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Category: Defense

Upcoming in Congress…

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As the Biden administration enters the transition period, including the vetting of cabinet officials, the current Congress begins a lame-duck session. The Senate reconvened on Monday, November 9th, and the House will reconvene on Monday, November 16th. The 117th Congress is set to begin on January 3rd, 2021. President-elect Biden will take office at 12:00pm ET on January 20th, 2021.

To recap:

  • Joe Biden has been elected President, and Kamala Harris has been elected Vice President.
  • President Trump and Vice President Pence’s terms will expire on January 20th, 2021. They are “lame-ducks”, meaning they have a limited amount of time to accomplish remaining agenda items.
  • The House of Representatives is still under Democratic control in the next Congress, by a narrow margin, after Democrats lost a handful of seats.
  • The Senate is very likely still under Republican control in the next Congress, even with uncalled elections in Alaska, Arizona, North Carolina, and Georgia. Republican Senators Sullivan (R-AK) and Tillis (R-NC) are projected to keep their seats. Republican Senator McSally (R-AZ) is expected to lose her seat to Democrat challenger Mark Kelly. A runoff in Georgia is scheduled for January 5th to elect those two seats, one of which is a special election. If Democrats manage to flip those two seats, the balance of the Senate would be 50-50, however this is a heavy lift considering Georgia hasn’t elected a Democratic Senator since 2000.

Looking to the next Congress:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has won reelection and is favored to remain in his position. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has also won reelection and will seek another term as Speaker. Leader McConnell confirmed during that during the lame-duck session, the Senate will continue to work on COVID-19 relief and FY21 appropriations.  Speaker Pelosi has announced a similar plan for the House. The National Defense Authorization Act also remains on the to-do list.

The current Continuing Resolution expires on December 11th, after which the Federal Government could shut down without another Continuing Resolution. Democrats and Republicans would have to come to a quick consensus on a variety of issues in order to wrap up FY21 appropriations before Biden takes office. Senate Republicans are expected to release their FY21 numbers in the next day or so.

For the 117th Congress, the members of the Washington delegation remain unchanged except for the addition of Congresswoman-elect Marilyn Strickland (D-WA-10th) replacing Congressman Heck, who will become Lieutenant Governor. Neither of the Washington Senators were up for reelection in 2020. Committee assignments for the 117th Congress should be finalized in January.

We will post relevant updates as they become available.

Senate Democrats Unveil America LEADS Act

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Today, Senate Democrats introduced the America Labor, Economic competitiveness, Alliances, Democracy and Security (America LEADS) Act which is aimed at bolstering the US economy in order to compete with China.

The bill would invest over $350 billion in American businesses, manufacturing communities, federal research and development, STEM education, and training programs. It also expands the Manufacturing USA Network, renews the US diplomatic strategy towards China and Indo-Pacific partners, and takes action on human rights issues in Tibet, Hong Kong, and Xinjiang.

The press release is here and a one-page summary is here.

The bill has not yet passed in the Senate. It would then need to pass in the House and be signed into law by the President.

New DARPA Director Announced

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Yesterday the Department of Defense announced Dr. Victoria Coleman will be the new Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). She is an expert in artificial intelligence and has until now been the CEO of Atlas AI. Dr. Coleman is the third woman to ever hold the position. Full story here.

White House Reveals FY22 R&D Priorities

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The White House has published a memorandum outlining the FY22 Research and Development priorities for federal agencies. AI and QIS remain a top priority, however due to COVID-19, significant focus has been placed on public health concerns including vaccine development and infectious disease research. Other areas of interest include energy, space, and security.

Read the full memo here.

Meanwhile, the FY2021 Appropriations Bills Move Along

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While most of the public’s attention is focused on the difficult negotiations that may or may not be taking placing on the next COVID relief package, the clock continues to count down to the start of FY2021.

The House is working to adopt a second “minibus” of spending bills before this weekend.  Instead of taking up a seven-bill package as originally planned, the chamber is now considering one made up of six pieces, having removed the almost-always-controversial Homeland Security measure from the minibus.  More than 300 amendments are expected to be debated before a vote to adopt the legislation.

This week’s package is made up of:  Commerce-Justice-Science; Defense; Energy and Water; Labor-HHS-Education; Financial Services-General Government; and Transportation-HUD bills.  Last week, the House cleared the Agriculture, Interior, State-Foreign Operations, and VA-Military Construction measures.  This leaves the Homeland Security and Legislative Branch bills for future consideration.

The Senate still has yet to produce any of the 12 bills.