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This Week on Capitol Hill, May 10-14

SENATE FLOOR
The chamber will continue to consider a bill to overhaul financial regulations (S 3217, Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010).  The debate is expected to last all week, with votes beginning on Tuesday.

HOUSE FLOOR
The House returns on Tuesday to vote on some minor resolutions.  Later in the week, the House will consider HR 5116, America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010, ) to authorize funds for federal agencies engaging in scientific research.

MARKUPS AND HEARINGS OF INTEREST
Tuesday, May 11
Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions
SAFE PATIENT HANDLING
2:30 p.m., 430 Dirksen Bldg.
Subcommittee Hearing

Senate Judiciary
U.S. CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES
10 a.m., 226 Dirksen Bldg.
Full Committee Oversight Hearing

House Financial Services
TROUBLED ASSET RELIEF PROGRAM
11 a.m., 2128 Rayburn Bldg.
Subcommittee Oversight Hearing

Wednesday, May 12
Senate Appropriations
FISCAL 2011 APPROPRIATIONS: DEFENSE 
10:30 a.m., 192 Dirksen Bldg.
Subcommittee Hearing

FISCAL 2011 APPROPRIATIONS: LABOR, HHS, EDUCATION
10 a.m. & 2 p.m., 2358-C Rayburn Bldg.
Subcommittee Hearing

Thursday, May 13
House Appropriations
FISCAL 2011 APPROPRIATIONS: DEFENSE
May 13, 10 a.m., H-140 Capitol Bldg.
Subcommittee Hearing

Seen in DC

Rita Sodt, a student at the University of Washington, won a national competition sponsored annually by the Council on Undergraduate Research. Her winning project was “Fighting Cancer with Math: A Patient-Specific Computational Model of Brain Tumor Growth.” She displayed her poster along with other winners from across the country, at a reception in the Rayburn House Office Building on April 14. Rita and her faculty mentor, Russell Rockne, also met with Senator Patty Murray and staffers from several Members of the Washington state delegation.

Also in DC on April 14 was Sabine Mecking, an oceanographer at the Applied Physics Lab at the university. She was invited to DC by the Coalition for National Science Funding. Her presentation was on recent results on direct measurements of ocean acidification in the North Pacific Ocean, a research project by the National Science Foundation.

The week following the reception, April 19-23, brought six more representatives from the university. The primary purpose of their trips was to attend professional or association meetings, but they were all also able to meet with staff of the Washington State Senators and Representatives.

A group of four were here representing Students Advocates for Graduate Education (SAGE): Jake Faleschini (GPSS President); Sarah Reyneveld (GPSS Vice President); Ben Henry (GPSS Senator, Evans School); and Adam Sherman (GPSS Senator, Evans School). The focus of their discussions was on the SAGE policy issues: the need for more financial support for higher education; making scholarships/fellowships tax exempt; and immigration reform for international students.

Tom Ackerman, Director of the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean, attended a Directors meeting of the NOAA Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies. Also in DC was Penny Dalton, Director of Washington Sea Grant, who participated in the meeting of the US Committee for the Census of Marine Life.

Commerce Announces New Innovation Grant Program

The Department of Commerce has launched a new competitive grant program aimed at fostering innovation. The i6 Challenge is a new $12 million innovation competition administered by the Economic Development Administration (EDA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce, in partnership with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF). EDA will award up to $1 million to each of six winning teams with the most innovative ideas to drive technology commercialization and entrepreneurship in their regions. NIH and NSF will award a total of up to $6 million in supplemental funding to their SBIR grantees that are associated or partnered with the winning teams. We encourage entrepreneurs, investors, universities, foundations, and non-profits to participate in the i6 Challenge. The deadline for applications is July 15, 2010. For more information, email i6@doc.gov or join the i6 Challenge conference call at 2pm EDT on May 17, 2010.

i6 Challenge Website

This Week on Capitol Hill, May 3-7

FLOOR ACTION
Senate
The Senate will reconvene at 2 p.m., and resume consideration of the financial regulatory overhaul legislation (S 3217, Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010). There will be no roll call votes.  It is expected that the Senate will spend most of the week debating amendments.

House
The House is not in session on Monday.  The schedule for the week is mostly commemorative resolutions.  It also includes a bill to provide trade benefits for earthquake recovery in Haiti and to provide benefits for home energy efficiency retrofits.

HEARINGS AND MARKUKPS
TUESDAY – MAY 4
Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions
Full Committee Hearing
Elementary and Secondary Education Act Reauthorization
2 p.m., 430 Dirksen Bldg.

WEDNESDAY – MAY 5
Fiscal 2011 Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Hearings
• Defense  10:30 a.m. , SCV-217 Capitol Bldg.
• Labor, HHS, Education 9:30 a.m., 124 Dirksen

Fiscal 2011 House Appropriations Subcommittee Hearing
Defense 10 a.m., H-140 Capitol Bldg.

Senate Veterans’ Affairs Full Committee Hearing
Treating Traumatic Brain Injury
9:30 a.m., 418 Russell Bldg.

THURSDAY – MAY 6
 Fiscal 2011 Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Hearings
• Commerce, Justice and Science 10 a.m.
• Transportation and HUD 9:30 a.m.
 
Senate Commerce, Science & Transportation Full Committee Hearing
“America Wins When America Competes: Building a High-Tech Workforce”
10 a.m., 253 Russell Bldg

Senate Energy & Natural Resources Full Committee Markup
May 6, 9:30 a.m., 366 Dirksen Bldg.
Pending legislation includes S 1462, American Clean Energy Leadership Act of 2009

House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee Hearing
     HR 4700, Transparency in All Health Care Pricing Act of 2010
     HR 2249, Health Care Price Transparency Promotion Act of 2009
     HR 4803, Patients’ Right to Know Act.
10 a.m., 2123 Rayburn Bldg

Immigration Reform Framework Released

Despite the absence of any support from the minority party, which will be necessary to advance a bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and two of his colleagues — Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ) — have released a rough framework for comprehensive immigration reform. The outline serves as a starting point for public discussions and negotiations on a comprehensive package, and should not viewed as actual legislation. Political observers remain skeptical of the prospects for immigration reforming passing in the partisan atmosphere that exists in advance of a mid-term election.

In its current form, the outline contains a number of provisions and addresses issues of interest to the academic and higher education communities, such as reform of the H-1B visa process that has come under fire for obstructing efforts to retain and attract highly skilled labor (i.e. research scientitst) from abroad.

Reid-Schumer-Menendez Immigration Reform Outline