Inside Higher Ed published a good article in today’s edition that details the higher education issues facing the next Congress. Budget issues will continue to be the most pressing issue confronting lawmakers when they convene the 113th Congress in January. Additionally, Congress will need to deal with looming student loan interest rate increases (July 2013), a shortfall in the Pell Grant Program beginning in 2014, and reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA). This article sets the stage for our advocacy efforts in 2013.
Author: Christy Gullion
GAO Review Requested of Regulations that Hinder Research Universities
Earlier today Congressman Mo Brooks (R-AL), Chair of the House Research and Science Education Subcommittee, asked the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review “regulatory actions that hinder our nation’s research universities.”
In his letter to GAO, the Chairman asked GAO to look at three general questions: What federal requirements, not limited to legislative mandates, reporting requirements, and regulations create reporting burdens for research universities; how research university requirements under OMB Circulars A-21, A-133, and Federal Acquisition Regulation 4.703 balance regulatory burden with accountability for federal funds; and what might be the potential benefits and disadvantages of modifying requirements, including those “that experts and universities have identified as most burdensome.”
Congressman Brooks wrote that it was evident, based on a recommendation in the National Research Council’s report on research universities, two hearings he convened in his subcommittee to follow up on the report, and additional conversations he held with the university research community, that “the current regulatory environment may be limiting the growth of fundamental basic scientific research.”
Sequester Could Cost Washington State Nearly $1.7 Billion by 2017
AAAS just published some new estimates of sequestration impacts on science budgets through 2017. The report gets into individual agencies (in some instances, directorates) and states, and includes both a balanced scenario and a nondefense-only scenario. Washington state could lose nearly $1.7 billion dollars in federal R&D funding over the next five years. You can read the full report at http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/fy2013/SeqBrief.shtml.
Sequester Will Hurt State Budgets
An article in today’s Governing.com details how the sequester will affect state budgets. The news is not good, especially when you consider the sad shape of our state’s budget situation in general. If implemented on January 2nd, the across-the-board cuts at the federal level will likely leave the state legislature with little choice but to make additional cuts to higher education to backfill the reduction in federal funds. The sequester would affect federal dollars that typically support basic elementary and secondary education; Department of Defense activities such as equipment maintenance, construction, procurement and research and development at our state’s military installations; and social services and safety net programs. States would also be hit by more than $2.5 billion in cuts destined for the National Institutes of Health – a particularly troubling situation for the University of Washington.
Today in Congress
The Senate’s in at 10:00am and will continue work on a veterans jobs bill. A series of votes are possible. The chamber will recess from 12:30 to 2:15pm for weekly caucus lunches. Then, the senate will hold a procedural vote on the House-passed six-month continuing resolution to fund the government.
The House is in at noon with votes expected about 6:30 p.m. on nearly 30 bills, including one honoring the four Americans who died in Libya and condemning the attacks on United States diplomatic facilities in Libya, Egypt, and Yemen. Another would confirm full ownership rights for certain US astronauts to artifacts from the astronauts’ space missions.