. President Obama's budget proposal was described as being full of "populist proposals" and as a "populist wish list." The proposal was not seen as a politically practical measure that would be used or taken seriously by Congress. The White House described this budget as "a budget he would implement in an ideal world."


2015 United States federal budget, Budget proposals, Obama administration proposal
The President's budget was formulated over a period of months with the assistance of the Office of Management and Budget, the largest office within the Executive Office of the President. The budget request includes funding requests for all federal executive departments and independent agencies for the following year. Budget documents include supporting documents and historical budget data and contains detailed information on spending and revenue proposals, along with policy proposals and initiatives with significant budgetary implications. In addition, each federal executive department and independent agency provides additional detail and supporting documentation on its own funding requests. The documents are also posted on the .


2015 United States federal budget, Budget proposals, Obama administration proposal
The budget the President submits was a request only. However, some people consider "the power to formulate and submit the budget... a vital tool in the President’s direction of the executive branch and of national policy." The President's budget request can influence the decisions made by Congress; the degree of influence changes based on political and fiscal factors. President Obama's budget proposal was a "comprehensive assembly of the White House's policy proposals and economic projections."


2015 United States federal budget, Budget proposals, Obama administration proposal
President Obama did not release his 2015 budget proposal until March 4, 2014, a delay he said was due to the need to wait for the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 to be agreed to in December 2013.


2015 United States federal budget, Budget proposals, Obama administration proposal
President Obama's budget proposal was described as being full of "populist proposals" and as a "populist wish list." Some of the populist programs include more spending on pre-school education, tax credits for childless low-income workers, and more than $1 trillion in new and higher taxes.


2015 United States federal budget, Budget proposals, Obama administration proposal
The President's proposal was also considered a "playbook" for Democrats' "election-year themes of creating jobs and narrowing the income gap between rich and poor."


2015 United States federal budget, Budget proposals, Obama administration proposal
According to Obama, his proposal adheres to the spending limits established by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013, but he also suggests an additional $55 billion worth of spending.


2015 United States federal budget, Budget proposals, Scope of the budget proposal
President Obama's budget proposal only addresses about a third of the federal government's total estimated spending for fiscal year 2015. The federal government's total estimated spending would be $3.5 trillion, while Obama's budget only addresses $1.014 trillion. The difference was due to most government spending being non-discretionary spending for entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.


2015 United States federal budget, Budget proposals, Specific policy proposals, Defense
The President's proposal calls for the United States Army to decrease in size to the smallest it has been since before World War II. The number of active-duty soldiers would drop from 490,000 today to 440,000 over the next five years. At the height of the Iraq War, there were about 570,000 soldiers. Obama's plan would also get rid of the A-10 airplane. The total military budget would be about $496 billion, which was the same amount as fiscal year 2014. The United States Department of Defense was asking in its budget to have some bases closed in 2017 and have a smaller pay increase for the troops.


2015 United States federal budget, Budget proposals, Specific policy proposals, Taxes
The President's proposal "would raise $651 billion by limiting tax deductions for the nation's highest earners" and by adding a "Buffett tax" that would set up minimum tax levies on the highest-earning Americans. Obama's budget would also increase the taxes on "large estates, financial institutions, tobacco products, airline passengers and managers of private investment funds."


2015 United States federal budget, Budget proposals, Specific policy proposals, Taxes
The budget includes a proposal to tax large banks with $56 billion in "financial crisis responsibility fees."


2015 United States federal budget, Budget proposals, Specific policy proposals, Social programs
Obama proposes to increase from $500 to $1,000 the maximum earned income tax credit for childless low-income workers. Doing this would cost $116 billion over the next 10 years.


2015 United States federal budget, Budget proposals, Specific policy proposals, Education
Obama's proposal includes provisions involving universal pre-kindergarten, Head Start, and more Race to the Top grants. The proposed funding would pay for 100,000 new public school teachers. He also proposed capping the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.


2015 United States federal budget, Budget proposals, Specific policy proposals, Budget savings
The President's plan states that the passage of his proposed immigration law, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013, would generate $158 billion worth of savings due to increased government revenues from taxing immigrants.