Here is our list of space policy events for the next TWO weeks, August 29-September 9, 2016 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate return for legislative business on September 6.

During the Weeks

We have one last relatively light week before Congress returns on September 6. The House and Senate leadership and congressional committees have not announced their schedules yet, but we should learn more as the week progresses,

Meanwhile, this week NASA has a press conference on Tuesday to introduce the three International Space Station (ISS) crew members who will launch in November (Whitson, Pesquet and Novitsky) and on Thursday NASA TV will provide live coverage of the second ISS spacewalk by Jeff Williams and Kate Rubins. Two of the panels of the ongoing National Academies Earth Science and Applications from Space (ESAS) Decadal Survey will meet Tuesday-Wednesday (Solid Earth, in Washington DC) and Thursday-Friday (Hydrology, in Irvine, CA).

Next week begins with a U.S. Federal holiday, Labor Day, on Monday. On Tuesday, Congress returns to work. As usual, it is facing the task of passing some sort of appropriations bill — probably a Continuing Resolution (CR) — to keep the government operating when FY2017 begins on October 1. They have four weeks to do it and it is possible that final agreement could be reached on at least one of the 12 regular appropriations bills — Military Construction-Veterans Affairs (MilCon-VA). It has already passed the House and Senate, a conference agreement was reached, and the House approved the conference report. An attempt to bring the conference report to the Senate floor. however, failed even though the bill is the legislative vehicle being used to provide funding to deal with the Zika virus. Senate Democrats assert that it contains “poison pill” provisions Republicans know Democrats will not accept. Even if that issue gets cleared up by the end of September, there are still the other 11 regular appropriations bills. Here’s a snapshot of where all 12 stand as of today.

Status of FY2017 Appropriations Bills as of August 28, 2016

(prepared by SpacePolicyOnline.com) FY2017 approps bill House Senate Agriculture committee approved committee approved Commerce-Justice-Science committee approved committee approved; floor debate began June 15, but suspended over gun control issues Defense Passed June 16 committee approved; 5 attempts to bring to floor defeated for variety of reasons Energy-Water Defeated May 26 over gay rights/gender identity issues Passed May 12 Financial Services Passed July 7 committee approved Homeland Security committee approved committee approved Interior-Environment Passed July 14 committee approved Labor-HHS committee approved committee approved Legislative Branch Passed June 10 committee approved Military Construction-Veterans Affairs Passed May 19; conference completed; House passed conference report June 23 Passed May 19; 2 attempts to bring conference report to floor defeated for variety of reasons State-Foreign Ops committee approved committee approved Transportation-HUD committee approved Passed May 19 (packaged w/MilCon-VA)

One issue is that the House Appropriations Committee approved more funding in its bills than allowed under the budget caps, so that will have to be fixed to avoid sequestration. The Senate bills are below the caps, though, so it can probably be resolved in conference committee(s).

There is little incentive, actually, for Congress to agree to final FY2017 appropriations before the election since who occupies the Oval Office and which part(ies) control the House and Senate will make a significant difference for the fiscal road ahead. Similarly, there is little incentive for Republicans to allow their most conservative members to force a government shutdown, since that could undermine their goal of retaining control of the House and Senate. The top Democrat on the House Budget Committee and Senate candidate Chris Van Hollen said last week that he could not rule out a shutdown, however, because some Republicans strongly oppose the budget deal worked out among then House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and President Barack Obama last fall. That deal relaxed budget caps set by the 2011 Budget Control Act and those Republicans want to stick by the original caps (even though, as noted, the House Appropriations Committee approved funding in excess even of the revised caps). Still, convincing the electorate to let them retain control of Congress by showing they can keep the government operating probably will outweigh those complaints. Van Hollen said he hopes Congress will pass a CR that covers the time period past the election, with final resolution before the end of the calendar year.

Appropriations will be a key issue, but not the only one. The FY2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is in conference already and there continues to be talk of getting a new NASA authorization bill completed this year. Plus a host of non-space related issues. September promises to be a busy month before Congress recesses again to continue campaigning in advance of the November 8 elections.

Apart from the congressional schedule, the first week of September offers two especially interesting conferences and a very important space science launch. The conferences are an aerospace workforce summit co-sponsored by AIAA and AIA to highlight issues for the next President, and a U.S.-Japan space cooperation seminar co-sponsored by the Mansfield Foundation and the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University. The launch is of the robotic asteroid sample return mission OSIRIS-Rex, scheduled for September 8.

Those and other events we know about as of Sunday, August 28, are shown below. Check back throughout the weeks for others we learn about later and add to our Events of Interest list.

Tuesday, August 30

NASA News Conference with Upcoming ISS Crew Members, Johnson Space Center, TX, 2:00 pm ET (1:00 pm local time), watch on NASA TV

Tuesday-Wednesday, August 30-31

NAS Earth Science Decadal Survey’s Solid Earth Panel, Keck Center, 500 5th St., NW, Washington, DC

Thursday, September 1

ISS spacewalk by NASA astronauts Williams and Rubins, approximately 8:00 am ET (NASA TV coverage begins 6:30 am ET)

Thursday-Friday, September 1-2

Tuesday, September 6

House and Senate Return for Legislative Business

Wednesday-Thursday, September 7-8

National Aerospace and Defense Workforce Summit (AIAA/AIA), Capital Hilton, Washington, DC

Thursday, September 8

Friday, September 9