May 17, 2013
Late yesterday, the House Republicans released new spending targets for FY14 appropriations bills. Under the GOP numbers, the Labor-HHS-ED bill will face a nearly 20 percent reduction on top of the cuts already made in the March 1st sequestration order. These programs would be capped at $121.8 billion — or about $28 billion below the… Read More
May 13, 2013
The Senate is in session today at 2:00pm but there will be no votes today. The House will be back in session at noon Tuesday. Appropriations: The House GOP plans to begin drafting their FY2014 spending bills to adhere to the roughly $967 billion spending cap set by recent budget law, which also reflects the… Read More
May 10, 2013
Although both chambers are in recess today, there’s plenty of behind-the-scenes legislating and negotiating. House lawmakers plan to release a draft 2013 farm bill that’s expected to produce $38 billion in savings over a decade. Across the Capitol, Senate Democrats are looking for ways to advance President Obama’s nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency… Read More
May 9, 2013
As part of President Obama’s manufacturing agenda “National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI),” the Administration today announced that it is launching competitions to create three new manufacturing innovation institutes with a Federal commitment of $200 million across five Federal agencies—Defense, Energy, Commerce, NASA, and the National Science Foundation. The Department of Defense will lead two… Read More
May 9, 2013
The Senate Judiciary Committee is beginning to mark up the immigration bill today in the opening act of what will likely be a long, contentious fight over amendments. The “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act” (S 744) is the immigration reform proposal developed by the so-called “gang of eight.” Among other things, the… Read More
May 6, 2013
After a weeklong break, both the House and Senate are back in session this week. They have a three-week work period before the next break at Memorial Day. During this time, the House is expected to make some progress on their FY14 spending bills. Appropriations Even though there has been no final resolution over the… Read More
April 16, 2013
Senate negotiators have reached an agreement on a bill to make the most substantive changes to immigration laws in nearly three decades. The “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013” would affect visas for high-tech workers, create a new “W-visa” program to attract low-skilled workers, and require businesses to implement new electronic-verification… Read More
April 15, 2013
The Senate resumes its gun control debate this week, beginning today with the most substantive and contentious issue: a bipartisan proposal to require background checks of gun purchasers in commercial and Internet sales. It’s the start of deliberations that could keep that chamber busy until the Memorial Day recess. We also expect to see an… Read More
April 11, 2013
Yesterday, President Obama released his FY14 budget request — nearly two months later than required by law. Much of the delay was blamed on the sequester and the prolonged FY13 appropriations process that resulted in a year-long continuing resolution (CR). In a typical year, the President’s Budget Request (PBR) kicks off the annual appropriations season,… Read More
April 10, 2013
President Obama will release his FY14 budget request today. Early reports indicate that the budget will focus on “education and infrastructure” issues, propose new taxes on the wealthy, and reduce the costs of Social Security and Medicare. We will report more details after the release.
