According to press reports and staff rumblings, it does appear that the FY06 Authorization bill will once again have floor consideration in the Senate. Democratic Leader Reid sent a letter to Majority Leader Frist clearing the way for a UC on the bill. We anticipate that the UC could take the form offered previously by Senator Frist, with a set number of amendments on each side under a time agreement. Consideration could occur as soon as next week.
During Chairman Warner's attempts to attach the Authorization bill to the Appropriations bill, we noticed that a version of the Kennedy-Collins amendment appeared in the second degree amendment manager's package. (You had to dig deep in the congressional record to find it, but it was there.) This indicates that staff had come to an agreement to include the K-C amendment. The language included the same $40 million adopted in the Appropriations bill, but lacked the Sense of the Senate portion of the amendment. We therefore anticipate that when the bill does reach the floor in the coming days that the modified K-C amendment (without the SoS portion) will be cleared, thus authorizing the higher level for SMART/NDEP, the URIs, and DARPA.
Even though this is now looking unlikely, someone asked at the last meeting what happens if a UC agreement is not reached and there is no authorization bill. If things sour again and the UC isn't reached, we believe that the authorization committee would have to put together a small package of must-pass provisions and that package would be attached to some sure-to-move bill.
We will continue monitoring the bill and will let you know when things start moving.
Posted by Jason Van Wey at October 20, 2005 11:46 PM | TrackBack