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Sen. Collins Asks OMB to Withdraw Parts of Grant Rule, Extend Comment Period

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Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, sent a letter yesterday to White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, asking him to extend the comment deadline for OMB’s proposed revisions to Uniform Guidance by 45 days and to withdraw portions of the rule. Collins specifically objected to the following provisions:

  • Allowing federal agencies to terminate discretionary grants at any time without an appeal process opportunity
  • Requiring senior political appointees to approve grants, noting “this additional review for awards that have already been selected through a scientific, merit-based peer review process would undermine the objective that the Federal government fund scientific and biomedical research projects based on scientific merit and value, rather than political ideology.”
  • Requiring agencies to consider the president’s policy priorities when administering grants, Collins argued that the proposed rule fails to “ensure that consideration of the President’s policy priorities does not supersede congressional intent for the administration of these awards.”

In her letter, Collins asked OMB to withdraw these provisions, among others, and to extend the comment deadline to 90 days.

Proposed Uniform Guidance Changes

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On May 29, 2026, the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published a proposed rule in the Federal Register that would substantially revise 2 C.F.R. Part 200, commonly referred to as the “Uniform Guidance”, which applies to federal grants, cooperative agreements and other types of federal assistance funding.

If finalized, the proposed rule would significantly impact federal awards, including requiring political appointee review of grant decisions, restrictions on who applicants may work with, expanded rights the federal government has in modifying or terminating awards, and much more. Because these changes have significant implications for federally funded research, the University and UW Medicine are compiling an institutional response to the federal government. 

Please use the University’s “Uniform Guidance – Proposed Changes” form (UW NetID required) to provide your comments to University leadership to support the University’s official response to OMB. Your feedback and examples of impacts will inform our official UW response, and comments are still being accepted.

As a member of the public, you may also comment directly to OMB; however, OMB will consider only one comment per institution. Therefore, if you choose to submit comments to OMB in an individual capacity, you should state your experience generically (e.g. a faculty member in at a large public university) but do not mention your affiliation with the University of Washington.

Additional analysis from APLU can be found here: Summary of Uniform Guidance Issues.

Supreme Court Upholds Birthright Citizenship

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In a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court upheld a broad conception of birthright citizenship, rejecting Trump’s executive order declaring that children born in the US are not American citizens if their parents were here illegally or temporarily.

“Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights—to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land,’” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court, citing congressional debate over the amendment, “We keep that promise today.”

Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorusch, and Samuel Alito dissented. Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the court’s majority to strike down the executive order but said he based his decision on a federal law, not the Constitution. Back in April, Trump attended the oral arguments for this case, Trump v. Barbara, becoming the first sitting president ever to do so. The Court was expected to uphold birthright citizenship, but the final ruling was closer than predicted, with most expecting a 7-2 ruling.

The decision is one of several key rulings released over the past week:

  • In a 6-3 decision, the Court upheld state laws barring transgender girls and women from playing on school athletic teams, ruling that state bans in Idaho and West Virginia don’t violate the Constitution or Title IX.
  • In a 6-3 decision, the Court expanded the power of the executive branch to fire independent regulators, with the notable exception of members of the Federal Reserve. Despite allowing Fed governor Lisa Cook to stay in her role, this ruling increases the power of the president to fire agency heads at will.
  • In a 5-4 decision, the Court upheld Mississippi’s grace period for late mail-in ballots, rejecting Trump’s persistent attempts to invalidate ballots arriving after Election Day. This ruling is significant for protecting mail-in voting across 2026 battleground districts. Over half of states permit mailed ballots to be counted a certain number of days after the election, if they are postmarked by Election Day.
  • In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court erased party spending limits in federal elections, striking down a federal election law more than 50 years old.
  • Also in a 6-3 decision, the Court ruled the Trump administration may end legal protections for migrants fleeing violence in Haiti and Syria, allowing DHS to end the temporary protected status program.

Congress Averts Another Government Shutdown

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Last week, President Biden signed the Further Continuing Appropriations and Other Extensions Act (H.R. 6363) thus preventing a government shutdown. The bill sets two different deadlines for different bills: there is a January 19 deadline for Congress to pass the FY24 Agriculture-FDA, Energy and Water, Military Construction-VA, and Transportation-HUD bills and a February 2 deadline for the remaining eight appropriations bills. The bill does not include any supplemental funding or cuts to existing levels of funding.

So far, the House has passed seven of the 12 annual government-funding bills, while the Senate has passed only three. Congress is on Thanksgiving recess and when they return will have to do significant work into 2024 to meet these two deadlines. Read more about this here.

President Cauce Visits DC!

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A few weeks ago, President Cauce visited Washington D.C. to meet with members of the Washington congressional delegation. During these meetings, President Cauce discussed the overall state of the institution as we close down FY24 and previewed the university’s priorities for the following year. She also had the opportunity to thank our delegation for being champions of higher education, science, and research. We look forward to working together alongside our delegation to continue to lead Washington state to the forefront of cutting edge research and quality education.

President Cauce also had the wonderful opportunity of attending the EDGE Consortium Fall Summit where members spoke on the importance of investing in the next generation of scientists and engineers, focusing on women and underrepresented groups in the engineering and STEM workforce. Senator Cantwell spoke and met with President Cauce as they work together towards creating a more inclusive STEM workforce.