In This Issue:

Leading the Past Week; Legislative Branch; Executive Branch; and Upcoming Hearings.

Excerpt from Leading the Past Week -

While the Senate was on recess, the House was in, but staffs from both budget committees were hard at work trying to put together a budget deal. By the end of the week, rumors were circulating that a deal that would modestly raise the $967 billion discretionary spending level under the sequester by $34 billion to $1.001 trillion for FY2014, with the increase being distributed evenly across domestic and defense spending. While this would still be a decrease in defense spending from the last fiscal year, it would be $17 billion more than anticipated under FY2014 sequester levels.