In recent weeks, most of the conversation in and around the nation’s capital has been the debt ceiling and the fiscal year 2012 budget. Will Congress raise the debt ceiling? Will President Obama and the House Republican Speaker John Boehner be able to work out an agreement they can sell to their parties? Will Congress approve a 2012 budget or end up doing continuing resolutions like the 2011 budget? How big will cuts be to Medicare/Medicaid? Will there be tax increases? Even as the different parties involved draw their lines in the sand, these questions need to be answered.

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On June 9, President Obama issued Executive Order 13575, establishing the new White House Rural Council, “to promote economic prosperity and quality of life in rural America.” The Secretary of Agriculture will serve as council chair, and provide funding and administrative support. Leaders of other federal agencies and departments, including the Department of Health and Human Services and the Environmental Protection Agency, comprise the other 25 members.

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As Federal agencies throughout the country prepared for a government shutdown, negotiators from the White House, Speaker’s and the Senate Majority Leader’s offices met to hammer out a deal to advert the shutdown. As the countdown clock to a government shutdown went into the final minutes, the parties finally came to an agreement over the 2011 Fiscal Year Budget. On April 15th, President Obama signed into law the final continuing resolution (CR) for Fiscal Year 2011.

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There has been a lot of action surrounding Appropriations the last few weeks. President Obama delivered a special Valentine’s Day gift by releasing his Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 budget, and the House stayed in session into the wee hours of the morning to vote on the FY 2011 Continuing Resolution (CR). As a compromise was not in sight with the Senate regarding the CR, the House passed a two-week extension including $4 Billion in cuts by a vote of 335-91. The Senate passed the short term extension the following day be a vote of 91-9.

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On Tuesday, August 10, President Barack Obama signed into law a $26 billion plan to save the jobs of thousands of teachers, government workers, and to extend increased Medicaid assistance to states. The signature came after a rare move when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called back members from their traditional August break to vote on the Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act.

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The American Nurses Association was proud to welcome President Barack Obama as a guest speaker to its biennial House of Delegates. He spoke to an estimated crowd of more than 1,000 nurses and guests during the opening session.

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