Space Policy Events for the Week of October 28 – November 1, 2013 – UPDATE

UPDATE, October 28:  We’ve added David Grinspoon’s lecture on Thursday.

The following space policy-related events may be of interest in the week ahead.  The House and Senate are in session this week.

During the Week

Though space programs are only a small part of what they’ll be discussing, perhaps the most important event this week for the government’s space program is the first formal meeting of the conference committee on the budget.   The House passed a 10-year budget on March 21 and the Senate passed its version on March 23.  They deal with the federal budget on a broad scale, not with specific agencies or programs, but the budget totals they set are used to determine how much each of the 12 appropriations subcommittees can spend on the agencies and programs within their purviews.  

The House and Senate budget plans are extremely different and the two sides had not scheduled a conference committee to try and negotiate a compromise version until now.   The establishment of the conference committee was part of the deal to reopen the government, which calls for the committee’s work to be completed by December 13.

The conference committee is chaired by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), Chairman of the House Budget Committee, and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee.   The first formal meeting is on Wednesday at 10:00 am ET in room HC-5 of the Capitol.   As Politico said at the time, it is not that the House and Senate budget bills are like apples and oranges, but “more like apples and bicycles.”  Their titles hint at those differences.  The House plan is called “The Path to Prosperity:  A Responsible, Balanced Budget.”  The Senate plan is entitled “Foundation for Growth:  Restoring the Promise of Opportunity.”

Here’s what else is coming up this week that we know about as of Sunday afternoon.

Monday, October 28

• NASA briefing on the MAVEN mission to Mars, NASA HQ, Washington, DC, 2:00 pm ET (watch on NASA TV)

Tuesday, October 29

• Women in Aerospace (WIA) Awards Dinner, Ritz-Carlton Pentagon City, Arlington, VA, at 5:30 – 9:00 pm ET

Tuesday-Wednesday, October 29-30

• NRC Committee on Earth Science and Applications from Space, NRC Keck Center, 500 5th Street, NW, Washington, DC (some sessions are closed)
• International Space Commerce Summit, London, England

Wednesday, October 30

• House-Senate Conference Committee on the Budget, HC-5 Capitol, 10:00 am ET

Thursday, October 31

• David Grinspoon lecture on “Terra Sapiens: The Human Chapter in the History of Earth,” Library of Congress Jefferson Building, Washington, DC, 4:00 pm ET