House on Science in the “National Interest”, White House Threatens to Veto

Posted on February 10, 2016February 10, 2016

The House will take up a bill today, HR 3293 – Scientific Research in the National Interest Act, that would require the National Science Foundation to show the grants it doles out to scientists are in the national interest. Similar to previous measures restricting NSF sponsored by Congressman Lamar Smith, the legislation is expected to pass.

Predictably, the White House issued a Statement of Administrative Policy (SAP) threatening to veto the measure on Tuesday. The SAP stated that the bill would “add nothing to accountability in federal funding for scientific research” and replace existing law with “confusing language that could cast a shadow over the value of basic research.”

Read the SAP here.

President Releases FY2017 Budget

Posted on February 9, 2016February 10, 2016

Today, President Barack Obama proposed a $4.23 trillion FY 2017 budget, which will be his last in office. Overall, the White House’s proposal sticks with the discretionary spending limits set by last year’s budget deal.

Predictably the lame-duck budget was met with dismissal by Congress. Republican appropriators are complaining that the Administration is circumventing the budget caps by leaning heavily on new mandatory funding for programs that typically would receive discretionary dollars controlled by Congress. However, the President’s budget is symbolically the beginning of the federal appropriations conversations.

Included in the request was $19 billion for cybersecurity efforts a proposed a 35 percent increase in federal funds for the next budget year to boost the nation’s ability to safeguard its computer networks, both private and public, from attacks while preserving privacy.

For the third year in a row, the President proposed his College Opportunity and Graduation Bonus. In FY17, the program would provide $547 million for colleges that do a good job graduating low-income students on time. Department officials said the proposal is an important complement to student-focused incentives like the new $300 Pell bonus for recipients who take at least 15 credits per semester. The bonus would reward institutions that improve in this area, regardless of how well they were doing in the first place.

Other items of note include:

Defense S&T is cut by more than $535 million with nearly 40% of the cuts coming from 6.1 basic research.

The budget provides $7.96 billion for the National Science Foundation, of which $7.56 is discretionary and $400 million is new mandatory funding. For discretionary, this would be a 1.3% increase, but including mandatory an increase of 6.7%, over FY 2016. All directorates, including SBE and GEO received 6 percent increases.

The Administration is is requesting $19.025 billion for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which is $300 million below FY 2016. This includes mandatory spending. The current fact sheet available doesn’t break out discretionary vs. mandatory. The Science directorate would get $5.6 billion, which is an increase of $12 million or 0.02%. Space Tech would be $827 million, an increase of 20%. Aeronautics would get $790 million, an increase of 23.4%. NASA Space Grant would receive $24 million.

NIST provided funding to expand the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI) institutes by providing $42 million to launch two new institutes in 2017 and continue operations of the first Commerce led institute. The Budget also proposes an additional $1.9 billion in mandatory funding for an additional 27 institutes, completing the President’s vision for a network of 45 institutes over the next ten years.

NOAA

NOAA OAR would get $519.7 million, which would be an increase of 12.4%. NOAA Climate Research was allocated $159.1 million.
$12 million increase for investments in finding solutions to the challenge of ocean acidification. NOAA’s ocean acidification program
NOAA SeaGrant would get $68.9 million, which is $4 million below FY 2016.

The Department of Education received $69.4 billion in FY2017 for discretionary spending, an increase of roughly $1 billion from FY2016. An initial pass at the budget includes big wins for ESSA programs and supports including preschool and Head Start ($9.6 billion for Head Start, an increase of $434 million).

ED and the Administration announced previously that it was creating an enforcement unit within the Office of Federal Student Aid to respond to allegations, and the budget request includes $13.6 million specifically for FSA enforcement and oversight activities.

Pell: The Budget would see the maximum grant award for students boosted by $20, from $5,915 to $5,935, the administration is proposing an additional $2 billion for changes to encourage students to complete their degrees
FAFSA Changes: The Budget proposes to eliminate up to 30 burdensome and unnecessarily complex questions, shortening the FAFSA application substantially, and making it easier for students and families to access critical resources to pay for college.
Tax Changes: The Budget would streamline and expand education tax benefits by: 1) consolidating the Lifetime Learning Credit into an expanded AOTC; 2) exempting Pell Grants from taxation and the AOTC calculation; and 3) eliminating tax on student loan debt forgiveness, while repealing the complicated student loan interest deduction for new borrowers.

What We’re Reading This Week, February 1-5

Posted on February 5, 2016February 10, 2016

Here’s a selection of articles the Federal Relations team is enjoying this week.

Border Wars – Though, state institutions were founded to serve the people of their states, but in a bid to maximize tuition revenue as state support for higher education drops, they are enrolling record numbers of students from elsewhere. Read more in The Washington Post.

Computer Literate – The President has announced that he is seeking $4 billion to help states expand in an area he views as critical to young people’s success in a changing job market. Read more in The New York Times.

Hit It With Your Best Shot – In the State of the Union, Vice President Biden was charged with a moon shot-like goal of curing cancer. The Vice President explains what that will mean in Medium.

Placebo Effect – Is this cancer taskforce set up for success or is it one more presidential taskforce from an Administration that already has many of them (as have many other administrations). Read more in The Hill.

Boot Straps – Rep. Kyrsten Sinema’s journey from sleeping in a vacant service station to holding a Ph.D., law license and office on Capitol Hill has become a staple of the fast-rising Arizona Democrat’s biography. And she’s telling it to anyone who will listen as she works to fortify her hold on a key swing House district that could pave her way to the Senate. Read more in The Arizona Republic.

1,000,000 Mile Club – Congress is doing less work than in previous decades, and now we can break it down with statistics. Moreover, Their absence from the capital reinforces the effects of a deepening partisan divide in recent years that has led to high-profile deadlocks over legislation previously seen as routine, according to some former lawmakers and political analysts. Under pressure to spend more time in their home constituencies, often fund-raising for campaigns, members have less time to attend debates and mingle with other lawmakers….In 2015, the first year of a two-year Congress, the House of Representatives put in 130 working days, the Reuters review found. Compared with the first years of recent Congresses, that number has declined steadily since 2007, when the House worked 153 days — the high since 1998. Read more in Reuters.

What We’re Reading This Week, January 25-29

Posted on January 28, 2016

As DC digs out under several feet of snow, here’s a selection of articles the federal relations team has been enjoying.

Importing Bias – Researchers at Baylor University set out to determine whether stereotypes of these minority groups are commonly believed by white freshmen and found their suspicions confirmed. Read more in The Atlantic.

Waiving to Title IX – The government t would create a searchable database that reveals the names of colleges and universities that have received exemptions on religious grounds from federal civil rights protections. Read more in The New York Times.

Big Bully? – An op-ed questions whether the Department of Ed is using Title IX to exceed its legal authority and to bully universities. Read the Op-ed in The Wall Street Journal.

Moody’s Mood on Higher Ed – Several new ratings reports from Moody’s Investor Service were released this week as a glance into the state of higher education, including law schools are suffering and colleges need to diversify. Read more in The Washington Post.

Challenger – Thirty years ago, on January 28, 1986, the US space shuttle Challenger exploded mid-flight. The launch was seen across the country in schools as NASA promoted the flight included New Hampshire teacher, Christa McAuliffe, who applied and was selected to be the first teacher in space. That same day President Reagan was scheduled to give the annual State of the Union Address. That was postponed, and instead, he gave a speech a short speech, written by then unknown Peggy Noonan, to help the nation, and particularly school children, begin to mourn the tragedy. Read more in The Washington Post.

Not Exactly Jessie Owens – Scientist recently discovered a rare set of tyrannosaur footprints, which is giving researchers insight into the walking speed of the prehistoric beasts. According to the new estimate, Tyrannosaurus rex may have ambled as quickly as 8 kilometers per hour (5 miles per hour), slower than a plodding amateur marathon runner or even a middle-aged power walker. Read more in Science.

You Scream, I Scream, Bernie Gets An Ice Cream – Ben and Jerry’s, the gourmet ice cream maker based in Vermont, created a new flavor for New Hampshire Senator Bernie Sander called, “Bernie’s Yearning”. It’s tag line is “Nothing is so unstoppable as a flavor who’s time has come.” Read more in The Hill.

Endowments Fall 2.4%

Posted on January 27, 2016

Colleges saw significantly lower returns on their endowments in the 2015 fiscal year. The annual NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments found that 812 colleges returned an average of just 2.4 percent after fees, down from 15.5 percent in 2014 and the lowest return since the -0.3 percent reported for 2012. The long-term return was well below the median 7.5 percent most endowments report they need to earn to maintain purchasing power after spending, inflation and investment management costs, the report notes. Yet 78 percent of participating institutions spent more from their endowments this year, with a median increase of “a substantial 8.8 percent, well above inflation.”

Here is Inside Higher Ed’s take.

Here is the study.