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President Signs Economic Recovery Package as Agencies Prepare

Today, President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. As previously discussed on this site, the legislation provides critical funding for research and student aid. Additionally, assistance is included for state governments so that they are able to lessen the severity of cuts to education and other critical services.

At present, the federal agencies are preparing details on their plans to implement the provisions of the package. For example, on Wednesday February 18th, NIH will hold a public briefing to provide details on its planned use of $10 billion provided in stimulus. Preliminary reports indicate that NSF and NIH will fund existing applications at higher rates as opposed to issuing many new RFPs. The Office of Federal Relations will provide agency and program specific information as it is made available, likely over the course of the next week.