UPDATE: Events of Interest: Week of November 28-December 2, 2011

UPDATE:  CSIS’s event on Friday re the defense industrial base has been added.

The following events may be of interest in the coming week.  Check our calendar on the right menu or click the links below for more information.   The House and Senate both are in session this week.

During the Week

The Senate is scheduled to resume consideration of the Department of Defense (DOD) Authorization bill, S. 1867, on Monday.  

At the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will send its “passbacks” to the various federal departments and agencies on Monday.  Each year, usually in September, agencies tell OMB what they want their budgets to be for subsequent years. OMB considers these proposals and then “passes them back” (hence, a “passback”) with whatever modifications OMB deems necessary.  The agencies can negotiate with OMB or even take an issue to the President if they are sufficiently determined.  The end result is the President’s budget request to Congress that is submitted on the first Monday in February of each year.  The budget request now being developed is for FY2013.  Passbacks used to be sent to agencies on Thanksgiving eve — never a pleasant holiday experience.  According to the Washington Post, current OMB Director Jack Lew decided to wait until the Monday after Thanksgiving so government officials could enjoy time with their families.

Monday-Tuesday, November 28-29

• NASA Advisory Council Planetary Protection Subcommittee, Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, FLWednesday, November 30

• Senate Commerce Committee hearing on nominees for the Federal Communications Commission(LightSquared may be one of the issues that comes up), 253 Russell Senate Office Building, 2:30 pm EST

Thursday, December 1

• 6th Eilene M. Galloway Symposium on Critical Issues in Space Law, Cosmos Club, 2121 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington, DC, 8:30 am – 4:30 pm EST
• NASM/APL Space History and Policy Seminar Series:  Update on Russia, China and India in Space (Speaker:  Marcia Smith), Applied Physics Lab (APL), Laurel, MD, 4:00 – 5:00 pm EST (contact: Nathan Bridges, nathan.bridges@jhuapl.edu )

Friday, December 2

• CSIS seminar on Deficits, Defense and the Industrial Base — What’s Next, 1800 K Street, N.W., B1 Conference Center, Washington, DC, 10:00-11:30 am EST
• Panel on U.S. Space Exploration in the Next 50 Years, part of DuPont Summit on Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy: Pressing Issues, Little Time, Carnegie Institution of Science, 1530 P Street, N.W., Washington, DC  (the summit has many panels throughout the day; this one is from 10:15 am – 12:45 pm EST)