Approximately 7.4 million students will see their Federal student loan rates double on July 1 if Congress fails to pass legislation to keep rates at the current 3.4 percent. A law passed in 2007 reduced the interest rate on subsidized Stafford Loans to undergraduate students for four academic years. Unless the interest rate break is continued, the average student will pay an additional $1,000 in interest each year. On his recent visits to universities, President Obama called on Congress to extend the rate cut. Although his presumptive Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, also urged lawmakers to act, the issue has since…

Legislation approved by the Senate on April 25 is aimed at saving the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), which has been losing money daily and plans to make drastic changes if Congress doesn’t act by May 15. Postmaster Patrick Donahue had proposed a series of cost-cutting measures, including eliminating Saturday and overnight delivery and closing up to 3,700 local post offices, mostly in small towns, and replacing them with automated centers operating out of local businesses. (See the February 2012 issue of Congressional Digest, “Saving the U.S. Postal Service.”) Donahue said that he had to cut $22 million in operating costs…

The natural gas drilling method called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, was a topic of discussion at recent hearings on the President’s proposed energy budget for Fiscal Year 2013. (For background on this issue, see the March 2012 Congressional Digest, titled “Fracking and Drinking Water Safety.”) On February 15, at a hearing of the House Natural Resources Committee, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar noted that the President has requested $45 million for a research and development initiative by the U.S. Geological Survey, the Department of Energy, and the Environmental Protection Agency “aimed at understanding and minimizing potential environmental, health, and safety impacts…

On January 18, President Obama announced the Administration’s decision to deny the application for construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. (For background, see the December 2011 Congressional Digest titled “Keystone Pipeline.”) Republicans in Congress had forced the President’s hand on the issue last year by attaching a provision to the shot-term payroll tax cut extension legislation that required the Administration to make a decision on the pipeline within two months. In a statement released by the White House, the President said: “This announcement is not a judgment on the merits of the pipeline, but the arbitrary nature of a deadline…

Legislative business for the second session of the 112th Congress begins in the House on January 17 and in the Senate on January 23. President Obama will deliver his State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress on January 24. With a number of important issues still unresolved, the combativeness of 2011 may be just a warm-up for what lies ahead, as lawmakers return to an even more partisan election year environment. Congressional Digest will be reporting on these and other topics in the year ahead.

Despite the Obama Administration’s earlier assertion that it would either approve or disapprove the  Keystone XL Pipeline project by the end of this year,  the State Department, on November 10, announced a delay in the final decision. The proposed $7 billion, 1700-mile pipeline would connect the oil sands region of Alberta to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast.  (See the December 2011 Congressional Digest titled “Keystone Pipeline.”) Under the original proposal, the pipeline would pass through the Sand Hills of Nebraska, which includes the Ogalla Aquifer, a major fresh water resource for eight states. Critics were concerned that oil spills…

The Senate dealt the Obama Administration’s job package another blow on November 3 by refusing to consider the Rebuild America Jobs Act, a$60 billion measure to build and repair infrastructure and create an infrastructure bank to leverage private and public capital for long-term projects. The 51-to-49 vote fell short of the 60 needed to proceed to a debate and vote. All Republican senators, as well as Democrats Ben Nelson (NE) and Joe Lieberman (CT) opposed the bill. The concept of an infrastructure bank has been around for some time. As described in the January 2009 Congressional Digest on “Infrastructure Financing,”…

Members of Congress expressed skepticism about the viability of the Obama Administration’s plan for a manned commercial space flight program at an October 26 hearing on the “Future Private Market for Human Spaceflight.” Spokespersons from NASA and aerospace companies testified before the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee on progress toward establishing a “purely commercial capability to fly humans to and from low-Earth orbit, with an emphasis on ferrying NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.” Current law authorizes $500 for development of the program, and many Members of Congress are reluctant to meet the Administration’s request for $850 million,…