NSF & USAID Launch PEER

Posted on July 11, 2011October 17, 2012

The National Science Foundation(NSF) and the United States Agency for International Development(USAID) launched a new collaborative program called PEER (Partnership for Enhanced Engagement and Research) last week. PEER is a new international, interagency joint initiative which will address environmental challenges that affect both the United States and the developing world by reinforcing existing relationships and creating new connections. It will unite NSF’s competitively-awarded scientific investments in U.S. institutions with similarly awarded USAID funding to solve global challenges.

More information can be found here.

Week in Review

Posted on July 8, 2011October 17, 2012

New Staff Member in the Office of Federal Relations: On Tuesday, Sarah Martin Castro joined the OFR team in our Washington, DC office as our new Associate Director. Sarah comes to us after several years as the government relations officer for the University of Missouri System. She has also worked on Capitol Hill for a House member of the Missouri federal delegation and at a public relations firm here in DC. Sarah replaces Jonathan Nurse who left in early March to work for the American Association of Dental Research. Sarah can be reached at smcastro@uw.edu or 202-624-1426.

Debt Decision Time: President Obama and Congressional leaders will meet over the weekend, when it is expected they will know whether a major deficit reduction deal is possible. All parties want an agreement on deficit reduction as soon as possible to provide sufficient time for Congress to draft, debate, and pass the legislation to increase the nation’s $14.3 trillion borrowing limit before the August 2^nd date, which is when the Treasury says it will no longer have enough money to pay all its debts and obligations. The President is pushing for a large deficit reduction deal totaling about $4 trillion over the next decade, although three different proposals have been discussed: a “small” $2 trillion plan, a $3 trillion alternative, and the larger plan to cut deficits by more than $4 trillion. The size of any eventual deal likely rests on the willingness of Republican leaders to agree to revenue increases to reduce the deficit. A larger package might also include more significant changes to Medicare and Social Security. Democrats are worried about the possible cuts to entitlement programs and have vowed to oppose any debt reduction deal that cuts them dramatically. We’ll all know more by Sunday.

Proposed Cuts to Graduate Medical Education Funding: Major reductions in GME support for teaching hospitals and physician training remain under careful consideration among high-level negotiators as part of the debt negotiations. President Obama has suggested that GME cuts are “on the table” and may be considered to reach agreement with Republican leaders. UW School of Medicine has weighed in with congressional members throughout the WWAMI region on how these potential cuts will impact our ability to train primary care and family medicine physicians. Next week, UWSOM Dean Paul Ramsey will meet with Members on Capitol Hill to urge them to reject GME cuts.

FY12 Appropriations Update: This week, House appropriators released draft spending bills for Interior-Environment, Commerce-Justice-Science, and Legislative Branch. The FY12 Energy-Water and Financial Services bills have already been voted out of committee and are awaiting floor action. FY12 bills funding Defense, Agriculture, Military-VA, and Homeland Security already passed the House and were sent to the Senate for action. House leaders hope to approve these nine of the 12 annual measures before the House leaves for August recess. That leaves the three most controversial bills – Transportation-Housing, Labor-HHS-Education, and State-Foreign Operations – waiting until September for action. The Senate, meanwhile, is moving much more slowly on their FY12 bills. So far, they have only released their FY12 Military-VA bill.

Proposed Cuts to the NSF Construction Fund: Congressman Norm Dicks (D-WA) fights back against proposed cuts to the NSF MREFC account that could affect the Ocean Observing Initiative (OOI). Read more.

House Panel Proposes Cuts to NEH Budget: Yesterday, a House appropriations subcommittee approved legislation that would provide $20 million less to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in FY12 than the agency is receiving this year. The measure would allocate $135 million to the NEH, which would represent a reduction of 13 percent. In an e-mail alert Thursday urging advocates for the humanities to oppose the measure, the National Humanities Alliance said that “these disproportionate cuts would compromise the agency’s ability to fulfill its mission.” The National Endowment for the Arts would also receive $135 million under the subcommittee’s bill, which the full Appropriations Committee is expected to take up next Tuesday.

UW Joins Colleagues to Support ARPA-E Funding: The UW signed on to a Community Letter to the House in Support of FY12 Funding for the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA‐E) Program. We support funding for FY12 at a level equal to at least the FY11 level of $180 million.

Patent Reform Bill Stalled in Senate: The Senate has been unable to quickly vote on the House-passed version of Patent Reform, and it now looks increasingly likely that votes will have to be allowed on a couple of controversial amendments to the bill, which could cause further problems. One amendment which has already proven to be an obstacle is the issue of patent office funding. While the House version of the bill included language that directed revenue to be continued to be handled through the appropriations process, a larger group of Senators continue to push for allowing USPTO to keep all of the revenue it generates from fees. It is expected that the House would refuse any alteration made to the fee structure by the Senate. Also holding up the process is the refusal by many in both chambers to discuss any other issues until the debt ceiling debate is resolved.

House Recess in Jeopardy: The House will skip its next legislative break and stay in session the week of July 18^th in order to continue working on a debt limit deal. The next planned recess begins August 6^th, after the Treasury Department’s deadline to raise the debt ceiling, when lawmakers will break until after Labor Day.

New Effort for Research on Global Development: NSF and the Agency for International Development (USAID) on Thursday announced a new effort to promote research on global development. Projects will be selected through peer review, and the National Academy of Sciences will administer the program. Learn more.

National Science Board Seeking Nominations: The NSB is seeking nominees for candidates to serve on the NSB for the years 2012-2018. All nominations will be given full consideration; the President nominates candidates who must be confirmed by the US Senate to serve on the Board. Nominations are open through August 12, 2011. The NSB is the 25-member policymaking body for NSF and advisory body to the President and Congress on science and engineering issues. Drawn from industry and universities, and representing a variety of science and engineering disciplines and geographic areas, NSB members are selected for their eminence in research, education, or public service, and records of distinguished service. NSB members are appointed for six-year terms. The NSF director is an ex officio member of the NSB. There is more information about the National Science Board and the nomination process online.

Draft Criteria for NSF Proposals

Posted on July 7, 2011October 17, 2012

Last week the National Science Board (NSB) issued new draft criteria for the peer review of proposals submitted to the National Science Foundation (NSF). The two “merit review” criteria of the last 14 years – intellectual merit and broader impact – remain, but they are now framed by a preamble that offers a set of principles that relate the criteria to a set of national goals. The proposed changes are significant and should draw the attention of both the scientific and policy communities: balancing the competing demands of autonomy and accountability.

Progress This Week

Posted on June 30, 2011October 17, 2012

Congressional Schedule: The House is in recess this week and the Senate is scheduled for recess next week (week of July 4^th). The House has another recess scheduled for the week of July 18^th, and both chambers have recess scheduled for the month on August (August 8^th through September 6^th).

Debt Negotiations Continue: Yesterday, President Obama used a White House news conference to urge lawmakers to “do their job” and make the “tough choices” needed to get the nation’s fiscal house in order as the August 2^nd deadline for raising the debt ceiling approaches. He said those choices might include a Medicare overhaul, cuts in defense spending, and increasing taxes. Calling the early August date a “hard deadline,” Obama said lawmakers should scrap any recesses until they hammer out a budget deal. The House has been in recess this week and has another recess schedule for the week of July 18^th. The Senate is scheduled to be in recess next week.

Appropriations Update: The Senate Appropriations Committee will hold its first markup of FY12 spending legislation today, starting with the least controversial of the 12 annual bills — the measure funding veterans’ programs and military construction. The House passed its FY12 Military Construction-VA bill on June 14^th. Additionally, the House has already approved FY12 bills for Agriculture and Homeland Security, and the Defense and Financial Services bills have been approved by committee and are ready for floor action.

Pell Grant Program Vulnerable: Amid a political climate in congress where virtually every corner of federal spending is in jeopardy, the Administration says it wants to protect Pell grants for low-income college students. But the quasi-entitlement program faces a huge funding shortfall for FY12 and has become a tempting target for Republican budget hawks, who say that it is a prime example of overspending and “promises we can’t keep.” Those close to talks on a debt reduction deal are saying little about which programs are likely to be on the chopping block, but education experts say the large increases required to sustain the Pell grant program make it particularly vulnerable.

The Pell grant program is one of the federal government’s largest education initiatives, and has been one of President’s top priorities. The program faces a shortfall each year because it is partially funded through discretionary spending, not just mandatory dollars that would sustain it automatically. With the economic difficulties of the past few years, more people are qualifying for the grant and more people are going back to school to earn degrees, leaving the program strapped for cash. Program costs have more than doubled since 2008, from $16 billion to an estimated $35 billion in FY12. In order to maintain the current $5,550 maximum award, lawmakers must make up for an estimated $11 billion shortfall. Lawmakers in both parties are looking at proposals to restructure the Pell grant program to reduce costs, but those decisions are unlikely to be made until after the White House and congressional leaders negotiate a deficit reduction plan.

Bipartisan Support for Tax Reform: Leaders of the Senate Finance Committee sounded a rare bipartisan note Wednesday on a tax issue. They called for scrapping the current code and replacing it with a far simpler one that would help increase federal revenue. Lawmakers said making it easier for individuals and businesses to pay taxes would go a long way toward closing the $300 billion gap between taxes actually owed and those that are paid. The remarks came at the latest in a series of Senate Finance hearings on rewriting the tax code.

Congressional Pay Freeze: Lawmakers in both the House and Senate have introduced nearly 20 pieces of legislation this year to try and slash or freeze their own paychecks for 2013. Attacks on their six-figure salaries have become increasingly popular in recent years, as members face the wrath of constituents dissatisfied with the state of the economy and often plagued by personal financial challenges themselves. With heated discussions under way on whether to raise the debt ceiling by August 2^nd, several lawmakers have introduced bills that would nix any congressional increase in pay for every year that the government runs a deficit. The last pay increase members received was in 2009, when they got a 2.8 percent raise. The House and Senate have frozen their salaries for 2011 and 2012 at $174,000. But pay raises for 2013 are still in order. Members of Congress, under current law, automatically receive a cost-of-living pay adjustment each year unless they vote against it, as they’ve done each year since 2010.

Immigration Reform Legislation Begins to Emerge: On June 22 Senator Menendez (D-NJ) reintroduced the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2011 (S 1258). As in past years, his legislation focuses primarily on issues such as border security and guest worker visas, but it also includes language that would exempt individuals with an “advanced degree” in a science, math, or engineering field from visa caps. Meanwhile, on June 14 Congresswoman Lofgren (D-CA) introduced the Immigration Driving Entrepreneurship in America (IDEA) Act of 2011 (HR 2161), which would ease green-card applications for non-immigrants with advanced STEM degrees, but would also protect fair wages. The primary legislative driver, however, for comprehensive immigration reform in the Congress is the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act of 2011, also known as the DREAM Act of 2011, which does not address foreign nationals studying in a STEM field. The DREAM Act has been reintroduced in both the House (HR 1842) and the Senate (S 952).

DOE Offers $120 Million to Support Innovative Manufacturing Processes: As part the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership launched June 24^th by President Obama, the Department of Energy is offering an investment of up to $120 million over three years to develop transformational manufacturing technologies and innovative materials. The Advanced Manufacturing Partnership is a national effort bringing together industry, universities, and the federal government to invest in emerging technologies that will create high-quality manufacturing jobs and enhance US competitiveness. For more information, see the funding opportunity announcement and the DOE press release.

Navy Increases Support for STEM Education: Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced the Navy’s commitment to improve science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. The Navy will increase funding for STEM education initiatives from $54 million in 2010 to over $100 million by 2015. The Navy views this as an investment in its future workforce.

Sustainable Communities Grant Announcement

Posted on June 24, 2011October 17, 2012

US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced the availability of up to $175 million in livability grants to help urban, suburban and rural communities develop transit options to better connect people to where they live, work and play. Local transit agencies will be able to compete for livability dollars from the pool of up to $175 million. The competitive grant program will begin accepting applications when announced in the Federal Register during the week of June 20.