Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
10/18/13
Federal workers returned to work late this week after Congress passed an eleventh-hour measure Oct. 16 to end the partial government shutdown and raise the debt limit less than a day before the nation was set to begin defaulting on its bills. The deal negotiated by Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) funds the federal government through Jan. 15 and raises the debt ceiling through Feb. 7. It also establishes a bicameral budget committee to develop a list of recommendations for a broader spending and tax plan by Dec. 13.
The agreement brought the bulk of the Environmental Protection Agency’s staff back to work Oct. 17 after 94 percent of the agency’s workforce had been furloughed. The vast majority of the Department of Energy remained open throughout the 16-day shutdown, including the Office of Fossil Energy and National Energy Technology Laboratory, although it remained unclear how much carryover funding the offices had to stay open beyond this week.
Fossil Mini CR Introduced
The breakthrough on Capitol Hill came a day after Rep. David McKinley (R-W.Va.) had introduced a bill to specifically provide funding for the Department of Energy’s fossil energy R&D program though FY 2014. The measure would have extended the program’s FY 2013 post-sequestration funding level of roughly $495 million through FY 2014 unless a specific funding bill was passed. McKinley, whose northern West Virginia district encompasses Morgantown, where a portion of DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory is located, co-sponsored the bill with the entirety of the West Virginia House delegation, as well as Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio).
