The scientist nominated by President Trump to head the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Kelvin Droegemeier, was approved yesterday by the Senate Commerce Committee. Droegemeier, currently Vice President for Research at the University of Oklahoma, was tapped to head the office in August. A severe weather scientist, he was a member of the National Science Board under both the Bush and Obama administrations.
Read more about him and the nomination here and here.
Even as most of the national media is focused on the Supreme Court confirmation hearings as Congress returns to work this week, we could see progress on the appropriations front. The next fiscal year, FY2019, starts October 1 and none of the 12 spending bills have been signed into law so far.
Although hurdles still remain, it appears that House and Senate negotiators are making progress on a package of three bills– made up of the Energy and Water Development, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, and Legislative Branch measures– as they get ready to formally meet as a conference committee later today. At the same time, on a separate track, there appears to be movement on a second package of bills, which contains the Labor-Health and Human Services and Defense bills, which are the two largest spending measures.
Both chambers have agreed to their respective versions of the three-bill package and negotiators must hash out the differences.
On the other hand, while the defense bill has been passed by both houses, only the Senate has been able to move on the Labor-HHS measure. Because the House version of the latter bill is viewed by some as being much more controversial than the Senate version with respect to policy provisions contained in it, it will not be brought to the House floor for a vote. Instead, the House agreed yesterday to go to conference with the Senate on the two-bill package without the full House having considered the Labor-HHS bill. In addition, negotiations between the two sides have begun on the contours of a package.
Congressional leadership hopes to get these five bills signed into law before October 1. The current thinking is that programs funded through spending bills not adopted by the start of FY2019 would be funded on a short-term basis through a continuing resolution until the other measures can be signed into law.
President Donald Trump tweeted today that he has accepted the resignation of EPA chief Scott Pruitt. Pruitt had been the subject of numerous ethics investigations involving his travel, spending, use of staff, and favors by industry lobbyists.
The agency’s Deputy Administrator, Andrew Wheeler, will act as the agency’s leader until a new administrator is nominated by Mr. Trump and confirmed by the Senate.
The FY2019 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday would fund the Department of Energy Office of Science (Science) at $6.65 billion. The office is currently funded at $6.26 billion and the Administration requested $5.39 billion for it in FY2019.
Within Science, Fusion would be funded at $425.0 million.
Additional details about the Senate bill are available here.
During a markup session earlier today, the full Senate Appropriations Committee cleared its first two spending bills for FY2019, the Energy and Water Development and Agriculture bills. They were approved at the subcommittee level on Tuesday.
Office of Federal Relations will provide details as they become available.