TechWonk Blog Subsection
TechWonk Blog
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This week marks another important step in what has been a busy year in policy developments for autonomous and connected vehicles. On Tuesday, the Senate Commerce Committee will hold its first hearing exclusively focused on self-driving cars. This comes on the heels of several recent, noteworthy actions in this space: The Department of Transportation (DOT) announced that it will update its 2013 guidance [...]
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Today the House of Representatives approved two bipartisan bills, the EPS Service Parts Act of 2014 (H.R. 5057) and the E-Label Act (H.R. 5161), that will help electronic device users continue to power their devices and even take advantage of the device鈥檚 technology to enhance their appearance. The EPS Service Parts Act of 2014, introduced by Reps. Cory Gardner (R-CO) and Paul Tonko (D-NY), extends [...]
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The U.S. House of Representatives has taken聽an important聽step forward to protect thousands of American jobs at risk by an arbitrary closure of the Federal Helium Reserve.聽 With the House鈥檚 unanimous bipartisan approval (367-0!) on an amended version of H.R. 527,聽the U.S. Senate聽is given聽an opportunity to finally bring this matter to resolution and keep American businesses open and American jobs thriving. [...]
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With a 97-2 vote, the Senate this afternoon聽has given overwhelming bipartisan support聽to legislation that would extend the life of the Federal Helium Reserve 鈥� the single largest source of helium in the nation and the source for 30 percent of the world鈥檚 total supply.聽聽Right now, the clock is ticking on the thousands of American jobs that are associated with access to the helium reserve.聽聽Current law [...]
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We鈥檙e in the middle of summer and, as usual during this travel season, gas prices have been rising. 聽Thankfully, we haven鈥檛 seen the severe volatility in gas prices like we have in summers past, but most of us can recall from recent memory when an international crisis or environmental incident affected the U.S. oil supply 鈥� some kind of source disruption that curtailed a small percentage of our nation鈥檚 [...]
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Following a 394-1 vote two weeks ago by the House of Representatives to pass the Responsible Helium Administration and Stewardship Act, the Senate began looking at this issue this week with a hearing in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.聽 This is a promising sign for an issue that will affect numerous domestic industries if Congress does not act by the end of this fiscal year.聽 Helium is a [...]
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Think of helium, and we think birthday balloons and silly high-pitched voices.聽 But helium plays a number of critical roles in our economy 鈥� from health care to high-tech manufacturing.聽 Helium is a key component in MRI machines, for instance, and we couldn鈥檛 make the semiconductors for our computers and other electronics without it.聽 That鈥檚 why a looming cut-off of helium sales is so concerning, and [...]