USAID Administrator Nominee Dr. Rajiv Shah testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at his heavily attended confirmation hearing. Dr. Shah, who was nominated on November 10, is currently serving as Undersecretary for Research, Education and Economics at the Department of Agriculture and previously worked for the Gates Foundation, where he focused on global development [...]
The UGLSC is enthused that even more Senators and Representatives signed onto the Congressional Letter to the President over the weekend, bringing the total number of signers to date to 11 Senators and 23 Representatives. Among them are Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chair of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works; Rep. Michael Honda [...]
Congress last week passed another continuing resolution (CR) to keep the federal government open until December 18th, attached to the fifth appropriations bill cleared by Congress – the $32 billion Interior-Environment bill. House and Senate Appropriators would like to finish the FY10 Appropriations bills sometime before Thanksgiving. But with little movement this week, reaching this [...]
As the healthcare debate and climate change legislation move towards center stage, House and Senate Conferees finalized the $32 billion Interior-Environment bill. The conference agreement includes another continuing resolution (CR) that will keep the federal government operating at non-emergency FY09 levels through December 18, giving Congress more time to finish the FY10 Appropriations process. So [...]
This week, Congress plans to pass another continuing resolution (CR) that is expected to last until mid-December, as the current one is set to expire on Oct. 31st. The Senate plans to resume consideration of the Commerce-Justice-Science bill, while the House plans to appoint conferees for the Interior-Environment bill. With only 4 bills sent to [...]
Against the backdrop of the recent runoff election announcement in Afghanistan and with the all consuming health care debate set to begin next week, Senate Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-HI) has indicated that the FY10 Appropriations process may not be wrapped until early December. Last night, the Senate passed the $42.8 billion Homeland Security bill, [...]
As the House and Senate shift their attention to crafting their respective health care bills, the appropriations process appears to be slowing down. With only two weeks remaining until the continuing resolution (CR) expires on Oct. 31, Congress has passed only three FY10 Appropriations bills for the President’s signature. The Senate last night approved the [...]
It looks like partisan politics may be impacting Congress again, but this time instead of healthcare, it may affect the appropriations process in the Senate. Coming on the heels of the Senate Finance Committee vote to report out the Baucus Healthcare bill, Senate consideration of the Commerce-Justice-Science bill hit a snag as a vote to [...]
Now that the Senate Finance Committee got its cost estimate from CBO, things are really starting to heat up on Capitol Hill. The Senate resumes consideration of its eighth appropriation bill, Commerce-Justice-Science, with a final vote expected by the end of the week. Once done, only four bills remain, including the all-important $48.7 billion FY10 [...]
Is anything happening in Congress, you might ask? As tensions run high on Capitol Hill over health care and the President’s strategy in Afghanistan, Congress is still at work and continuing to move forward with the FY10 Appropriations bills. The Senate last night passed its seventh appropriations bill, the $626 billion Defense Appropriations. Today, the [...]
