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Year: 2014

This Week in Congress

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Here is a list of hearings and happenings around the nation’s capitol that may be of interest to you.

TUESDAY

House Science, Space and Technology Committee
HR 4412 – NASA Authorization Act
Full committee markup
1:30 PM; 2318 Rayburn Building

House Natural Resources Committee
American Energy Jobs: Opportunities for Skilled Trades Workers
Full committee oversight hearing
10 AM; 1324 Longworth Building

WEDNESDAY

Fiscal 2015 Appropriations: Labor-HHS-Education
Department of Education Appropriations
Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Hearing
10 AM; 192 Dirksen Building

House Science, Space and Technology Committee
Fiscal 2015 Budget: NOAA
Subcommittee on Environment
10 AM; 2318 Rayburn Building

THURSDAY

Fiscal 2015 Appropriations: Commerce-Justice-Science
NASA Appropriations
Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Hearing
10 AM; 192 Dirksen Building

House Veterans’ Affairs Committee
Student Veterans
Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity
10 AM; 334 Cannon Building

House Energy and Commerce Committee
Telehealth to Digital Medicine: How 21st Century Technology Can Benefit Patients
Subcommittee on Health
10 AM; 2123 Rayburn Building

Welcome Back Congress!

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Members of Congress return to Washington, DC today after a two-week recess period. Today marks a nine-week work period where at least one chamber will be in session. But the House will recess again in two weeks, the Senate will take off all of Memorial Day week, and the House will take another recess the first week in June. Then both chambers will recess for the week of Fourth of July. After that, there are just four weeks until the five-week August recess, which stretching through the first week in September. That break will be followed by maybe as few as a dozen working days before early October when the House leadership has promised members they can go home to campaign full time for the mid-term elections. The Senate is likely to follow suit.

That’s not much time for genuine legislating, especially given that both parties plan to spend much of the time using the Capitol as a sound stage for their political messaging.

This week, the House is expected to begin considering the first two FY2015 appropriations bills of the season: Military Construction-VA and Legislative Branch. The Commerce-Science-Justice measure will be next in the queue, with the House Appropriations subcommittee taking it up Wednesday. Senate appropriators are moving more slowly on their bills but we expect to see a lot of action on appropriations measures between now and the August recess period.

Appropriations Bills Set for House Floor Consideration Next Week

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House Majority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) announced today that the House will consider the first of its 12 appropriations bills for FY15 next week. The bills up for consideration are Military Construction-Veterans Affairs (H.R. 4486) and Legislative Branch (H.R. 4487).  The next appropriations bill in line is Commerce-Justice-Science, which is expected to be marked up in subcommittee on May 8.  Among the agencies funded by this legislation are the National Science Foundation and NASA.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers (R-KY) has said he hopes the Committee can approve all 12 bills before the July Fourth recess.

The Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to begin markup of its funding bills in late May and will begin with Military Construction-Veterans Affairs.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has allocated four weeks of Senate floor time in June and July to consider appropriations bills

This Week in Congress

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TUESDAY, APRIL 8

Senate Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry
Biofuels and the Economy
Full Committee Hearing
10 AM; 328-A Russell Building

Senate Armed Services
Defense Science and Technology Enterprise
Subcommittee Hearing
2:15 PM; 222 Russell Building
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9

Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation
S 2030 – Sea Grant College Program Amendments Act of 2014
Full Committee Markup
2:30 PM; 253 Russell Building

Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
Addressing Primary Care Access and Workforce Challenges
Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging
10 AM; 430 Dirksen Building

House Science, Space and Technology
Draft Bill – National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2014
Subcommittee on Space Markup
9 AM; 2318 Rayburn Building

First Two FY 2015 Bills to Advance

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The first two FY 2015 bills are set to move through the House Appropriations subcommittees today: Military Construction-VA and Legislative Branch.

The Military Construction-VA bill proposes $71.5 billion in discretionary spending for the VA and the military construction accounts of the Defense Department, a decrease of $1.8 billion from the FY 2014 enacted level, with the cuts coming from the military construction portion. The Legislative Branch bill would provide $3.3 billion for the House and joint operations, about $122.5 million less than requested and matching FY 2014 spending. As is customary with the Legislative Branch spending bill, the House and Senate will each defer to the other chamber in setting its own funding levels.

Today in the Senate, Finance Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) will lead a markup of tax extenders legislation with the hope of ending the impasse over temporary tax breaks that expired at the start of the year. The package would extend for two years popular business tax preferences such as the credit for research and exploration and individual breaks for mortgage interest and mortgage debt relief. But only 45 of the 55 breaks that expired December 31st made Wyden’s list. Nearly 100 amendments to the bill have been filed so the final outcome is yet to be seen. We will report more after the committee markup.