The Department of Education (ED) is currently accepting applications for fall internships for those interested in education policy research and analysis, intergovernmental relations and public affairs, work with social media while learning about the role Federal Government plays in education, or similar areas. Interns will develop a variety of other skills, including writing, researching, communication, and time-management skills, and will also participate in group intern events, such as brown-bag lunches with ED officials, movie nights, and local tours. And, you’ll get to spend fall in historic Washington, DC with all that the city and region have to offer!
Category: Federal Agency Developments
September Stalemate on FY14 Appropriations
Members of Congress return to DC this week to take on the farm bill, try to keep student loan interest rates from doubling on July 1st, and continue with the FY14 appropriations process. And while immigration reform is still being debated, some are now skeptical that the House and Senate can come get to a compromise.
FY14 Appropriations
The path to enacting FY14 appropriations measures is paved with legislative friction as Congress is showing no signs of undoing the sequester. At this point, there are three budgets — House, Senate, and White House — all of which assume no sequestration, but include different ways to account for the cuts in later years. House Republicans would meet the overall cap but ignore the mandated split between security and non-security spending. Senate Democrats would use a higher overall level. And the White House budget request also ignores the overall cap. This is all leading up to a September stalemate as the current fiscal year comes to a close on September 30th.
Meanwhile, House Appropriations subcommittees approved their first two spending bills before Memorial Day (Homeland Security and Military Construction/Veterans Affairs), each with just a slight increase over current levels. These slight increases, along with spending increases expected in the soon-to-be-considered Defense bill, won’t leave much for the remaining non-defense bills – including the Labor-HHS-ED bill – which will have to take significant cuts to reach post-sequester levels as outlined by the 302(b) allocations approved in the House last month.
The Senate hasn’t approved its 302(b) allocations nor released any spending bills, but we expect to see Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Senator Mikulski (D-MD) move forward with FY 2014 using a top line spending number that assumes the sequester has been replaced.
FY15 Budget Process Underway
In Washington, DC there are usually three budget cycles ongoing at any given time. Right now, federal agencies are spending FY13 money; Congress is working to approve spending levels for FY14, which starts on October 1st; and federal agencies are beginning to build their FY15 budget requests. To guide this process, the White House released its annual guidance memo last week. This guidance memo noted that the President still hopes to replace the sequester with a combination of spending cuts and changes in entitlements and the tax code. But OMB Director Burwell effectively told agencies to plan for sequester by asking them for proposals that “reflect a 5 percent reduction below the net discretionary total provided for your agency for 2015 in the 2014 budget” as well as a plan that would double that reduction in 2015 to 10 percent. Agency budget requests will be submitted to the White House later this fall and ultimately combine to form the President’s budget delivered to Congress (usually) in early February.
OMB issues guidance to agencies for FY2015
This week, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued budget guidance to all agency and department heads the the Fiscal Year 2015 Budgets submissions to OMB. In short, the overall submission should be at least 5% less but should aim for a 10% cut to the net discretionary total provided for to each agency for 2015 in the 2014 Budget.
GSA Science Policy Fellowship Opportunity in Washington, DC
The Geological Society of America (GSA) is seeking applicants for its Science Policy Fellowship Program. The fellowship provides a recent MS or PhD recipient the opportunity to work in the GSA Washington Office for one year. The fellow works with the GSA Director for Geoscience Policy to participate in a range of science-policy activities. The fellow will attend congressional meetings and hearings, agency briefings, seminars, and coalition sessions and will develop communication methods to disseminate this information to GSA members. The fellow will also participate in GSA programs.
The fellow will receive a competitive stipend and healthcare stipend. Funds are also available for fellowship-related travel. The start date is flexible, and could be as early as 1 August 2013. Interested candidates should send a cover letter, CV/resume, writing sample, and list of three references to Kasey White at kwhite@geosociety.org. Consideration of applications will begin July 1, 2013.
Furlough Friday courtesy of the Sequester
Today is the largest non-weather-related partial government shutdown in recent history thanks the Sequester. Around 115,000 people, which is approximately 5 percent of the federal workforce, will stay home thanks to Sequester mandated furloughs. That includes nearly all of the workers at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and Office of Management and Budget (OMB), as well as some staffers for the Departments of Labor and Interior, who will get an unpaid day off for their Memorial Day weekend.
Across the country, mandated furloughs will increasingly empty agencies throughout the summer. The Pentagon will begin furloughs of 650,000 civilian workers on July 8; defense workers will get a five-day, unpaid holiday around Independence Day. HUD has six more furlough days scheduled for this summer. The IRS has scheduled four furlough days throughout August.