January 31, 2013
“No Budget, No Pay” Bill Proceeds in the Senate
Today the Senate is expected to proceed on HR 325, the House-passed “No Budget, No Pay Act of 2013” that would raise the debt ceiling through May while also making the payout of congressional salary contingent upon approval of a budget resolution in each chamber. The measure that passed the House earlier this month would…
January 29, 2013
Today in Congress
The House is in recess this week. The Senate is in at 10:00am and will recess from 12:30pm to 2:15pm for weekly party caucus lunches. The full Senate is expected to consider the nomination of Senator John Kerry to be Secretary of State, following the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s vote on the nomination at 10:00am…
January 28, 2013
Sequestration Now Seems Likely
With just a month to go before sequestration is schedule to take effect, many on Capitol Hill now seem to accept that sequestration is likely to happen on March 1st. This may be in part because Congress is also facing the expiration of the current continuing resolution (CR) just a few weeks after (March 27th),…
January 25, 2013
This Week in Congress
A roundup of bills introduced this week that may be of interest to the higher education community: S.1: A bill to reform America’s broken immigration system. The priority number of this bill indicates that it will likely be used for some sort of immigration reform in this congress – it will also change several times…
January 23, 2013
House Temporary Debt Deal May Force Larger Deal on Spending Cuts
Update: The House this afternoon passed their bill that would suspend the debt ceiling until the middle of May. The vote was 285-144. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said Wednesday that the Senate will pass the House’s bill; the White House has indicated it will not block the measure. The House will consider legislation today…
January 22, 2013
House GOP Proposes to Delay Debt Ceiling Fight
Amid all the pomp and circumstance yesterday, House Republicans released their proposal to postpone a fight over increasing the nation’s debt limit by suspending it until May 19th. The measure, which is expected to be considered on the House floor tomorrow, would suspend the debt limit through May 18th and then provide for an automatic…
January 21, 2013
Inauguration Day in DC
Earlier today, Barack H. Obama was sworn in for his second term as the 44th President of the United States. During his inaugural speech, the President called for action on climate change, gay rights, immigration, and the nation’s partisan divide. The President also made the case that the nation needs to come together to do…
January 18, 2013
House GOP Proposes 3-Month Debt Limit Deal
Earlier today, House Republicans announced a plan to condition a three-month increase in the debt limit on the Senate committing to pass a budget by the April 15th statutory deadline. As a consequence of not meeting that statutory deadline, the House GOP proposal would withhold congressional members pay. The 1974 Congressional Budget Act requires passage…
New Bills of Interest
The following are some bills that have been introduced in the first weeks of the 113th Congress that may be of interest to members of the UW community: HR 118 (Holt, D-NJ) – National STEM Education Tax Incentive for Teachers Act of 2013, which would provide a credit for qualified tuition expenses up to $1000…
January 16, 2013
Sequestration would be a “Devastating Blow” to NIH
NIH Director Francis Collins calls the potential cuts from sequestration a “profound and devastating blow” for medical research. If Congress cannot find a way to achieve debt reduction without massive federal spending cuts, NIH will lose 6.4 percent of its budget this year. This could hurt the availability of research grants. Currently, 80 percent of…