This week we celebrate National Nurses Week.

What it means: Each year the President prepares and submits to Congress a budget, outlining his spending and policy priorities for the coming federal fiscal year.

"The Beltway" is a term used to describe the geographic area around Washington, DC, that is encircled by Interstate 495.

A legislative process for considering and making any recommended adjustments to a piece of legislation prior to moving the legislation forward for a committee vote of passage or defeat.

A pro forma session is a short period of time when either the House or Senate is technically in legislative session but when no votes are held and no formal business is typically conducted.

After 50 hours of debate on the budget, Senators may bring any remaining amendments, as long as they are germane, to the floor for a vote.

For the first time in 17 years, the federal government has officially shutdown.

Democrats opened their convention in Charlotte, NC, yesterday, and the Affordable Care Act was front and center. Kaiser Health News has excerpts of the remarks.

President Bill Clinton addressed the assembled delegates for nearly an hour last night, offering an impassioned defense of President Obama and his policies, asking rhetorically "Are we better off because President Obama fought for health care reform? You bet we are."

The issue of severability is the most important argument for patients, as it puts very popular provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in jeopardy.

Scrutiny over the life insurance industry’s "asymmetric" use of the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File has come primarily from the regulatory community.

On February 22, 2012, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued General License No. 15 for the Syria sanctions President Obama implemented in August.

On November 7, 2011, the Department of State, Directorate of Defense Trade Controls issued proposed rules to amend the International Traffic in Arms Control Regulations modifying Category VIII.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a final rule, effective March 17, 2011, to finalize its regulations that eliminated the textile declaration and added new Manufacturer Identification Code (MID) requirements for textiles and apparel.

The U.S. Department of Justice appears to be taking enforcement of the Lacey Act, the country’s oldest wildlife protection statute, to a higher level – especially as it relates to policing the trafficking of wood and wood products.

The United States, the European Union, and Canada announced that additional individuals and companies had been placed on their sanctions lists.

A filed petition asked the U.S. government to investigate whether Chinese imports of 53-foot domestic dry containers are being unfairly dumped and subsidized.

At the request of KTBS-TV, Shreveport, Louisiana, the FCC has partially waived Section 73.3526 of its rules.

The FY 13 budget and appropriations process continues in earnest this week with a number of House committees holding mark-ups to conform to reconciliation instructions.

The U.S. Generalized System of Preferences program expired on July 31, 2013.