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Category: Federal Agency Developments

COMPETES Reauthorization Heads to President for Signature

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Just moments ago, the House of Representatives passed the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act (S.3084). It was passed under suspension of the rules, during a pro forma session.  The measure passed the Senate on June 22, 2016 by unanimous consent.

For Fiscal Year (FY) 2017, the bill authorizes $7.5 billion for NSF, which is the same level of funding included in the Senate’s FY2017 Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations bill. For FY2018, the bill authorizes a four percent increase in funding for NSF. It’s worth pointing out that this is still tentative and could change. Lastly, it worth pointing out that there is also no directorate-by-directorate level funding for NSF in the bill, and we don’t anticipate there will be any offered at the markup. That is a big difference with the House’s FIRST Act and a big win for the NSF research community, particularly the Social and Behavioral scientists.

Here is a broader summary.

Foxx to be Chair of House Education and Workforce Cmte, Trump’s Ed Landing Team

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With approval of the full Republican conference, the House Republican Steering Committee has selected Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) as the chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce in the 115th Congress.  She grew up in Appalachia without power and running water and began working as a weaver at age 12 to help support her family. These experiences convinced her that it’s an individual’s hard work, and not federal programs, that lead to success.

As the 73-year-old GOP lawmaker and former community college president, Foxx has been a staunch critic of the Obama Administation’s Department of Education efforts. 

She is a strong supporter of school choice and supports the president-elect’s $20 billion school choice plan emphasizing vouchers. Specifically, she wants to examine the billions doled out annually under Title 1 — a Great Society program that boosts funding to schools catering to poor students. The money is now considered a possible funding source for Trump’s school choice plan. Other items on her agenda: 

  • reexamine the role of the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, which conservatives revile for its focus on issues such as campus sexual assault and bathroom access for transgender students;

  • reverse a Democratic Congress’ decision to have the Education Department, not banks, issue student loans; and 

  • reverse regulations targeting for-profit colleges.

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Mike Pence’s former general counsel has joined the landing team at the Education Department. Attorney Thomas Wheeler was named to the team Thursday. He served as general counsel for Pence during his time as Indiana governor, according to a 2013 press release from the Republican National Lawyers Association that announced him as a member of its board of governors. Wheeler also has extensive experience representing schools on legal issues, including civil rights-related cases, according to the web site for his law firm in Indianapolis, Frost Brown Todd, LLC.

OSTP Internship

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The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy is currently accepting applications for its Fall Policy Internship Program.  The application deadline is June 17, 2016.  Students who are U.S. citizens and who will be enrolled in, or have just graduated from, an academic program should feel free to apply.

More information and application instructions are available at https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ostp/about/student.

The Office of Science and Technology Policy advises the President on the effects of science and technology on domestic and international affairs. The office serves as a source of scientific and technological analysis and judgment for the President with respect to major policies, plans and programs of the Federal Government.

Interns are accepted for one of three annual terms (Spring, Summer, or Fall), which each last no more than 90 days. The assignments provide educational enrichment, practical work experience, and networking opportunities with other individuals in the science and technology policy arena.

House on Science in the “National Interest”, White House Threatens to Veto

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The House will take up a bill today, HR 3293 – Scientific Research in the National Interest Act, that would require the National Science Foundation to show the grants it doles out to scientists are in the national interest. Similar to previous measures restricting NSF sponsored by Congressman Lamar Smith, the legislation is expected to pass.

Predictably, the White House issued a Statement of Administrative Policy (SAP) threatening to veto the measure on Tuesday. The SAP stated that the bill would “add nothing to accountability in federal funding for scientific research” and replace existing law with “confusing language that could cast a shadow over the value of basic research.”

 

Read the SAP here.