PUBLIC POLICY UPDATE

December 10, 2010

WASHINGTON UPDATE

Last-minute Machinations for FY 2011 Appropriations

Political maneuvering continues in the lame-duck session of Congress as Democrats especially
attempt to fulfill the Obama administration’s request to complete FY 2011 appropriations work as
speedily as possible. On Wednesday evening, the House of Representatives, by a 212-206 vote,
narrowly passed a $1.109 trillion year-long continuing resolution (CR) that will maintain the federal
government’s discretionary spending for FY 2011 at FY 2010 levels. The bill, officially termed
House Resolution (HR) 3082, freezes non-military federal pay for two years, contains no
earmarks, and is approximately $45.9 billion less than the FY 2011 budget President Obama
submitted this past February.

Meanwhile in the Senate, all eyes are focused on Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-HI)
as many await the release of his FY 2011 omnibus measure, which figures to be more substantive
than the comparatively trimmed-down continuing resolution passed by the House and will likely
include $18 billion in additional funds. Prospects for passing the FY 2011 omnibus face two
interrelated obstacles. For one, according to Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), some moderate
Democrats have signaled that they will not support a bill with earmarks. Furthermore, the measure
must receive 60 votes, and thus some Republican support, to pass.

Although a few Senate Republican appropriators have at least expressed an openness to the idea
of an omnibus, Senators Jim DeMint (R-SC), John Thune (R-SD), and Tom Coburn (R-OK) have
expressed deep skepticism over any long-term appropriations package, whether it be an omnibus
or a year-long continuing resolution. As the days wither away on the 111th Congress, it becomes
increasingly evident that not all that much is evident regarding the FY 2011 appropriations
process. Stay tuned.

Incoming Majority Leader Cantor Releases 2011 Congressional Calendar

Earlier this week, incoming House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) unveiled the 2011
congressional calendar on his website. The website announces that the final calendar the result of
“substantial input gained by the Republican Transition Team from members of both the House
Republican Conference and the House Democratic Caucus, and from many outside reformers.” In
total, the calendar contains 123 days and 32 weeks in session. View the calendar on the
Republican Whip’s website http://republicanwhip.house.gov/Calendar/.

HEARING SUMMARIES

There were no relevant hearings the week of December 6-10, 2010.

ARTICLES AND REPORTS

Disclaimer: Articles linked in the Update are intended to provide a dashboard view of newsworthy
and topical issues from popular news outlets that will be of interest to readers of the Update. The

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 articles are an information sharing vehicle rather than an advocacy tool. They are in no way
representative of the views of InterAction or the U.S. NGO community as a whole.

Foreign Policy
12/6 What Resource Curse?
Charles Kenny documents the discovery of 6-8 trillion cubic feet of gas on the shoreline of
Mozambique and explores whether the country will fall prey to the oft-mentioned “resource curse.”
Kenny suggests that conventional wisdom regarding countries falling prey to the “resource curse”
may be overstated and cites Swiss economist Christa Brunnschweiler as evidence “that
economies with greater resource wealth actually grew faster between 1970 and 2000 than
resource-poor countries.”

Washington Post
12/6 Across the world, Sudanese to vote on referendum
Across the world, Southern Sudanese are preparing to vote on whether their region of Sudan will
be an independent country. Southern Sudanese living in the U.S., the largest community of whom
live in Nebraska, will travel to one of three sites currently open, including one in Alexandria,
VA. They must trek to their chosen voting location not once, but twice: to register and then to vote
in the January 9 plebiscite. Seven other countries have voting stations for the referendum.

BBC News
12/7 Ivory Coast deadlock: Food shortages and price rises
As tensions mount in the contested November 28 presidential elections, and as the United
Nations move all non-essential staff out of the country, there are shortages of basic goods like
meat, oil, and cooking gas in Côte d’Ivoire while the price of others has risen.

Reuters/AlertNet
12/8 Protests in Haiti as poll goes to run-off
The Haitian government announced that the undecided election would roll into a run-off vote.
Protests and random gunfire in Port-au-Prince followed the decision. As reported by Reuters, the
U.S. Embassy in Haiti indicated that the results of the election may not reflect "the will of the
Haitian people." The majority of the protestors were in favor of the third-placed candidate, popular
musician Michel “Sweet Micky” Martelly.

Foreign Policy
12/9 Ros-Lehtinen: My mission is to cut the State and foreign aid budgets
Incoming Chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC) Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-
FL) released a statement laying out her agenda for HFAC during the 112th Congress. Her
priorities include: using U.S. contributions to international organizations as leverage to force
reform at the United Nations; advocating for stronger action against “rouge states”; and identifying
and proposing “a number of cuts to the State Department and Foreign Aid budgets.”

Reuters/AlertNet
12/10 Tests confirm Haiti cholera came from Asia
U.S. researchers say the cholera bacteria that has killed over 2,000 people in Haiti matches
bacteria found in South Asia. The researchers say the cholera in Haiti most closely resembles
a strain circulating in Bangladesh. Haiti's Ministry of Health reports that over 93,000 cholera cases
have resulted from the bacteria since October.