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Year: 2014

Sine Die on the 113th Congress

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The 113th Congress came to a close on Wednesday December 17th. The House and Senate adjourned Sine Die, the House on Friday, December 12 and the Senate on late Tuesday, December 16th, officially ending the 113th Congress. The 114th Congress will convene on January 6th, 2015.

President Obama signed the $1.1 trillion “cromnibus” spending bill Tuesday night.

According to Gallup, Congress’ approval rating this year averaged just 15%, one point above last year’s record-low average.

As for productivity in the 113th Congress, only 203 bills have been signed into public law so far during the past two years — down from the 112th Congress’ previous record low of 283. In comparison, the 80th Congress, which the President Truman infamously called the “Do Nothing Congress,” passed 906 pieces of legislation into law.

Looking forward, the 115th Congress will see both the House and Senate controlled by the Republican party, and the GOP leadership of both bodies are working out how they can work together. The House GOP has pledged that the first order of business will be a vote to block the Administrations Executive Order on immigration, while the Senate Republicans have pledged to pass legislation to start the Keystone XL pipeline.

Some food for thought…Right now, according to an NBC/Wall Street Journal Poll, only 7% approve of both the Administration and Congress while 39% disapprove of both. After significant wins in November, only 8% of Republicans say the country is headed in the right direction.

Happy New Year from the Office of Federal Relations, and we look forward to updating you on the 115th Congress!

New ARPA-E Director Confirmed by US Senate

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Dr. Ellen Williams, the new Director of ARPA-E, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate last week and sworn in earlier today by U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. 

Prior to joining ARPA-E, Dr. Williams served as a Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Energy and previously served as the Chief Scientist for BP. She is currently on a leave of absence from the University of Maryland where she has served as a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Physics and the Institute for Physical Science and Technology since 2000.

Dr. Williams has served as a Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Maryland since 1991. She founded the University of Maryland Materials Research Science and Engineering Center and served as its Director from 1996 through 2009. In 2005, she was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences; two years earlier, she was selected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

To learn more about Dr. Williams, visit the ARPA-E website to view her full bio.

Dr. Franklin Orr Sworn in as Under Secretary for Science & Energy

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Dr. Franklin (Lynn) M. Orr was sworn in as the Under Secretary for Science and Energy on December 17, 2014.

As the Under Secretary, Dr. Orr is the principal advisor to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary on clean energy technologies and science and energy research initiatives. Dr. Orr is the inaugural Under Secretary for the office, which was created by Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz to closely integrate DOE’s basic science, applied research, technology development, and deployment efforts. As Under Secretary, he oversees DOE’s offices of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Fossil Energy, Indian Energy Policy and Programs, Nuclear Energy, and Science.  In total, these programs steward the majority of DOE’s National Laboratories (13 of 17).

Prior to joining the Department of Energy, Dr. Orr was the Keleen and Carlton Beal Professor Emeritus in the Department of Energy Resources Engineering at Stanford University. He joined Stanford in 1985.  He served as the founding director of the Precourt Institute for Energy at Stanford University from 2009 to 2013.  He was the founding director of the Stanford Global Climate and Energy Project from 2002 to 2008, and he served as Dean of the School of Earth Sciences at Stanford from 1994 to 2002.  He was head of the miscible flooding section at the New Mexico Petroleum Recovery Research Center, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology from 1978 to 1985, a research engineer at the Shell Development Company Bellaire Research Center from 1976 to 1978, and assistant to the director, Office of Federal Activities, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from 1970 to 1972. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and a B.S. from Stanford University, both in Chemical Engineering.

Dr. Orr is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering.  He served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute from 1987 to 2014, and was a member of the Board of Trustees of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation from 1999 to 2008, for which he has also chaired the Science Advisory Panel for the Packard Fellowships in Science and Engineering from 1988 to 2014.  He served as a member of the 2008/09 National Research Council Committee on America’s Energy Future.

FrankOrr

Senate Passes FY15 Appropriations

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In a very rare weekend session, the Senate voted 56-40 late Saturday evening to pass the FY15 $1.1 trillion spending package that funds most of the government through next September. As previously discussed in this blog, the package includes 11 appropriations bills that fund most of the government through Sept. 30 and a continuing resolution (CR) funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through Feb. 27.

The bill nearly died in the House earlier last week after House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), a rising star among her party’s liberal base, urged House Democrats to oppose it. Regardless, the package narrowly passed the House on Thursday night in a 219-206 vote after Obama hit the phones to quell a Democratic uprising against it.

Notable Senators voting against the legislation include several Republican and Democratic senators rumored to have presidential ambitions such as Rand Paul (R-KY), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)

The vote culminates a week of acrimonious posturing in both the House and Senate and sends the spending bill to President Obama’s desk for a signature.

The House has recessed for the year and the Senate is expect to recess this week. Both bodies of Congress will reconvene in January 2015 to swear in the new 114th Congress.

‘Cromnibus’ Advances to the Senate

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The House yesterday approved the FY2015 ‘cromnibus’ bill funding all areas of federal government through September 30, 2015 except for Homeland Security, which is subject to a continuing resolution (CR) through February 2, 2015. The House vote as close – 219 to 206 – and delayed several hours as GOP leaders worked their members to support the massive $1.1 billion year-end spending package.

The House and Senate also both passed a two-day stopgap spending measure to avoid a government shutdown, as the current CR was set to expire midnight Thursday. The Senate will take at least a day to process and vote on the so-called cromnibus before sending it to the President, who has said he will sign it into law. That vote could come as early as this afternoon but could also stretch into early next week. If that happens, another short-term CR will be necessary.

The fiscal 2014 and 2015 omnibuses were largely a result of the 2013 budget deal that set domestic and defense spending caps and created the sequester if Congress did not adhere to those caps. No similar deal is in place for next year, and a GOP-controlled Congress will have less incentive to make such a deal with Democrats.