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ED Secretary Duncan to Announce First Round of Education Stimulus Funding

Tomorrow Secretary Duncan will visit Doswell Brooks Elementary School in Capital Heights, Maryland, to announce the first round of education stimulus funding available from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Doswell Brooks is a 2008 Title I Distinguished School in the Prince George’s County school district, where administrators plan to use ARRA funds to avoid employee furloughs, layoffs, increases in class sizes, and other education program cuts. Fact sheets and guidance on how states and school districts can begin receiving this first installment of education stimulus funding will be available at www.ed.gov/recovery.

Source:  Department of Education

$3.6 trillion budget for the federal government

The House and Senate will take up their budget resolutions this week as Democrats seek to lay the groundwork for healthcare reform and other elements of President Obama’s agenda, as Republicans continue to make the case that the programs will hurt the struggling economy.

Both resolutions include deficit-neutral reserve funds for healthcare reform, energy and education — three pillars of the Obama agenda — leaving it up to the committees of jurisdiction to draft legislation on matters such as a cap-and-trade program to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

Source: Congress Daily

The Week at a Glance: March 30-April 3, 2009

March 30- April 3– House and Senate to debate and vote April 3 on the fiscal 2010 budget resolution.

March 30 – House to debate and vote on national service legislation (HR 1388).

March 31 – Election in New York’s 20th District to replace Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand.

April 1-3 – House to debate and vote on legislation to limit compensation for employees of firms receiving federal bailout funds (HR 1664).

In the Future

April 6-17 – Spring recess in House and Senate.

Source:  CQ

US Department of Energy Announces Key Administrtation Post

The President made the following announcement this afternoon regarding Department of Energy nominations.

Cathy Zoi, Nominee for Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Department of Energy

In January 2007, Cathy Zoi joined the Alliance for Climate Protection as its founding CEO. Established and chaired by former Vice President Al Gore, the Alliance is a non-profit organization  spearheading a multi-year, multimillion dollar effort aimed at persuading Americans of both the urgency and solvability of global warming. From 2003 until joining the Alliance, Zoi served as Group Executive Director at the Bayard Group. The firm, recently renamed Landis+Gyr Holdings, is a world leader in energy measurement technologies and systems, with operations in 30 countries and revenues in excess of $1.2 billion. Her work focused on the key role of smart metering to improving energy efficiency in markets in North America, Europe, India, China , Brazil and Australia. Prior to joining Bayard, Cathy was Assistant Director General of the New South Wales EPA in Sydney, Australia. She was also the founding CEO of the NSW Sustainable Energy Development Authority, a $50 million fund to commercialize greenhouse-friendly technology, from 1996-1999. Under her leadership, SEDA launched the world’s first nationwide Green Power program (1997) and the world¹s largest solar-powered suburb (1998). Cathy has served on boards and advisory committees of a variety of companies in the clean technology sector. Cathy was Chief of Staff in the White House Office on Environmental Policy in the Clinton-Gore administration, where she managed the team working on environmental and energy issues (1993-95). She was also a manager at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency where she pioneered the Energy Star Program. Ms. Zoi earned a B.S. in Geology from Duke University and an M.S. in Engineering from Dartmouth College.

FY10 Budget Resolution Moves Forward

Yesterday, the Senate Budget Committee approved its FY10 budget resolution following similar action in the House the day before.  The White House Budget Director applauded House and Senate committee approval of their budgets, noting they include the administration’s top priorities.   Both the House and Senate will take floor action on their proposals sometime next week.  Unlike the version approved by the House Budget panel on Wednesday, the Senate resolution includes no reconciliation instructions for legislation to implement Obama’s health and education policies. Such provisions would allow those bills to move without the threat of a Senate filibuster.  The decision of whether to include reconciliation will be made in April during a House-Senate conference on the budget.  Democrats are hopeful bipartisan support can be found for an overhaul of the health care system, but many want reconciliation as a backup to move a bill if negotiations break down.