Intelligence Auth, Bill Renaming Dryden for Armstrong, Pass House — UPDATE

UPDATE, January 1, 2013:   The House passed the FY2013 Intelligence Authorization bill on December 31, clearing it for the President.   It also passed the bill renaming Dryden FRC after Neil Armstrong; the Senate still must act on it.  It did not vote on the North Korea bill or the emergency supplemental.

ORIGINAL STORY, December 30, 2012:  As everyone awaits action on the fiscal cliff, the House has scheduled votes tomorrow on the FY2013 intelligence authorization act and a bill to rename NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center after Neil Armstrong.

The Senate passed the intelligence authorization act, S. 3454, on Friday after consulting with House colleagues to craft it to ensure it would pass both chambers.

The bill, H.R. 6612,  to rename Dryden after the late Neil Armstrong, who was a test pilot there before entering the history books as the first man to walk on the Moon, was scheduled for House consideration two weeks ago, but it never came up for a vote.

The House also has scheduled a vote on a House concurrent resolution, H. Con. Res. 145, condemning North Korea for what the resolution calls a missile launch on December 12.   That launch placed a satellite into orbit, the first successful space launch for that country although reports from western observers indicated the satellite was tumbling and therefore not operational.   Still, it was the first time in four attempts that North Korea succeeded in getting anything into orbit.  Nevertheless, it is widely viewed more as a test of a capability to deliver a nuclear warhead to Earth-based targets than the “peaceful” launch of an earth observing satellite as North Korea claims. 

No vote on H.R. 1, the emergency supplemental appropriations bill for victims of Hurricane Sandy, is scheduled.  That bill includes $15 million for NASA and almost $500 million for NOAA.