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Month: December 2009

This Week on Capitol Hill December 14-18

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The Senate is expected to spend the week working through amendments to a health care overhaul bill. Both chambers are also expected to take up a Defense spending bill that will likely serve as a vehicle for several other end-of-year measures. Later in the week, the House will take up bills on community radio, and caller ID falsification.  International climate change talks continue in Copenhagen. President Obama will attend later in the week.

FLOOR ACTION IN THE HOUSE

On Monday, The House will convene at 2:00 pm to consider several bills including S 303 — Federal grant management.

 On Tuesday and the Balance of the Week the House is scheduled to consider:  

  • HR 3978 — First-responder antiterrorism training;
  • S 1472 — Human rights law enforcement;
  • HR 1110 — Caller ID falsification;
  • HR 1147 — Local community radio; 
  • HR 3326 — Defense spending and other provisions

 FLOOR ACTION IN THE SENATE

This week the Senate will continue consideration of HR 3590 — Health care overhaul, and later in the week may consider HR 3326 — Defense spending and other provisions (tentative)

 MARKUPS AND HEARINGS OF INTEREST:

Tuesday

  • House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee and State-Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee joint hearing on Afghanistan security policy with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
  • Senate Energy and Natural Resources hearing on legislation that would establish a program to reduce the costs of nuclear reactors

 Wednesday

  • House Natural Resources marks up natural resources bills
  • Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs marks up bills on domestic partner benefits for federal employees; federal energy efficiency; congressional awards. 
  • Senate Energy and Natural Resources marks up energy and natural resources legislation

 Thursday

  • Senate Judiciary marks up legislation on a criminal justice system review; medical bankruptcy; hate crimes against the homeless; juvenile delinquency prevention; maltreated infants.
  • Senate Indian Affairs marks up legislation on the Interior secretary’s authority to take land into trust and native Hawaiian government reorganization
  • Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs votes on the nomination of Ben S. Bernanke to continue as chairman of the Federal Reserve.
  • Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship marks up legislation on small-business exports and loan limits for small businesses

 Source: CQ Today Print Edition

Future of Tax Extenders Legislation Remains Unclear

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Despite House passage of the Tax Extenders Act of 2009 (H.R. 4213), it appears possible that tax provisions important to the higher education community may expire at the end of the month. The provisions include the education tuition deduction, the IRA charitable rollover, and the research and development tax credit. Disagreements in the Senate over offsets for the tax provisions, as well as the laser focus on health care reform, make passage of the legislation by the end of the month unlikely. However, it remains possible that the a bill will be passed in early 2010 that would be retroactive to the beginning of the year.

FY10 Appropriations Moving to Conclusion

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Yesterday, details on a House-Senate omnibus FY10 appropriations package (H.R. 3288) emerged. The omnibus package will contain 6 of the 7 appropriations bills that have yet to be signed into law -with only the Defense Appropriations bill remaining. The Defense bill is being utilized as a final vehicle to advance measures that the leadership in Congress wants approved before the end of the year. The current plan would have all 7 remaining appropriations bills signed into law by the end of the month. Of note specifically for the University of Washington in the omnibus is $200,000 for a UW Bothell Nursing Faculty Consortium Training program. Additionally, significant funding is expected in the Defense bill for the UW Institute for Simulation and Interprofessional Studies. More broadly, items of note in the omnibus FY10 appropriations package for the higher education community include:

Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations

Education-

  • Pell Grant maximum award is funded at $5,550. This total includes $4,860 ($17.495 billion of discretionary funding) with plus $690 from the CCRAA ($631 million in mandatory funding)
  • Javits is level funded at $9.6 million
  • GAAN is level funded at $31 million
  • SEOG is level funded at $757 million
  • Federal Work Study is level funded at $980 million
  • LEAP is level funded at $63.8 million
  • TRIO is increased by $5 million to $853 million
  • GEAR UP is increased $10 million to $323 million

National Institutes of Health (NIH)-

  • NIH is funded at $31.0 billion, $250 million above the request and $692 million above non-ARRA FY 2009 enacted level. Similar to past years, $300 million will be transferred to the Global HIV/AIDS Fund.

Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations

National Science Foundation (NSF)-

  • NSF is funded at $6.93 billion, $436 million above the regular FY 2009 enacted level, but below the Administration’s request of $7 billion. Within NSF, the Research and Related Activities account would receive $5.617 billion, the Education and Human Resources account would receive $872.7 million, and Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC) account would receive $117.29 million.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)-

  • NASA is funded at overall at $18.72 billion, an increase of $941 million over FY 2009 enacted. Within NASA budget, the Science Mission Directorate funded at $4.469 billion, a decrease of $34 million, and the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate nearly level funded at $501 million.

National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)-

  • NOAA is funded overall at $4.737 billion, with the National Sea Grant Program funded at $63.0 million, an $8 million increase over FY 2009, and the Oceanic and Atmospheric Research account is increased to $438.8 million.

National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST)-

  • Within NIST, the Manufacturing Extension Partnerships (MEP) program is funded at $124 million, an increase of $14.7 million over FY 2009, and the Technology Innovation Program (TIP) is funded at $69.9 million, an increase of $4.9 million over FY 2009.

Military Construction – Veterans Affairs Appropriations
           
Veterans Affairs (VA)- 

  • Within the VA, the Medical and Prosthetics Research Program is funded at $581 million, an increase of $71 million over FY 2009.

State-Foreign Operations Approprations

Agency for International Development (USAID)-

  • The Higher Education in Africa Program is funded at no less than $25 million with the report language stating that higher education partnerships between American and African institutions of higher education should be expanded and $15 million “shall be awarded in an open and competitive process…”  The Collaborative Research Support Programs (CRSPs) is funded at $31.5 million.

The Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation is not funded.

ARPA-E Fellowship Opportunity Announced

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December 8, 2009

Department of Energy Announces Fellows Program for Advance Research Energy Projects

Announcement comes on the heels of ARPA-E’s 2nd Funding Opportunity

Cambridge, MA – The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) announced today the creation of the ARPA-E Fellows Program at an event with Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s students.  ARPA-E Director, Dr. Arun Majumdar, made the announcement during a presentation to the MIT Energy Club and called on the next generation of energy leaders to join ARPA-E.  Today’s announcement follows US Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s announcement that the Department is making $100 million in Recovery Act funding available to accelerate innovation in green technology, increase America’s competitiveness and create jobs.
 
“We need the best and the brightest to help shape our nation’s energy future,” said Dr. Majumdar. “The ARPA-E Fellows Program gives us the opportunity to invest in our up and coming researchers and entrepreneurs as we continue to look for creative and inventive approaches to transform the global energy landscape while advancing America’s technology leadership.”
The ARPA-E Fellows Program will consist of highly technical scientists and researchers, who will actively help create the strategic direction and vision of the country’s first agency devoted exclusively to transformational energy technology research and development. Fellows will support ARPA-E’s Program Directors in program creation, while also undertaking independent explorations of promising future research areas for the agency. Fellows will also engage with world class researchers and innovators to develop theses for high impact ARPA-E research program areas, prepare energy technology and economic analyses, and make recommendations to DOE senior management.

Program participants will be expected to have strong technical backgrounds and deep expertise in at least one energy technology related field. Senior Fellows should have more than three years of relevant work experience in energy innovation related fields, while Fellows will represent postdoctoral researchers and recent graduates with less than three years of work experience.  Participants will be competitively selected from the best and the brightest up and coming researchers and entrepreneurs in the U.S. energy sector. 

ARPA-E Fellow terms will not exceed two years.  All ARPA-E Fellows and Senior Fellows are full-time federal employees paid at a competitive salary.

Interested candidates should visit ARPA-E’s Job Opportunities page to learn more.

Media contact(s):
(202) 586-4940

New ARPA-E Grant Opportunities Announced

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Washington, D.C. – U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced that a second round of funding opportunities for transformational energy research projects is available through ARPA-E. At a joint event with Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Secretary Chu reported that $100 million in Recovery Act funding will be made available to accelerate innovation in green technology, increase America’s competitiveness and create jobs. The announcement comes in advance of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Note: Concept Papers are Due on January 15, 2010

Funding Opportunity Announcements