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News and updates

News and updates

House Appropriations Committee Passes FY 2019 Energy & Water

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The House Appropriations Committee approved its $44.7 billion FY 2019 Energy &Water spending bill, 29-20, after Republican lawmakers beat back efforts by Democrats to eliminate policy riders. Generally, bill would provide $6.6 billion for the DOE Office of Science, a 5% increase above FY 2018. The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) would receive $325 million, an 8% cut below FY 2018, and Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy would receive $2.1 billion, a 9 percent cut from the FY 2018 enacted levels.

The Administration proposed a nearly 66-percent cut in renewable energy and energy efficiency research along with the elimination of ARPA-E.

The bill now heads to the House floor where it is poised for consideration in the coming weeks as one of the first few appropriations bills in the FY 2019 spending cycle.

The committee report can be found here.

Senate Appropriations Sets Ambitious Schedule

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Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) released a calendar that puts the spending panel on track to finish all the fiscal 2019 bills by June 29. Both Shelby and Leahy  are aiming to bring each bill to the floor — for the first time in years — by promising amendment votes to allow for a robust floor debate.

The schedule is as follows:

Week of May 21-25: Energy-Water and Agriculture-FDA

Week of June 4-8: Transportation-HUD and Military Construction-VA

Week of June 11-15: Interior-Environment, Commerce-Justice-Science and Legislative Branch

Week of June 18-22: State-Foreign Operations, Homeland Security and Financial Services.

Week of June 25-29: Defense and Labor-HHS-Education

The House Appropriations Committee has already begun consideration and mark up of the House version of these measures.

White House Releases “Rescission” Package

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As expected, the White House Office of Management and Budget released its package of proposed rescissions earlier today.  The list of programs targeted for cuts is available  here.  The package includes 38 items, totaling approximately $15 billion in cuts.

The biggest portion of the package, roughly $7 billion, would come from the Children Health Insurance Program and more than $4 billion would come come from the Department of Energy Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program.

ED to cancel student debt collections contracts

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The Administration has announced plans to end student loan debt collections contracts with Windham Professionals and Performant Financial Corp. The Education Department said it plans to develop a different approach to collecting defaulted student federal loans in its dismissal of the debt collections agencies. The Washington Post has more information.

House Energy & Water Bill Released

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The House Appropriations Committee has released the FY 2019 Energy & Water appropriations bill. The bill can be found here and highlights can be found here. We expect the bill report to be released a day or two before markup in committee next week. Stay tuned for more analysis on this measure.