The House and Senate are adjourned for Memorial Day Recess and will reconvene next week. It is expected that the various House Appropriations subcommittee will begin markups of FY10 spending bills when the chambers recovene. House leaders want to pass all 12 fiscal 2010 appropriations bills before the start of the August recess, leaving eight weeks of session to complete their work. Senate leaders also seek to move appropriations bills to conclusion by the August recess. However, if recent history is a guide, Senate consideration of FY10 appropriations bills will spill into the fall. In addition to FY10 appropriations, Congressional leaders also want to pass an overhaul of the health care insurance system overhaul, student aid reform, and climate change legislation by year’s end.
News and updates
NSF to Move to Fastlane Only
NSF Dear Colleague Letter
Dear Colleagues:
Due to an expected increase in Grants.gov submissions relating to the processing of Recovery Act proposals, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has authorized agencies to use alternative methods for proposal submission and acceptance. As you know, NSF is able to accept directly its full complement of proposals, both regular submissions and those additional proposals anticipated under the Recovery Act, using our long-established FastLane capabilities for proposal submission and acceptance. Therefore, in order to assist Grants.gov in the effort to alleviate system strain and increase system capacity, proposers will now be required to prepare and submit proposals to NSF through use of the NSF FastLane system.
Effective immediately, new funding opportunities issued by NSF will exclusively require the use of FastLane to prepare and submit proposals. In addition, NSF plans to revise existing funding opportunity documents to reflect this change and to remove all active application packages from Grants.gov APPLY. NSF will continue to post information about available funding opportunities to Grants.gov FIND.
Detailed instructions regarding the technical aspects of proposal preparation and submission via FastLane are available at: http://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/.
If you have any questions regarding this change, please contact the Policy Office on 703.292.8243 or by e-mail to policy@nsf.gov.
Best,
Jean Feldman
Head, Policy Office
Division of Institution & Award Support
Office of Budget, Finance & Award Management
The Week on Capitol Hill — May 25-29
Congress is on Memorial Day recess until Monday, June 1st.
Department of Energy Office of Science Presentation on FY10 Budget Request
The Acting Director of the Office of Science in the Department of Energy has released a PowerPoint presentation on the FY10 Budget Request. The overview provides a good explanation of new iniatives such as the Energy Innovation Hubs, and ARPA-E.
PowerPoint Presentation on FY10 Budget Request for the Department of Energy Office of Science
APLU Releases Overview of Patent Reform Legislation
Memorandum
To: Association constituents
From: Robert M. Berdahl, President, Association of American Universities
Molly Corbett Broad, President, American Council on Education
Darrell G. Kirch, President and CEO, Association of American Medical Colleges
Peter McPherson, President, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities
Arundeep S. Pradhan, President, Association of University Technology Managers
Anthony P. DeCrappeo, President, Council on Governmental Relations
Subject: S. 515, the Patent Reform Act of 2009
We write to inform you about S. 515, the Patent Reform Act of 2009, and our associations’ engagement in the Congressional patent reform process begun four years ago. S. 515 modifies U.S. patent law in ways that strengthen the system’s ability to promote innovation. Earlier versions of patent reform legislation, while containing many beneficial changes, also included several provisions of concern for universities. S. 515 effectively addresses the concerns our associations have raised. Continue reading “APLU Releases Overview of Patent Reform Legislation”