With the holidays soon approaching, Congress is quickly trying to wrap up key legislation before the end of the year. Two key pieces remaining include a COVID-19 relief bill and FY 21 funding. While negotiations continue, the biggest disagreements on COVID-19 funding remain state and local aid and legal protections for businesses from COVID-19 lawsuits. In other news, the FDA and the CDC approved Pfizer and BioTech’s vaccine for immediate use, and the White House team says the first 40 million vaccines will be available by the end of the year. Here are some other notes from last week:
- Defense Bill Passed by Congress: The National Defense Authorization Act was passed in both the House and Senate this week. The bill appropriates $740 billion in funding to the Department of Defense for programs and activities. The bill now goes to President Trump to sign, but it is unclear whether he will sign the bill or veto it.
- Congress Passes Stop-gap Funding Bill: Both the House and the Senate passed a new continuing resolution (CR) in order to keep the government funded one additional week, through December 18, and the President signed the bill on Friday night. This gives Congress another week to come to a consensus on how to avoid a government shutdown.
- Finalist of CTE Mission: CubeSat: The Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education announced the five finalists of CTE Mission: CubeSat, a challenge for high school students to build technical skills for careers in aerospace. Each finalist will receive $5,000 and prizes to help with the construction of prototypes during the second phase of the challenge which will last from January to May 2021.
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