July 7, 2011
Today, three House Appropriations subcommittees are expected to approve FY12 domestic spending bills that continue the push by House Republicans to cut domestic spending and reverse administration policies. Interior-Environment Bill: Steep cuts are proposed for the EPA, federal clean water and drinking water programs, and for state environmental grant programs that Republicans say are a… Read More
July 6, 2011
The Senate has been unable to quickly vote on the House-passed version of Patent Reform, and it now looks increasingly likely that votes will have to be allowed on a couple of controversial amendments to the bill which could cause further problems. One of the House adopted amendments would recalculate the filing period for patent term extension… Read More
July 6, 2011
The House Appropriations Committee today released their FY12 Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations bill, which will be considered in subcommittee tomorrow. The bill funds the Department of Commerce, the Department of Justice, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and other related agencies. In total, the draft legislation contains $50.2 billion… Read More
June 24, 2011
Calendar: The House is preparing to begin its Fourth of July holiday recess today and is slated to return July 5, while the Senate remains in session throughout next week before their scheduled recess during the week of July 4th. Deficit Negotiations Stalled: Attempts by Congress and the White House to broker a budget deal… Read More
June 22, 2011
FY12 Appropriations Senate appropriators have been holding off on their FY12 bills, waiting for an agreement on overall discretionary spending to be reached through the ongoing bipartisan debt reduction talks. But because the end of the current fiscal year is just over three months away, they indicated yesterday that the Senate would move forward with… Read More
June 3, 2011
Appropriations On Thursday the House passed their FY12 Homeland Security bill, its first FY12 appropriations measure of the year. Democrats have declared the funding levels in the bill insufficient and are particularly unhappy about cuts to homeland security and first responder grants, although some funding to hire/re-hire/retain firefighters was restored by an amendment on Wednesday…. Read More
June 1, 2011
The President signed a bill late last week that will extend the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program until September 30, 2011. The previous extension was set to expire on the 31st of May. There is no increase to the set-aside at this time which will remain at 2.5% for research agencies with R&D budgets greater than $100… Read More
May 11, 2011
Senate Democrats plan to reintroduce the DREAM Act. Just like the previous versions over the past several years, this year’s version will likely authorize the Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) to cancel the removal of, and adjust to conditional nonimmigrant status, an alien who: (1) entered the United States before his or her 16th birthday and… Read More
May 5, 2011
The Senate convened this morning to vote on a motion to invoke cloture that aimed to limit further debate on the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) bill (S493) and its reauthorization through 2019, but failed to meet the required minimum of 60 votes. There was increased controversy arising from the bill, as amendments attached to… Read More
April 5, 2011
Shutdown Countdown… Late last night, House Republicans announced that they’re prepared to pass a new one-week continuing resolution (CR) extension with an additional $12 billion in cuts to FY11 unless Democrats “get serious about making real spending cuts on a long-term bill” for the remainder of the year. The two parties have been negotiating over… Read More
