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Posted by Christy Gullion on February 26, 2009 at 3:21 pm 

Today, President Obama released a budget outline for fiscal year 2010. The full request will likely be presented to Congress in late April. The President’s Budget Request (PBR) will feature signficant increases in student aid including a boost to the Pell grant (increasing the student maximum to $5,500 for the 2010-11 academic year) and indexing the program to the CPI plus 1% in order to provide for ongoing increases. The proposal phases out the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program, through which the government subsidizes and guarantees loans made by private lending institutions. As an alternative, the government will provide all loans through the direct lending program. Elimination of the FFEL program is likely to face some pushback in Congress, as some lawmakers do not like the idea of the government increasing its role in the student loan business. The budget outline calls for a $500 million/year fund to provide grants to states to improve college graduation rates for low-income students. The budget would also make the $2,500 American Opportunity Tax Credit (provided in the Recovery Act of 2009) permanent. Read more

Posted by Christy Gullion on February 25, 2009 at 2:13 pm 

Today on Capitol Hill, the House of Representatives approved a $410 billion omnibus spending bill for the remainder of fiscal year ‘09.  It was not without some controversy, with Republican leaders urging President Obama to veto the bill. House Members voted 245-178 for the package, which includes significant increases in spending on a range of domestic programs, including education, health care, and energy.  Additionally, the bill contains funding for a handful of UW-specific projects, including:

$469,000 for the Center for International Trade in Forest Products or CINTRAFOR (College of Forestry)

The USDA Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) account within the Department of Agriculture supports CINTRAFOR at UW and the International Marketing Program for Agricultural Commodities and Trade (IMPPACT) program at Washington State University.  The funds will be split between the two universities.

$475,750 for Biofuels Research and Development Infrastructure (College of Forestry)

This funding will likely support the purchase of a major piece of equipment necessary to convert biomass into fuel.

$333,000 for the UW Bothell Nursing Faculty Consortium

This funding was requested to continue the UW’s efforts to increase the number of master’s prepared nursing faculty available to teach in Washington’s community and technical colleges.

The bill, which now goes to the Senate, also prevents a cost-of-living increase for Members of Congress.  The Senate will begin debate on the bill this week but it is not likely that they will vote until sometime next week.  President Obama is expected to sign the bill.

Posted by Christy Gullion on February 25, 2009 at 6:17 am 

Last night, President Barack Obama addressed a joint session of Congress to give a preview of his first budget request. While it was short on actual numbers, the President did pledge to seek cuts in certain defense, farm, and education programs and root out waste in government spending. He further said that his administration has already identified nearly $2 trillion dollars in savings over the next decade through cuts to programs that they consider wasteful and ineffective. Obama is expected to release an outline of his first budget request on Thursday.  We expect that this will provide broad budget numbers at the agency level but not a lot of detail for individual programs. It will, however, provide us with a glimpse of how the administration will begin to increase – or decrease – funding for certain programs. The Office of Federal Relations will look for those items that might affect the UW, including those affecting education and research programs.

Posted by Jonathan Nurse on February 24, 2009 at 2:44 pm 

The $410 billion omnibus appropriations bill may pass the House of Representatives as early as this Wednesday and in the following few days in the Senate. The higher education community was successful in its advocacy for increases in some agencies and programs of critical importance. Additionally, UW was successful in securing support for congressionally directed appropriations for high priority campus projects in the FY09 cycle. The government is faced with a March 6th deadline to complete work on the omnibus, as the continuing resolution — that is currently funding the government at FY2008 levels — expires at that point. Read more

Posted by Jonathan Nurse on February 23, 2009 at 2:58 pm 

Mary Wakefield, Director of the Center for Rural Health at the University of North Dakota, has been selected by President Obama to head the Health Resources and Services Administration. HRSA is the primary federal agency for improving access to health care services for people who are uninsured, isolated or medically vulnerable. The agency will administer $2.5 billion allocated in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for health care infrastructure and to train health care professionals.

Posted by Christy Gullion on February 23, 2009 at 2:30 pm 

The Pacific Northwest may see one of it’s own join the Obama Administration.  The media is reporting this afternoon that former Governor Gary Locke is being vetted for the position of Commerce Secretary.  This would be good news for the UW and the region!  Stay tuned for more.

Full Seattle Times article

Posted by Jonathan Nurse on February 23, 2009 at 12:06 pm 

Several federal agencies are working quickly to develop spending plans for funds provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Last week, NIH provided a sketch of its planned use of $10.4 billion in Recovery Act spending (details provided under the Federal Agency Developments link). Additionally, Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced a reorganization of the Department of Energy that will lead to expedited disbursement of agency funding. The Department of Education and National Science Foundations are expected to release their spending plans in the coming days -possibly this week. The Department of Education has prepared a website with initial information on its portion of Recovery Act funding.

Posted by Jonathan Nurse on February 23, 2009 at 11:41 am 

The House and Senate will likely advance the remaining 9 fiscal year 2009 spending bills this week, as part of an omnibus appropriations package that will fund much of the government through September 30, 2009. Only 3 of 12 appropriations bills have been completed to date: defense, homeland security, and veterans affairs. At an earlier stage of the FY09 appropriations process, former President George W. Bush indicated that he would veto spending bills that exceeded his domestic discretionary spending caps. As a result, in order to advance desired increases, Congress decided to wait for a new administration to take office in order to closeout the FY09 appropriations process. The omnibus appropriations bill will contain an estimated $410 billion in spending for mostly domestic programs.

Congressional aides have indicated that the omnibus FY09 appropriations bill is not likely to contain significant changes from the draft created during the 110th (last) Congress. The omnibus package will increase government spending approximately 6.7% over the FY08 budget. For a recap of key health and education funding levels in the draft FY09 appropriations bills, see the budget section of this website or contact Jonathan in the UW Office of Federal Relations. The Office of Federal Relations will repost key FY09 appropriations figures as bill moves towards finalization. In a Tuesday speech to a joint-session of Congress and the nation, President Obama will provide some details on his FY10 budget request, which will be presented in outline form later this week and in full in the spring.

**UPDATE**

The House Appropriations Committee has released fact sheets on each of the remaining 9 FY09 spending bills (see below):

Omnibus FY09 Appropriations Bill (Conference Agreement)

Agriculture Approriations

Commerce/Justice/Science Appropriations

Energy and Water Appropriations

Financial Services Appropriations

Interior and the Environment Appropriations

Labor/Health/Education Appropriations

Legislative Branch Appropriations

State and Foreign Operations Appropriations

Transportation/Housing and Urban Development Appropriations

Posted by Jonathan Nurse on February 23, 2009 at 6:28 am 

The Senate reconvenes Monday for a reading of President George Washington’s farewell address. Freshman Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., will do the reading.

On Tuesday, President Obama will address a joint session of Congress. The Senate will also consider the nomination of Rep. Hilda L. Solis , D-Calif., to be secretary of Labor.

For the remainder of the week the Senate is expected to work on a bill that would permanently expand the House to 437 members by adding one representative from the District of Columbia and one from Utah.

Later in the week, the House is scheduled to take up an omnibus fiscal 2009 appropriations package.

The chamber also might consider a bill that would mitigate foreclosures for homeowners filing for bankruptcy.

Source: CQ

Posted by Jonathan Nurse on February 19, 2009 at 7:40 am 

Below please find a link to estimated figures on funding to the state of Washington from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. According to the figures provided, the state of Washington will receive approximately $4.73 billion.

Recovery Act Funding for the State of Washington (click here)

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