House and Senate committees have marked up significantly different measures, and sponsors say there is too little time left in the legislative session to complete work on the bills.
People were still biddable, visiting the Design Centre in Haymarket before they made a purchase, surveying the products selected as good British design by official committees and marked with the black-and-white triangular swing ticket of approval (itself a fine example of the graphics of the time).
I look down at my Ordnance Survey map, on which Ben Lyon, chair of the Upper Eden Rotary Club's Yomp committee, has marked the highlights of the Yomp Mountain Challenge, a charity event commemorating the British forces' march across the Falklands to retake Port Stanley in 1982 from Argentina.
Despite my best efforts, even that committee was marked by a lack of diversity, as it never selected a non-Swedish film for Academy consideration (sadly negating my advocacy for the Swedish dubbed version of A Night at the Roxbury).
Chairman Leahy has agreed to hold a hearing as soon as possible after the legislation is introduced, and has promised to have unlimited debate and amendments during the committee mark-up.
Later this week, Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts and the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, is expected to announce a series of hearings for the coming days before his committee marks up legislation in October.
He said dates had not yet been determined for committee mark-up and vote, but it was hoped that the bill would move forward in September, after the August recess.
The next major spending milestone is expected to occur when Mikulski's committee marks up NASA's 2012 budget.
A committee mark-up of Mendelson's legislation was held earlier this week and the bill was forwarded to the full D.C. Council for consideration.
The Democratic pledge to post bills online for 72 hours before a floor vote will be extended to committee mark-ups.
