FY10 Energy and Water Appropriations Approved

Posted on October 15, 2009October 17, 2012

**10/15 Update: Today, the Senate passed the Energy & Water (E&W) Appropriations Conference Report, sending the legislation to the President’s desk for signature. The E&W Appropriations bill is the third of nine to make it all of the way through the appropriations process. UW projects in the legislation and accounts of interest are noted below**

House and Senate conferees on the fiscal year 2010 Energy and Water Appropriations have approved a conference agreement. The conference agreement reconciles differences in the bills produced by the individual chambers and now must go back for final approval, which is expected. Within the legislation is support for two important University of Washington projects: $880,000 for the Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center, and $1 million for the Washington Biofuels Industry Development project. Additional items of importance in the conference report include:

Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy- $2.2 billion, $314 million above 2009, to increase investments in technologies that use energy more effectively and produce clean, inexpensive energy from domestic sources.

Solar Energy: $225 million for research, development, and demonstration projects to make solar energy more affordable.
Biofuels: $220 million for grants to improve production of alternative fuels such as cellulosic ethanol
and biodiesel.

Office of Science- $4.9 billion, $131 million above 2009, for scientific research critical to addressing long-term energy needs. This funding, in addition to the $4.8 billion appropriated in fiscal year 2009 and $1.6 billion in the Recovery Act, exceeds the goals in the America COMPETES Act.

Basic Energy Sciences: $1.6 billion for basic research primarily on materials sciences and on chemical
sciences, energy biosciences and geosciences. This work places heavy emphasis on advancing the frontiers of using ever-faster tools, including $394 million in the Advanced Scientific Computing Research program, to better understand ever-smaller and more detailed phenomena.
Applied Research: $2.4 billion for Nuclear Physics, High Energy Physics, Biological and Environmental Research, and Fusion Energy Sciences.
Energy Innovation Hubs: Funding for three of the proposed eight Energy Innovation Hubs (at $22 million each) in the following areas: Fuels from Sunlight; Energy Efficient Building Systems Design; and Modeling and Simulation.
RE-ENERGYSE: Funding was not provided for the newly proposed RE-ENERGYSE education program.

Full Energy and Water Conference Report

Health Reform Legislation Passes Finance and Delays Student Aid Reform

Posted on October 14, 2009October 17, 2012

Yesterday, 10/13/09, the Senate Finance Committee approved a health reform package on a largely party-line vote of 14-9, with only Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) crossing the partisan divide. The vote in Senate Finance was the last of the five House/Senate committee (3 House committees, 2 Senate Committees) votes before consideration by the chambers. Leadership and select members of the committees of jurisdiction will need to work together to merge bills that have been produced. In the Senate, the reform package will need to clear 60 votes to avoid a filibuster, while in the House only a simple majority is needed. At present, a public insurance option appears to be the major point of contention between the more conservative version of reform produced by the Senate Fiance Committee and legislation advanced by the Senate HELP Committee and the House. After bills pass the Senate and House, differences will again need to be worked out between the chambers so that a single bill can be sent to the President.

Passage of health care reform may be linked to the student aid overhaul that was approved in the House over the summer. If Senate Democrats are unable to pull together the 60 votes necessary to pass health care reform, they may tie the legislation to the student aid bill in the form of a budget reconciliation package that would only require a simple majority to pass. As a result, the Senate companion to the House (H.R. 3221) student aid bill is currently awaiting further developments on the health care reform front. The University of Washington, and much of the higher education advocacy community, is using the extra time allotted for the student aid bill to seek some improvements in the legislation.

This Week on Capitol Hill Octer 12-16

Posted on October 12, 2009October 17, 2012

[Please note that times listed are all Eastern Daylight Time.]

Neither the House nor the Senate is in session on Monday, October 12, in observance of Columbus Day.

The Senate:

Convenes Tuesday at 2:00 pm (EDT) to consider HR 2847, the fiscal 2010 Commerce-Justice-Science spending bill. A procedural vote on a substitute amendment is expected Tuesday.
On Wednesday (tentative schedule), the Senate will consider HR 3183, the 2010 Energy-Water spending conference report and HR 2647, the Defense Authorization Conference Report.

The House:

Convenes on Tuesday at 2:00 pm (EDT).

Tuesday vote on Iran sanctions as well as a number of commemorative resolutions.
Later in the week the House is expected to take up more spending bills.
Convenes at 10:00 am on Wednesday and Thursday, and at 9:00 am on Friday.

Markups

Tuesday:

Senate Finance votes on draft health care overhaul legislation. 10:00 am.
Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions votes on nominations. 10:00 am

Wednesday:

House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Environment marks up legislation regarding water security (HR 3258), chemical facility security (HR 2868) and isotope production (HR 3276). 10:00 am.
House Judiciary marks up legislation regarding internment of Latin Americans during World War II (HR 42), wartime treatment study (HR 1425), and national and commercial space programs (HR 3237). 10:15 am.
House Science and Technology Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation marks up draft legislation to reauthorize fire grants. 2:00 pm;
House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee marks up draft legislation on AIDS treatment. 3:00 pm.

Wednesday, Thursday, & Friday:

House Financial Services marks up draft legislation regarding over-the-counter derivatives, as well as bills on consumer protection (HR 3126 & HR 3639) and business protection (HR 3763). 10:00 am all three days.

Thursday:

Senate Judiciary marks up legislation on a media shield law (S 448), generic drug availability (S 369), and radio royalties (S 379) and also votes on nominations. 10:00 am;
House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere marks up drug policy legislation (HR 2134). 2:10 pm.

Source: CQ Today Print Edition

This Week on Capitol Hill, October 5-9

Posted on October 5, 2009October 17, 2012

The Senate reconvenes Monday to take up the fiscal 2010 Commerce-Justice-Science spending bill. The Senate is also expected to finiah work on the fiscal 2010 Defense spending bill.

The House does not reconvene until Tuesday when it will consider a number of minor resolutions. Later in the week, the House will vote on a bill to allow advance budgeting for veterans’ health accounts. The House is likely to adopt reports for fiscal 2010 agriculture spending and Homeland Security spending before the end of the week. It’s possible that the House may also vote on a defense authorization bill this week.

Markups

Wednesday

House Science and Technology Committee will mark up bills on algal blooms, solar technology research, and energy and water research.

Hearings

Tuesday, Wednesday, & Friday — House Financial Services hearings on financial regulatory overhaul

Wednesday — House Energy & Commerce subcommittee hearing on Green Technology.

Wednesday — House Oversight & Government Reform subcommittee hearing on Improving Dental Care for Medicaid Eligible Families. Dr. Joel Berg, Chairman of Pediatric Dentistry at the University of Washington, is scheduled to testify.

Source: CQ Today

Seen in DC

Posted on October 5, 2009October 17, 2012

Since the end of July, Washington DC and the UW Office of Federal Relations welcomed no less than eleven faculty and staff from the Seattle and Bothell campuses. Almost all were in DC to attend professional association meetings, but they were also able to spend some time speaking to representatives of federal agencies and staff of the Washington delegation on Capitol Hill.

Dr. Bob Crittendon, Chief of Family Medicine Service at Harborview Medical Center, and Dr. Jim Davis, Professor and Chair of Family Medicine at the UW Medical School, were in attendance at the family medicine association in August.

In September, President Mark Emmert was in DC, along with Judy Wasserheit and King Holmes (C0Chairs of the UW’s Global Health), for the annual meeting of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health. President Emmert was a panel member in an afternoon session on September 14th.

Professor Deborah McCutchen (Educational Psychology) was in DC in mid-September to attend the Learning and Education Academic Research Network coalition meeting.

Martha Somerman, Dean of the School of Dentistry, was in DC in September to attend the American Dental Association’s Legislative Advisory Committee meeting and to gain support for including oral health care services in the health care reform bill.

Kay Lewis, Director of Student Financial Aid, was in DC to gain Senate support for increases to the Pell Grant program.

Paul Jenny, Vice Provost for Planning and Budgeting attended the meeting of the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) and also visited the Office of Federal Relations

Bruce Kochis, Senior Lecturer of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences brought 23 students with him to DC to discuss human rights issues with staff at federal agencies and on the Hill. They also met with Jonathan Nurse in the Federal Relations office to learn about the legislative process.

To end September, John Delaney, Professor of Oceanography, met with staff from the Washington delegation offices to brief them on the Ocean Observatory Initiative (OOI), a project that was recently funded by the National Science Foundation through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). It’s an exciting collaborative effort, funded for 5.5 years, to construct a networked infrastructure of sciencedriven sensors that will measure the physical, chemical, geological, and biological veriable in the ocean and sea floor.

If you are planning a trip to Washington, DC, please contact the Office of Federal Relations (202-624-1420) for assistance in setting up appointments to meet with Members or staffers of the Washington state delegations. We’re happy to help.