March 25, 2013
The month of March has been a busy one in Washington, D.C. On March 1st sequestration went into effect after Congress failed to come to agreement on long-term deficit reduction, and last week both the House and Senate approved their respective budget resolutions that address overall spending for federal government for FY 2014. And, finally, Congress… Read More
March 21, 2013
Yesterday, the Senate passed HR 933, a continuing resolution to fund federal government for the remainder of FY 2013. That bill now moves back to the House for final approval, which should take place today before being sent to the President for signature. While the CR does not eliminate sequestration, it does provide some federal… Read More
March 20, 2013
The Senate is still struggling to get the FY 2013 continuing resolution (CR) approved, which now looks like it may happen on Thursday. That will leave little time to consider the FY 2014 budget resolution. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has said that he is planning to keep members in session until they complete… Read More
March 18, 2013
Congress has a busy schedule this week before they leave town for their two-week Easter recess. On the agenda are the continuing resolution (CR) and dueling House and Senate budget proposals. The Senate resumes consideration of the CR to fund the federal government for the rest of FY 2013. With some 90 amendments filed, they… Read More
March 12, 2013
One of the first causalities of the the federal Sequester is the Tuition Assistance (TA) program provided by the Army and Marine Corps. Following the Marines Corps lead, the Army announced on Friday, March 8th that soldiers will not be allowed to enroll in TA-funded courses after the day of the annoucement. The Marines announced on… Read More
March 12, 2013
Senator Mikulski (D-MD), Senate Appropriations Chair, has released the Senate version of the continuing resolution for FY 2013. HHS and Education programs will continue to be funded at the FY 2012 levels minus the 5 percent cut as mandated by the March 1st OMB report and sequester order. There are a few interesting sections in… Read More
March 11, 2013
The Senate will take action on a continuing resolution (CR) this week to fund federal government through the end of FY 2013. The current CR expires on March 27th. The Senate bill expands on the House version that was approved in that chamber last week, which combines new Defense and Military Construction-VA bills with a… Read More
March 7, 2013
Yesterday the House approved a six-month continuing resolution (CR) to fund federal government past March 27th when the current CR expires. The bill would shift billions of dollars to military operations to help the Army and Navy cope with automatic spending cuts ordered by the sequester last week. The measure now moves to the Senate,… Read More
March 6, 2013
Federal government is closed today due to an approaching snow storm in the Washington, DC area. It is currently snowing heavily and sideways outside my window, but it is wet snow and doesn’t appear to be sticking much yet. The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning through 3:00am Thursday morning, and the… Read More
March 2, 2013
Late last night, President Obama issued the order mandating sequester cuts across the federal government. Here is the order and link to the Office of Management and Budget’s report to Congress: SEQUESTRATION ORDER FOR FISCAL YEAR 2013 PURSUANT TO SECTION 251A OF THE BALANCED BUDGET AND EMERGENCY DEFICIT CONTROL ACT, AS AMENDED By the authority vested in… Read More
