Skip to content
News and updates

Category: Legislation

Senate Moves Forward on Budget

Posted on

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Michael Enzi (R-WY) filed a budget motion in the Senate today to establish discretionary spending topline numbers, known as 302(b)s for FY2017. The move allows appropriations work to begin in earnest as the Seante prepares to take up its Energy-Water measure (S 2804) this week.

Enzi set the budget limits at $551 billion for defense spending and $518.5 billion for nondefense spending, equal to the caps enacted under last year’s bipartisan budget deal. The agreement provided for Enzi to file the toplines between April 15 and May 15 in the absence of a budget resolution, though Enzi has not ruled out considering a complete budget measure later in the year.

Busy Week for Appropriators

Posted on

House and Senate Appropriations committees show no signs of slowing down as both committees announced their intended  schedules for the week. The Senate Appropriations Committee has announced subcommittee and full committee markup of FY 2017 Commerce, Science and Justice Appropriations bill, which funds federal research agencies including the National Science Foundation and NASA. Also hearings have been announced for the Senate Appropriations Interior Subcommittee will hold a hearing on EPA, and Defense Subcommittee hearing on innovation and research.

The House Appropriations Committee has announced full committee markups of the FY 2017 Agriculture and Energy & Water bills, which went through subcommittee markup last week, as well as discretionary allocations.

Meanwhile, there is no clarity in the House as to when a FY 2017 Budget maybe expected, despite the statutory deadline being last Friday. 

Senate Approves FAA Reauthorization Amendments

Posted on

Last night, the Senate approved a number of amendments to the FAA reauthorization measure, including amendments that would provide a five-year extension of the unmanned aircraft system test site program and impose criminal penalties for unsafe operations of unmanned aircraft.

The Senate reconvenes this morning and will resume consideration of the FAA reauthorization after morning business.

House Clears Aviation Extension, Short-term Relief for FAA Reauth

Posted on

On Monday night, the House cleared  a measure that would extend aviation programs through July 15, 2016, giving Congress another three and a half months for the two chambers to seek an agreement on a long-term reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration.

Procedurally, the House  concurred with a Senate amendment to the short-term extension (HR 4721) the House had passed on March 21. The original House measure extended aviation programs through July 15, 2016, but  included revenue-raising provisions through March 31, 2017. On March 17, the Senate amended HR 4721 to extend both aviation programs and revenue provisions through July 15 of this year.

The current authorization FAA reauthorization is set to expire March 31. Enacting this extension gives Congress over three months to reach a long-term agreement literally just before lawmakers leave for the presidential nominating conventions and the August recess.

Already the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has approved HR 4441 a six-year, $69 billion measure in February and the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee has marked up S 2658, a $33.1 billion bill that would authorize the programs through FY 2017 in March.

 

House on Science in the “National Interest”, White House Threatens to Veto

Posted on

The House will take up a bill today, HR 3293 – Scientific Research in the National Interest Act, that would require the National Science Foundation to show the grants it doles out to scientists are in the national interest. Similar to previous measures restricting NSF sponsored by Congressman Lamar Smith, the legislation is expected to pass.

Predictably, the White House issued a Statement of Administrative Policy (SAP) threatening to veto the measure on Tuesday. The SAP stated that the bill would “add nothing to accountability in federal funding for scientific research” and replace existing law with “confusing language that could cast a shadow over the value of basic research.”

 

Read the SAP here.