• Congressional Focus: SOTU touts "all of the above" strategy, debt limit increase passed, musical committee chairs...
• Municipal Finance: Ways and Means Chair floats tax reform draft....
• Energy Policy: NEPPA Members Lobby on Capacity Markets, National Coalition Raises Concerns, Shaheen-Portman reintroduced, Norman Bay tapped to head FERC...
• Cyber Security: NIST Framework released...

Congressional Overview 

On Jan. 28, President Obama delivered his fifth State of the Union speech, which outlined his agenda and warned that he will use the full range of his executive authority if Congress does not act.  On energy, the President focused on the Climate Action Plan released in June 2013 and an "all-of-the-above" energy strategy.  

Meanwhile, Congress passed legislation to extend federal borrowing authority through March 2015, removing the threat of a default until after the November midterm elections. Both the House and Senate votes were won with a majority of support from Democrats.

Also in February, pro-oil-and-gas Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) took the gavel of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee (ENR), replacing Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who assumed the helm of the Finance Committee. Wyden replaces Max Baucus (D-MT), who was confirmed by the Senate as U.S. Ambassador to China on Feb 6. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) also took the chair of the Environment and Public Works (EPW), Clean Air and Nuclear Safety Subcommittee, and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) was welcomed to EPW as a new member.

To read the complete legislative update including the following topics, click the links below: