In This Issue:

- Politics Drives the Agenda in Run-Up to the Midterms

- An Insider's View: President Obama's Foreign Policy

- The Anti-Energy Tax Incentives Caucus of the GOP

- Trade Agenda Stagnant, For Now

- The Skinny on the White House Big Data Report

- Appropriations Off to a Quick Start

- Accelerating Biomedical Innovation, Cures to Patients, and "Out of the Box" Thinking at 21st Century Cures Roundtable

- Excerpt from Politics Drives the Agenda in Run-Up to the Midterms:

With the 2014 Midterm Elections less than seven months away, the issues driving the remaining days of the 113th Congress must be viewed in their political context. Many political observers are calling the Senate a toss-up and just one or two races could decide who holds power in the upper chamber in 2015. Close races and few legislative days (around 50) mean Members will be very cautious about what policy issues they focus on, and even more cautious about what they vote on. Republicans are expected to hold on to the House, but whether they add to their majority is still a topic of debate.