Conference
Continues on Intelligence Reform
Principal conferees on legislation to
reform intelligence operations and implement the 9/11 Commission
recommendations are expected to continue meeting this week (October 25-29)
in an attempt to resolve differences between the House and Senate versions
of the bill. It is
unlikely that an agreement can be reached on a conference report
before the election. Final
action will likely be
postponed until the lame-duck session which is scheduled for mid-November.
Major differences over budget authority for the National Intelligence
Director and immigration issues remain the prime obstacles. Other unresolved
issues include First Responder program funding
and driver's license standards.
Decisions
on Omnibus Appropriations Package Will Wait Until After the Elections
Major decisions on the FY 2005 omnibus
appropriations package containing the remaining nine appropriations bill
will be dealt with once Congress returns after the elections.
Appropriators are looking to have an omnibus bill ready when Congress
returns for the lame-duck session in mid-November. The current
continuing resolution (CR), which
has kept the federal agencies operating
at FY 2004 funding levels, expires
on November 20.
Nevada
Receives Drought Designation from USDA
Last week, U.S. Department of
Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman granted Governor Kenny Guinn's request
to designate all 17 counties in
Nevada as drought affected. The designation makes all Nevada
agricultural producers who suffered a loss eligible for emergency farm
assistance programs. The USDA has completed its review of Nevada's
Damage Assessment Reports that were provided by Farm Service Agency's
Nevada Executive Director, Roger Van Valkenburg. Based on that
review, USDA has determined that all 16 counties and Carson City sustained
sufficient production losses to warrant a Secretarial disaster
designation. The designation took effect on October 12, making all
qualified farm operators eligible for low-interest emergency loans from
the Farm Service Agency (FSA), provided eligibility requirements are met.
Farmers and ranchers in Nevada have eight months from the date of the
declaration to apply for the loans to help cover part of their actual
losses. FSA will consider each loan application on its own merits,
taking into account the extent of losses, security available and repayment
ability. In addition to the emergency loan program the USDA
designation also opens the door for Nevada agricultural producers to apply
for any future farm assistance program that may be funded by Congress over
the coming year.
No
Child Left Behind Update
On October 12, the U.S. Department of
Education sent a letter to Chief State School Officers offering additional
guidance on the use of Title I funds in schools and school districts that
have been identified in need of improvement. For example, the letter
points out that the No Child Left Behind Act does not expressly
address the situation of how the school improvement provisions apply when
a school receives Title I funds in one year, but none
the next. In these instances, states have flexibility to establish
their own guidance, however, the law also requires districts to serve
schools in rank order of poverty so that schools moving in and
out of Title I will most likely be a district's lowest poverty
Title I schools. For more information and to view the letter, please
visit: http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/guid/stateletters/uofcssos.html
HHS
Announces Shipment of More Than 3 Million Influenza Vaccines Doses to
High-Priority Groups
Nearly 3.2 million influenza vaccine
doses were shipped this week to health providers serving high priority
groups as part of the plan announced on October 12 by the Centers for
Disease control and Prevention (CDC) and Aventis Pasteur. Since
October 11, more than 5 million doses of flue vaccine have been shipped to
State Public Health Departments, Department of Veterans Administration,
Long-term Care Facilities/Acute Care Hospitals, Vaccines for Children
program, private physicians, HMOs and private providers serving high
priority groups. The 17.6 million remaining doses of vaccine will be
shipped to public and private vaccine providers, at a rate of about 2.5 to
3 million doses per week, through early December.
After Chiron Corporation announced on
October 5 that none of the doses of influenza vaccine it had produced
would be available this year, CDC announced priority groups for
vaccination for the 2004-2005 influenza season which includes children
aged 6-23 months, adults aged 65 years and older, persons aged 2-64 years
with underlying chronic medical conditions, all women who will be pregnant
during influenza season, residents of nursing homes and long-care
facilities, children 6 months to 18 years of age on chronic aspirin
therapy, healthcare workers with direct patient care.