Week in Review

Members of the House and Senate were back in DC last week after their previous one-week recess. As I reported in my last update, the House considered a reconciliation bill, which has been marketed as a replacement for “sequestration,” the process by which significant spending cuts will begin in January 2013. The bill, which identifies [...]

Members of Congress return to Washington this week after a week long recess.  Today, the House Budget Committee will mark up two bills —The Sequester Replacement Act of 2012 (H.R. 4966) and The Sequester Replacement Reconciliation Act of 2012—aimed at replacing sequestration, the mandatory cuts scheduled to begin in January 2013. CQ reports that the [...]

Washingtonians had another opportunity to celebrate science last week, when the second annual U.S.A. Science and Engineering Festival took place at the Washington Convention Center. The festival included hundreds of scientific exhibits and opportunities to meet real live researchers, as well as celebrity appearances the likes of the Discovery Channel’s Myth Busters. On Capitol Hill, [...]

Science was at the forefront of many Washingtonians’ minds (and TVs) last week as they staked out spots from the National Mall to Dulles airport to watch the space shuttle Discovery, perched on the back of a 747, make its final flight. While I missed the overflight due to a meeting on the Hill (about science!), [...]

It’s been lovely and quiet in Washington, with schools on spring break, Congress in recess, and the cherry blossoms already come and gone. When both chambers return to the capitol this week, they will continue on with the appropriations process, despite the looming election impasse expected later in the year. Contrary to previous reports, CQ [...]

The House and Senate began their two-week spring recess last Friday after passing the House budget resolution for FYFiscal Year 2013. As described last week, this plan would cut $19 billion from the FYFiscal Year 2013 spending level outlined in the Budget Control Act. A significant portion of those cuts would be aimed at non-defense [...]

On Tuesday, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) broke from the bipartisan agreement reached in the Budget Control Act (BCA) when he released a proposed FY2013 budget that would reduce the top-line spending number by $19 billion. The budget also proposed reforms to the U.S. tax code and entitlements, and offered alternatives to dealing with [...]

With the House in recess last week, work continued behind the scenes to draft the FYFiscal Year 2013 budget resolution which is expected to be marked up this week.  CQ reports that this budget resolution will likely come in about $20 less than the top-line number agreed to in the Budget Control Act and currently [...]

Both the House and Senate were in session last week, with their attention largely focused on passing the JOBS Act and continuing to debate the contentious transportation bill. On the appropriations front, as reported last week, House Republicans have been mulling over enacting a top-line spending number for FYFiscal Year 2013 that is less than [...]

With members of Congress back in town last week and appropriations season heating up, reports emerged once again about renewed efforts to identify solutions to address the federal deficit. CQ reports that the Senate “Gang of Six” and members of the bipartisan, bicameral Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction are among those rumored to have [...]