October 27, 2011
The Office of Federal Relations Team is not making any holiday plans – for now – as it now looks like Congress won’t wrap up annual appropriations work nor consider recommendations for long-term deficit until just before Christmas. House appropriators may try to expedite completion of overdue FY12 appropriations bills by adding one or two… Read More
October 26, 2011
President Obama announced today at a speech at the University of Colorado Denver, a new initiative called ‘Know Before You Owe’ designed to make college loans more affordable and reduce the financial burden on recent graduates – many of whom are struggling to find employment. The administration is essentially speeding up by 2 years, a… Read More
October 19, 2011
As described in this Science Insider article, NIH has begun to reach out to the community for feedback on what strategies should be considered during an era of reduced budgets. Everything seems to be on the table, from limiting numbers or grants per investigator to capping salaries charged to grants. NIH has put together a… Read More
October 17, 2011
While the House is in recess this week, the Senate will continue working on FY12 appropriations measures in an effort to create a path forward on completing those bills before the continuing resolution (CR) expires on November 18th. Later today, the Senate will test the waters with a “minibus,” which would include three spending bills… Read More
October 11, 2011
The House begins their work week today at noon, with votes scheduled for later this evening. In addition to several bills related to veterans , the House will begin debate on the Panama, South Korea, and Colombia free trade agreements. Meanwhile, the Senate begins their work week later today (around 5:30pm). The Senate is set to vote on a judicial… Read More
October 4, 2011
The House today cleared a six week-long Continuing Resolution that the Senate passed last week. The measure will keep the government running through November 18th and sets spending at the $1.043 trillion level agreed to in the debt limit law passed in August. It allocates $2.65 billion for disaster aid for FEMA, and the offsets… Read More
