Five federal agencies are working to increase consumers’ awareness of the benefits of switching to water- and energy-efficient fixtures and building codes.

The Paris Climate Agreement reached the minimum requirements necessary to enter into force this October, four years earlier than the previously anticipated 2020 target.

The House and Senate successfully passed a short-term spending bill on September 28 that will fund the federal government through December 9, 2016.

A list of notices from the federal register for September 2016 from agencies including the Department of the Interior, Department of Energy, USGS, NOAA, NASA, and more.

On September 15, the Senate passed the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) (S. 2848), marking a major milestone in the two-year water policy bill. The bill passed with a final vote of 95-3. The House version of the bill was voted upon once an amendment authorizing funding to aid Flint, MI, was approved, and it passed on September 28 with a final vote of 399-25.

On September 21, the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation (CST) Committee convened a full committee markup on several bills, including a bill to reauthorize NASA, known as the NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2016 (S.3346).

The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee’s Subcommittee on Space held a hearing on September 7, which assessed how previous legislation has impacted the private sector’s ability to obtain licenses and data for commercial remote sensing purposes.

On September 17, Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources Chairman Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Ranking Member Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) introduced their National Volcano Early Warning and Monitoring System Act (S.2056). On September 22, they discussed the bill in a hearing with the committee.

The Consortium for Ocean Leadership (COL) held a briefing on the economic impacts of ocean acidification (OA), or the process in which the ocean absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere, making its pH slightly more acidic.