Omnibus Passes
As predicted, the Senate passed the Omnibus bill tonight. It now goes to the president for his signature.
In the committee report that accompanies the bill, is language concerning NASA conference travel. Specifically, this should remove the conference travel restrictions that were inserted into the NASA Authorization Act last year. While the report text is not law, agencies typically follow the congressional direction within the report. (This is also where most congressionally designated funding items are placed – also known as earmarks.)
To quote the report text:
… in no event shall the funds appropriated by this Act be subject to the limitation of section 1121(a) of P.L. 110-442 with respect to NASA expenditures for scientific and technical conferences or education-related conferences in which NASA science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) content is disseminated. “
We’ll see how this is implemented over the coming weeks, but it should relax restrictions on NASA civil servants attending scientific conferences.
Tags: appropriations, NASA, travel
