House Science Marks Up COMPETES Reauthorization

Posted on April 22, 2015April 23, 2015

Today, the full House Science Committee marked up HR 1806, the America COMPETES Reauthorization bill, which the House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith introduced late last week. Thirty four amendments were offered for consideration over the five hour mark up, and these amendments largely fell along party lines. Several controversial amendments passed, while amendements to restore certain directorate’s funding or amend climate change provisions.

Highlights of some amendments considered include:

An amendment offered by Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) to amend the bill and add “human activity impacts climate change” to the DOE Science mission.
An amendment offered by Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) to officially authorize the Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) program, which passed.
An amendment offered by Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) to direct and broaden DOE’s Fusion Energy Sciences. which passed.
An amendment offered by Rep. Suzanne Bonamici to have a report on STEAM education, which failed.

The amended bill was passed out of committee by a vote of 19-16, which was a party line vote. The next step for the bill is consideration by the full House. While there has been no definite timeline stated by House leadership as to consideration of HR 1806, it is expected to be considered soon.

The Office of Federal Relations will continue to monitor the bill and its progress.

ESEA Moves through Senate HELP Committee

Posted on April 16, 2015April 17, 2015

Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) in the markup of the Every Child Succeeds Act.

In a rare example of legislating and bipartisanship, the HELP Committee unanimously passed its rewrite of the Elementary and Secondary Education reauthorization bill this afternoon. The bill, called Every Child Succeeds, includes historically toxic education topics like testing and school performance ratings. The bill has been so toxic that the last three Congresses have tried and failed to rewrite it. The House had to pull the measure from the House Floor earlier this year after full consideration because of lack of support for final passage.

In contrast, the bipartisan legislation, cowritten by Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Murray, figuratively flew through the committee. It was unveiled last week and considered Wednesday and Thursday of this week.

In contrast, the 2013 consideration of legislation to reauthorize these programs, with a committee largely comprised of the same group of Senators, was mired in partisan gridlock, dozens of amendments and two long days of fighting. What ultimately passed on June 12, 2013 was by a party-line vote of 12-10. All Democrats on the committee approved the bill and all Republicans opposed it.

Conversely, today, every member of the committee, Republican and Democrat, including the polarizing Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY), Tim Scott (R-NC), Al Franken (D-MN) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), all lined up their support behind the committee chairs and the legislation. The overall tone to the whole process between Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Murray has been one of cooperation and compromise.

Senator Alexander hopes the Senate] can take up the measure before the Memorial Day recess.

While passing the Senate seems all but assured, the Senate version is vastly different than the House measure. What, if anything, will pass the House remains to be seen.

More information about the Every Child Succeeds can be found here.

To watch the markup, click here.

The Office of Federal Relations will continue to monitor this bill and report on it’s progress.

House Releases COMPETES

Posted on April 16, 2015

The House Science Committee Republicans released their version of the America COMPETES reauthorization legislation. The COMPETES bill reauthorizes major science programs including then entirety of the National Science Foundation, the science programs within the Department of Energy, and NIST.

The bill is here.

In addition, the legislation will mark up the Full Committee next week on April 22nd at 10:15 EST. You can watch the mark up here.

The Office of Federal Relations is monitoring this legislation and will give updates as it progresses.

House Approves their Version of ESEA

Posted on February 11, 2015February 12, 2015

Today, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce marked up HR 5, the Student Success Act, a bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).

There were 26 amendments offered. Only five amendments passed (including a Chairman’s substitute), 16 failed, 4 were withdrawn and one was ruled not germane to the bill by the Chair. The amendments also with largely down party lines.

The committee passed HR 5 by a final, party line vote of 21-16.

House Passes NASA Reauthorization

Posted on February 10, 2015February 12, 2015

Today, the House of Representatives yesterday approved HR 810, the NASA Authorization Act of 2015 as a noncontroversial measure under suspension of the rules. The bill is identical to the bipartisan bill that passed the House last year by a vote of 401-2 but failed to be considered in the Senate.

It remains uncertain if the Senate will consider the bill.