The following events may be of interest in the week ahead.  The House will be in session for part of the week; the Senate is in recess.

During the Week

The government is slowly returning to normal after the 16-day shutdown.  The House will be in session beginning Tuesday, while Senators will be back home hearing first hand how voters feel about Washington these days.  

House-Senate budget negotiations that were part of the deal to reopen the government and raise the debt limit are due to begin this week.   Senate Budget Committee chair Patty Murray (D-WA) and House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan (R-WI) will lead the discussions to reconcile the starkly different budget resolutions passed by the Senate and House earlier this year.  The Senate Budget Resolution ignored the sequester and set spending for FY2014 at $1.058 trillion.  The House Budget Resolution holds FY2014 spending to $967 billion, $91 billion less than the Senate, and protects defense spending, taking the cuts from elsewhere in the budget.  These disparities are why the House and Senate Appropriations Committees recommended such different funding levels for NASA in their FY2014 Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) bills.  The House Appropriations bill would give NASA $16.6 billion, while the Senate bill would provide $18.0 billion.  (See SpacePolicyOnline.com’s NASA FY2014 Budget Request fact sheet for more details on what the appropriations — and authorization — committees recommended.)  Murray and Ryan are supposed to complete their negotiations by December 13, presumably allowing for appropriations bills to pass by January 15, the date when the current Continuing Resolution expires.

In other events, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden will speak to the NRC’s Committee on Human Spaceflight tomorrow (Monday) at 10:00 am ET and Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations Bill Gerstenmaier will update the committee at 2:00 pm ET.  For all the Neil DeGrasse Tyson fans out there, he will speak to the committee Wednesday from 9:00-10:00 am ET on “Delusions of Space Enthusiasts.”   That and other meetings we know about right now are listed below.

Sunday-Friday, October 20-25

• Planet Mars IV Workshop, Les Houches, France

Monday-Wednesday, October 21-23

• NRC Committee on Human Spaceflight, Keck Center, 500 Fifth St., NW, Washington, DC.  Some sessions are closed.  Open sessions are scheduled on:
  • Monday, October 21, 10:00 am – 3:15 pm ET (including talks by Charlie Bolden at 10:00 and Bill Gerstenmaier at 2:00)
  • Wednesday, October 23, 9:00 – 10:00 am ET (Neil DeGrasse Tyson)

Tuesday, October 22

• Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Cygnus Spacecraft Departs ISS, NASA TV Coverage begins at 7:00 am ET

Thursday, October 24

• Space and Satellite Regulatory Colloquium, Jones Day Conference Facility, 51 Louisiana Ave, NW, Washington, DC, 8:00 am – 6:00 pm ET

The House followed the Senate this evening in passing a bill to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling. 

The vote in the House on H.R. 2775 as amended was 285-144.  The amended bill, the Continuing Resolution Act, 2014,  now needs only the President’s signature, which he has agreed to do.

The bill funds the government through January 15, 2014 at current levels and raises the debt ceiling until February 7.  It contains a number of other provisions as well, including allowing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to spend its funds so as to protect the launch dates of its new weather satellites.

The Senate passed the bill earlier this evening by a vote of 81-18.   One Republican Senator did not vote.

Correction:  An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that there is one vacancy in the Senate as an explanation for why there were 99 instead of 100 votes.  However, the discrepancy is because one Republican Senator did not vote.   Cory Booker did win an election in New Jersey tonight to replace the late Senator Frank Lautenberg, as earlier reported, but the Lauternberg seat is currently filled on a temporary basis by Senator Jeff Chiesa, so there is no vacancy.  The Senate vote tally is posted on the Senate website.

UPDATE, October 17, 2013, 12:37 am ET:   The President has signed the bill into law.

ORIGINAL STORY, October 16, 2013, 11:50 pm ET:  President Obama is expected to sign the bill that reopens the government and raises the debt limit tonight and the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is telling furloughed federal workers to return to work tomorrow morning, Thursday, October 17. 

The FY2014 Continuing Appropriations Act (H.R. 2775 as amended) passed the Senate this evening by a vote of 81-18 and the House by a vote of 285-144.  All no votes were Republican.  All Democrats who cast a vote, voted yes. 

In the Senate, 27 Republicans joined the 52 Democrats and two Independents (who usually vote with Democrats) in voting in favor of the measure.  (One Republican Senator did not vote.)  A tally of the vote is posted on the Senate’s website.

In the House, 187 Republicans joined all 198 Democrats who voted in passing the bill.  (There are three vacancies in the House, and one Republican and two Democrats did not vote).  A tally of the vote is on the House website.

To recap, the bill:

• funds the government at current funding levels through January 15, 2014, the date when the next phase of the sequester kicks in;
• raises the debt limit until February 7, 2014;
• retroactively pays furloughed federal workers;
• requires income verification for subsidies under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare); and
• includes a number of other provisions, including allowing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to allocate its funding so the launch dates for its new weather satellites — the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-R series — are maintained.

The bipartisan agreement also calls for a conference committee to be appointed to develop a long range budget agreement to reduce the deficit, although that is not included in the legislation.

The bill ends a 16-day partial government shutdown.  Shortly after the House vote, OMB director Sylvia Matthews Burwell issued a statement to federal employees saying “Now that the bill has passed the United States Senate and the House of Representatives, the President plans to sign it tonight and employees should expect to return to work in the morning.  Employees should be checking the news and OPM’s website for further updates.”  OPM is the Office of Personnel Management.

On this 16th day of the partial government shutdown and one day before the Treasury hits the debt limit, Senate leaders reached agreement to resolve the stalemate.  The White House accepts it and there is optimism that House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) will bring it to the floor of the House for a vote even if a majority of Republicans do not support it.  If he does, the expectation is that it will pass with most Democratic and some Republican votes.

The deal between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is similar, but not identical, to the plan they agreed to on Monday and that many House Republican members opposed.   Today’s plan would:

• fund the government through January 15 at current levels (January 15 is when the next phase of the sequester is supposed to kick in),
• raise the debt limit until February 7,
• establish a House-Senate conference committee to negotiate agreement on a longer term budget plan by December 13,
• require income verification for subsidies under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare),
• pay furloughed federal workers retroactively, and
• provide emergency funding for Colorado to recover from its recent historic flooding.

Other changes to Obamacare proposed in earlier House or Senate versions — such as defunding or delaying it,  repealing or delaying the medical device tax, or delaying a reinsurance tax — were dropped.

At the moment, the plan is for the Senate to vote on the proposal this afternoon.   Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Lee (R-UT), who are viewed as the originators of this budget and debt ceiling standoff with their goal to defund Obamacare, reportedly have indicated that they will not filibuster the measure, allowing it to come to a vote expeditiously.

There is broad optimism that it will pass the Senate and Boehner then will allow a vote in the House even if he does not have a majority of his Republicans on board.  Boehner released a statement this afternoon saying “The House has fought with everything it has to convince the President of the United States to engage in bipartisan negotiations… That fight will continue. But blocking the bipartisan agreement reached today by the members of the Senate will not be a tactic for us.”

Under an informal rule dubbed the Hastert Rule after former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, the House Republican leadership is reluctant to bring a bill to the floor unless there is a “majority of the majority” in favor of it; that is, most of the members of the Republican caucus.   Boehner ignored that rule at the beginning of the year in order to win passage of legislation to avert the “fiscal cliff,” but it is risky politically and he has avoided it so far.  Boehner reiterated yesterday, however, that he strongly believes the government should not default on its debt and the debt limit will be reached tomorrow, adding urgency to resolving the stalemate. 

 

Yesterday’s optimism that today would be the day agreement would be reached to reopen the government and raise the debt limit dissipated as House Republicans tried and failed to come up with a plan that could win enough Republican support to pass that chamber. 

Senate leaders who sounded hopeful last night suspended their discussions awaiting House action, but resumed them this evening when it became apparent the House would not pass anything right now.

The situation remains very fluid.  All that can be said this evening is that the point at which the government no longer will be able to borrow money to pay its bills — the debt limit — is just two days away, the government is about to enter its 16th day in partial shutdown mode, and agreement remains elusive.  House Speaker Boehner reiterated today that he did not want to put the government in the position of defaulting on its debts, which is what will happen if the debt limit is not suspended or raised:  “I have made clear for months and months that the idea of default is wrong and we shouldn’t get anywhere close to it,” he said after meeting with his Republican colleagues.  But here it is just two days away and a deal to raise the limit still is not forthcoming.

As for getting the government back to work, the House has been passing several narrowly written bills to fund specific parts of the government. With only two exceptions — both related to military spending — the Senate has refused to take them up, however.  None would fund NASA or NOAA or any of the government’s science agencies other than the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one indication of where those activities fall on the House Republican priority list.

The roller coaster ride continues with more rumors that a deal is near to reopen the government and raise the debt limit, followed by more waiting and uncertainty.

At the end of last week, it appeared as though House Repubicans and the White House were close to agreement, but that fell through Thursday night.   Attention turned to the Senate where it appeared that Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) had come up with a winning strategy, but that fell by the wayside over the weekend.   President Obama was set to meet at 3:00 pm this afternoon with House and Senate Republican and Democratic leaders to figure out next steps, but the meeting was postponed when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) indicated that they were close to agreement and just needed a little more time.

The afternoon wore on without an announcement.  As the Senate was about to adjourn for the day just after 6:00 pm ET, Reid said on the Senate floor that he and McConnell had “made tremendous progress” but “we are not there yet … and everyone just needs to be patient,” adding later that “we’re doing our best to make everybody happy but everyone knows we’re not going to be able to do that.”  McConnell said “we’ve made substantial progress and look forward to making more progress in the near future.”

It is important to bear in mind that even if the Senate reaches agreement, there is no guarantee that the House will go along. 

For what it’s worth, the deal Reid and McConnell are working on reportedly would:  fund the government through January 15 at the FY2013 level of $986 billion; raise the debt limit until early-mid February; set up negotiations that would have to be completed by December 13 on a long term budget agreement; require income verification to qualify for subsidies under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare); delay for one year a reinsurance tax included in Obamacare; and give agencies more flexibility in making budget cuts required by sequestration.   The next phase of sequestration kicks in on January 15, which is how that date was chosen as the deadline for government funding.