Here’s a selection of articles the Federal Relations team is enjoying this week.
Intolerance of the Left – The recent election showed a sharp divide between the left and the right in the political views and opinions on the direction of the country. Using Marceline, Mo as the example, The Guardian examines the right’s complaints with the left. Read more in The Guardian.
Red Post, Blue Post – Facebook is growing as a medium for Americans to see news, but the content of your feed can vary greatly given your political leanings. Read more and see the feeds at The Wall Street Journal.
DeVos Confirmation Uncertain? – Two Republican Senators announced on the Senate floor Feb. 1 that they plan to oppose the nomination of Betsy DeVos to be the Secretary of Education. With the Senate currently divided 52 – 48 in Republicans’ favor, the status of her nomination is rather precarious. Read more about the situation in Politico and The Hill.
New Funding Fight on the Horizon? – Milo Yiannopoulos was scheduled to speak at UC Berkeley Feb. 1. After violence caused by outside agitators erupted on the campus before the speech, the event was canceled by the campus police. The university did not rescind the original invitation when many on campus asked it to do so. In the aftermath of the cancellation, President Trump tweeted that perhaps federal funding should be pulled from the university for not allowing the expression of opposing viewpoints. Read more here in Politico and Inside Higher Education.
Dear Mr. President – This is how federal funding for higher education works. The vast majority of federal dollars that flow to colleges and universities arrives in the form of student loans and grants to cover the cost of attendance. Another path for federal dollars to colleges is research grants, money bestowed by entities such as the National Institutes of Health to aid students and faculty pursuing research in the public interest. Read more from the Washington Post.
A Larger Piece of the Pie – The House’s New Democrat Coalition does not plan to sit by and let the GOP generate all the policy ideas on issues like taxes, infrastructure and cybersecurity. Read more about the Coalition and its agenda from its vice chairman, Rep. Derek Kilmer on Rollcall.
Travel Ban + Science – The Washington Post explores how Trump’s travel ban could hurt science. According to a 2013 report by the National Science Foundation, more than 5 million of the United States’ 29 million scientists and engineers were not born in the United States. All six of the Americans who won Nobel Prizes last year were immigrants. And nearly a fifth of all papers published in scientific journals these days have authors from at least two countries. Read more from the Washington Post here.