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
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 23, 2013
Early this morning, the Senate passed its first budget in four years by a vote of 50 to 49 after a marathon session that began Friday morning and included 562 filed amendments. The Senate approved a budget resolution that relies heavily on $975 billion in new tax revenue to stabilize the growth of the national… 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
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 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
