The University of Washington has published our 2021 Federal Agenda outlining our top priorities for the coming year. Our agenda reflects a commitment to service, excellence, and innovation, taking into account the unique challenges of the past year.
We are proud of our longstanding partnership with the federal government and look forward to further collaboration in 2021.
With the Reform and Oversight Committee wrapping up its markup late Friday, the nine committees scheduled to act on pieces of the larger budget reconciliation measure concluded their work, sending the individual components to the Budget Committee for the next step in the process, which is to craft a much more comprehensive $1.9-trillion package.
The following committees marked up measures under jurisdiction: Agriculture, Education and Labor, Energy and Commerce, Financial Services, Oversight and Reform, Small Business, Transportation and Infrastructure, Veterans’ Affairs, and Ways and Means. Among the committees which received reconciliation instructions but did not hold a markup was the House Science Committee.
The vast majority of House committees with reconciliation instructions continue to march towards completing that process.
The following committees have completed their bills, as of Friday morning: Education and Labor, Ways and Means, Financial Services, Transportation and Infrastructure, Small Business, Agriculture, and Veterans Affairs.
The Energy and Commerce Committee is scheduled to reconvene today to complete consideration of its bill while the Oversight Committee is also scheduled to meet today.
The Science, Foreign Affairs, and Natural Resources Committees are not scheduled to hold markups for their instructions.
Our colleagues at the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities have produced an initial analysis of the provisions of interest to the public research university community, which is available here.
The House Education and Labor Committee approved this morning its portion of the larger COVID relief package by a vote of 27 to 21, making it the first committee of many to move on the budget reconciliation process. Among other provisions, the bill (a section-by-section summary is available here) includes $39.6 billion for higher education. A number of other House committees are scheduled to markup their bills today: Ways and Means, Transportation and Infrastructure, Financial Services, and Agriculture (the text of the bill it is marking up is available here).
With both chambers of Congress having approved last week the processes by which the Biden Administration COVID relief package will move, House committees with jurisdiction over different pieces of the legislation will begin to craft their portions starting Tuesday.
The House Education and Labor Committee is scheduled to move first tomorrow with its bill. The committee staff has produced a summary of the legislation.
The Democrats’ proposal would provide $39.6 billion for higher education; 91 percent of the funds would be allocated to institutions based on the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund formula. Institutions would have to spend at least 50 percent of the funds it receives on student grants but they would have the flexibility on determining which students receive aid.
In addition, the legislation would provide $100 million for Institute for Education Science to conduct research on learning loss as well as $135 million each to the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Following the Education and Labor Committee’s markup tomorrow, a slew of other House committees are scheduled to follow suit throughout the rest of this week and next week.
Please continue to check back for additional updates on the relief package.