The House Republican Steering Committee yesterday named six new GOP members to serve on the House Appropriations Committee in the 113th Congress, including one of our own: Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA-3). Congratulations Congresswoman Herrera Beutler!
Other new GOP members include:
Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (TN-3)
Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (NE-1)
Rep. David Joyce (OH-14)
Rep. Thomas Rooney (FL-16)
Rep. David Valadao (CA-21)
As the Los Angeles Times is reporting, three republican senators introduced an alternative version of the Dream Act on Tuesday that would give legal status for young immigrants brought to the US unlawfully as children. The effort, called the Achieve Act and launched by retiring senators Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX) and supported by Arizona senator John McCain, appears to be a push to take some of the heat off of republicans on immigration. But senate democrats, in an effort to hold their feet to the fire, won’t let the bill come to a vote during the lame duck session.
Read more at the Los Angeles Times.
Congress returns to Capitol Hill today to kick off the lame-duck session. They are expected to work this week, break next week for Thanksgiving, and then return the last week in November for three more weeks. During this session lawmakers will tackle big issues including sequestration, taxes, and disaster aid – among other issues.
Congress won’t likely do much this week – except welcome their new colleagues. Nearly 80 newly elected House and Senate freshman are arriving on Capitol Hill for the start of freshman orientation.
We look forward to working with the new members of the Washington state congressional delegation: Suzan DelBene (D-1st), Derek Kilmer (D-6th), and Denny Heck (D-10th).
Earlier today Congressman Mo Brooks (R-AL), Chair of the House Research and Science Education Subcommittee, asked the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review “regulatory actions that hinder our nation’s research universities.”
In his letter to GAO, the Chairman asked GAO to look at three general questions: What federal requirements, not limited to legislative mandates, reporting requirements, and regulations create reporting burdens for research universities; how research university requirements under OMB Circulars A-21, A-133, and Federal Acquisition Regulation 4.703 balance regulatory burden with accountability for federal funds; and what might be the potential benefits and disadvantages of modifying requirements, including those “that experts and universities have identified as most burdensome.”
Congressman Brooks wrote that it was evident, based on a recommendation in the National Research Council’s report on research universities, two hearings he convened in his subcommittee to follow up on the report, and additional conversations he held with the university research community, that “the current regulatory environment may be limiting the growth of fundamental basic scientific research.”
The Senate’s in at 10:00am and will continue work on a veterans jobs bill. A series of votes are possible. The chamber will recess from 12:30 to 2:15pm for weekly caucus lunches. Then, the senate will hold a procedural vote on the House-passed six-month continuing resolution to fund the government.
The House is in at noon with votes expected about 6:30 p.m. on nearly 30 bills, including one honoring the four Americans who died in Libya and condemning the attacks on United States diplomatic facilities in Libya, Egypt, and Yemen. Another would confirm full ownership rights for certain US astronauts to artifacts from the astronauts’ space missions.