With 4-10 inches forecast, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) held a hearing on opportunities in the Arctic today despite the federal government being shut down due to snow in the District of Columbia. UW professor Cecilia Bitz testified before the Alaskan Senator, who is also Chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, on the topic. Professor Bitz was invited to testify by Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-WA).
News and updates
DHS Funding Passes House
Today, the House passed the FY2015 appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In what has been a protracted standoff between the House, the Senate and the Administration, the House passed a clean bill, meaning it was free of any policy riders on immigration that the House GOP had previously attached to similar measures.
This ends a three month standoff between Congress and the Administration on the President’s recent executive order to shield approximately 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation. In December, Congressional Republicans decided to pass all the FY15 appropriations bills, but for the DHS bill, in an effort to curb the President’s administrative actions, which the House GOP considers unconstitutional. The Department has been funded under a continuing resolution that expired at the end of February.
In January, the House had passed the DHS bill with restrictive funding language essentially curtailing what the Republican’s considered the Administration’s ability to follow through on the executive order. The DHS bill with the policy riders became impossible to pass through the Senate, as Senate Democrats remained unified against the riders and refused to pass anything but a stand alone bill.
Late last week, the House and Senate had to scramble to pass a short-term, one-week extension on DHS funding. Earlier in the week, the Senate passed a clean bill, which was sent to the House for consideration today.
The measure passed 257-167, with 182 Democrats and 75 Republicans voting to beat a Friday midnight deadline for DHS funding to expire. Voting against the measure were 167 Republicans, many in protest to the lack of language to block Obama’s immigration policies.
The bill now heads to the President for his signature.
ED Accepting Applications for Fulbright-Hays
The 2015 grant competition for the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Grant Program (DDRA) has begun! DDRA provides grants to colleges and universities to fund individual doctoral students who conduct research in other countries, in modern foreign languages and area studies for periods of six to 12 months.
Who may apply:
- Institutions of Higher Education
- Graduate students in doctoral programs in the fields of foreign languages and area studies must apply through the institutions in which they are enrolled.
A student is eligible to receive a fellowship if s/he:
- Is a citizen or national of the United States or is a permanent resident of the United States;
- Is a graduate student in good standing at an institution of higher education in the United States who, when the fellowship begins, is admitted to candidacy in a doctoral program in modern foreign languages and area studies at that institution;
- Is planning a teaching career in the United States upon graduation; and
- Possesses adequate skills in the language(s) necessary to carry out the dissertation project.
For more information and to apply please go to the Office of Postsecondary Education’s website: http://www2.ed.gov/programs/iegpsddrap/applicant.html
What We’re Reading This Week, February 23-27
Here’s a selection of articles we have been reading this week.
Gone – The Washington Post goes over what exactly will happen if Congress does not pass funding for the Department of Homeland Security. Read more here.
Pick Me!! – An article on why universities vie for Presidential Libraries. Read more at The Washington Post.
Perfect Storm – An article about the tough roads ahead for the higher education community in general including, potentally, shutting down. Read more at Time.
Dried Up – An article about universities concerns about the lack of champions for federal research funding. Read more at The Washington Post.
Once, When It Worked – A long form story about when Congress (both House and Senate) came together and worked to solve a national problem (of their own making) and avert a government shutdown. Read more at Politico.
Two Things We Learned this Week
1. Republicans are on a collision course over DoD spending: The long-brewing squabble between GOP defense hawks and fiscal hawks over defense spending is coming to a head, with the House Budget Committee planning to move a budget resolution that sets base defense spending next fiscal year $35 billion below what the Pentagon requested. But the defense hawks are lobbying furiously to avoid that outcome, and Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain (R-AZ) is even vowing to personally oppose a budget resolution that doesn’t increase military spending above what’s allowed under the Budget Control Act of 2011. Sequester? What sequester?
And on the House side, Armed Services Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-TX) is asking the House Budget Committee to boost defense spending, which would bust the BCA caps by more than $50 billion. In a letter he plans to send to the Budget panel today, Thornberry will seek $577 billion in defense spending for the House’s budget resolution and argue that “the lowest acceptable level is $566 billion, the amount identified for 2016 in last year’s House budget,” the aide said.
Thornberry’s request of $577 billion is the amount that was projected for the Pentagon in FY2016 before the 2011 Budget Control Act was approved and sequestration took effect. It’s higher than President Barack Obama’s FY2016 request of $561 billion, which includes base Pentagon funding as well as other spending considered part of the “national security” budget. The GOP aide said that Thornberry’s letter is signed by 31 of the 36 Republicans on the Armed Services panel.
2. Government shutdowns are still a thing: Shortly after the November midterm elections that gave Republicans control of the Senate, then-incoming Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, “We will not be shutting the government down.” Now here we are, just three months later – with the Department of Homeland Security set to run out of funds at midnight. And House and Senate leaders remain at an impasse over whether to pass a “clean” DHS spending bill or continue pushing to tie DHS funding to the president’s executive order on immigration.
House leaders are now looking at staving off a shutdown by passing a three-week continuing spending resolution for DHS. Read more here.
Source: Politico