Legislative Activity Senate Appropriations Committee Membership. On Thursday, June 20, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) announced that Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) has joined the committee to fill the seat held by the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ). In a statement released last week, the Chairwoman expressed her confidence in the value Sen. Coons … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Senate Confirmation Vote Last Monday, June 10, the Senate Commerce Committee unanimously approved the nomination of Mayor Anthony Foxx to be the next Secretary of Transportation. Following the Committee vote, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) stated that a floor vote on Mr. Foxx’s nomination could come before the Fourth of July recess, but … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity House Appropriations Action Last week the House Appropriations Committee approved its FY 2014 Defense and Agriculture spending bills. The Defense bill will likely be the first to reach the House floor, possibly this week. Subcommittee action continues this week with the Energy and Water and Transportation-Housing bills both scheduled for markups (see This … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Funding Options for Reauthorization Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said last week that she plans to reveal potential funding options for the Highway Trust Fund soon. Sen. Boxer supports maintaining a user-fee system for surface transportation programs saying to the Transportation Construction Coalition last Tuesday, … Continue Reading
LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITY Action on FY 2014 Appropriations Bills. Last week the House passed its first FY 2014 appropriations bills – Military Construction-Veterans Affairs (H.R. 2216) and Homeland Security (H.R. 2217). Even before the bills were brought to the floor, the White House threatened to veto both, citing its disagreement with the topline discretionary spending cap … Continue Reading
