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.
Read more here.
The document lists virtually all programs and competitions under which the Department of Education has invited or expects to invite applications for new awards and provides actual or estimated deadline dates for the transmittal of applications under these programs. The lists are in the form of charts — organized according to the Department’s principal program offices — and include programs and competitions they have previously announced, as well as those they plan to announce at a later date.
Note: This document is advisory only and is not an official application notice of the Department of Education. The Department expects to provide updates to this document starting in the first week of November in a fiscal year and continuing through the following July.
Calendar: The House is preparing to begin its Fourth of July holiday recess today and is slated to return July 5, while the Senate remains in session throughout next week before their scheduled recess during the week of July 4th.
Deficit Negotiations Stalled: Attempts by Congress and the White House to broker a budget deal that would allow for raising the debt ceiling stalled Thursday as two key Republican negotiators walked away from the table, blaming the impasse on Democratic demands for tax increases. Debt reduction talks now move up to the highest levels, between President Obama and House Speaker Boehner, as had been expected to occur eventually. In a press conference yesterday morning, Boehner said that to reach an agreement by the end of this month “the president is going to have to engage,” while also adding that “tax hikes are off the table.” Boehner also reiterated that House Republicans would not agree to raise the debt limit “without serious spending cuts and reforms to the way we spend the American people’s money.”
House Science Committee Examines NOAA’s Climate Service: On Thursday this week, the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology held a hearing to review the Administration’s FY12 budget request proposal to reorganize the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to create a Climate Service. NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco was taken to task by the committee chair for her agency’s slow response to committee member’s questions over the past several months. Read more at the House Science Committee web page.
Defense Appropriations Moves Forward: On Thursday, the House began work on its FY12 Defense appropriations bill. Numerous objections were raised by the White House regarding funding levels for various activities, citing insufficient funding for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for high-priority science and technology programs, acquisitions of certain satellites and classified programs, and for the Air Force’s Rockey Systems Launch Program. Additionally, the White House objects to language in the bill that would limit the use of funds to transfer detainees held at the US Naval base in Guantanamo Bay. Floor debate on this bill will resume when the House returns from recess.
Patent Overhaul Approved in House: The House passed a broad overhaul of the US patent system Thursday, after overcoming opposition to changes in provisions related to patent office fees. But the changes will make it harder for the House and Senate to agree on a final compromise on the legislation. The bill would reform how the US Patent and Trademark Office is funded and how it regulates inventions. Despite the ultimate 304-117 victory in the House, the bill has a dim future in the Senate where a handful of Senators have already expressed their opposition to the bill.
FY11 Funding for University Link: The Federal Transit Administration has announced its FY11 New Starts and Small Starts funding. The agency is doling out money to eight existing full funding grant agreements, four full funding grant agreement projects listed as pending, six projects recommended for future full funding grant agreements, and nine Small Starts recommended for funding. Sound Transit’s University Link LRT Extension will receive $110,000,000 as expected.
FY12 Appropriations
Senate appropriators have been holding off on their FY12 bills, waiting for an agreement on overall discretionary spending to be reached through the ongoing bipartisan debt reduction talks. But because the end of the current fiscal year is just over three months away, they indicated yesterday that the Senate would move forward with their process despite not having a top-line discretionary number. The Senate Appropriations Committee will reveal their first FY12 spending bill next week. The first bill to be considered will be the Military Construction-VA bill. The House version of that bill passed the House on June 14, and the Senate subcommittee has indicated that they will follow the House’s lead and produce a similar bill. The House bill boosts funding for VA programs and benefits, while reducing military construction spending because of a lower need for base-closing funds. Overall discretionary spending is reduced by just $615 million. The Senate subcommittee markup is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, June 28th.
In addition to the Military-VA bill, the House has passed two other bills — Homeland Security and Agriculture. On Thursday, the House is set to begin debate on its FY12 Defense bill. Defense is the only House bill slated to get a spending boost over current levels, and might be a likely candidate for quick Senate consideration.
Debt Limit
The bipartisan debt reduction group being led by Vice President Biden meets again today, as leaders in both chambers yesterday said every effort should be made to reach a long-term deal and avoid a short-term increase in the debt limit as Senate Minority Leader McConnell (R-KY) suggested. McConnell believes that a short-term increase in the debt limit might be necessary if a major debt reduction deal involving entitlements cannot be reached before the August 2nd deadline for raising the debt limit.
Reaching a majority in the House for any increase in the debt limit will be a challenge, which may have factored into McConnell’s contingency planning for a short-term measure as a backup. A number of House GOP freshmen promised they would never vote to increase the debt limit, while many others, along with GOP conservatives, want fundamental changes to dramatically cut the size of government. Negotiators may know by the end of the week whether a deal is possible. Central to that effort is resolving questions regarding revenues and entitlements, with debate over entitlements focused on whether there should be fundamental changes to Medicare and Medicaid as proposed by House Republicans, or whether billions could be saved through various adjustments to the programs, such as raising Medicare co-payments or deductibles.
The House this week passed the Military Construction-VA and the Agriculture Appropriations bills. While Military Construction-VA passed with little difficulty, the Agriculture bill passed with all Democrats and 19 Republicans opposing the measure. Many democrats have spoken out against the Agriculture bill because they are concerned that it contans deep cuts to programs that are vital to low income citizens.
Also this week, the House Appropriations Committee marked up and passed the Energy & Water and Defense Spending Bills. Energy and Water was approved by a vote of 26 to 20 and the latest markup contained no significant changes to accounts of particular interest to research universities. The Defense Appropriations bill also passed with increased funding for Defense 6.1 Basic Research above both the FY11 level and the Administration’s FY12 request. Amounts for programs relevant to the higher ed community are as follows:
“…DARPA’s mission is to maintain the technological superiority of the U.S. military and prevent technological surprise from harming our national security by sponsoring revolutionary, high-payoff research bridging the gap between fundamental discoveries and their military use…Corporate strategies have greatly improved the efficiency of DARPA’s financial execution and ability to obligate funds. The Committee has determined that these efficiencies will result in cost reductions of $100,000,000 in fiscal year 2012. Therefore, the Director of DARPA shall provide to the congressional defense committees, not later than 60 days after enactment of this Act, a report detailing by program element and project the application of each detailed reduction.”
The Senate Appropriations Committee has held a handful of hearings, but otherwise their spending bills remain stagnant.