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Author: Christy Gullion

NSF Seeks Review Panelists

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The National Science Foundation Academic Research Infrastructure -Recovery and Reinvestment (AR-R2) is seeking reviewers for their upcoming panels to review proposals for this program.  The announcement from NSF follows.

National Science Foundation
       
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA)
Academic Research Infrastructure – Recovery and Reinvestment (ARI-R2)

July 31, 2009

Dear Colleagues

The National Science Foundation is requesting merit review expertise in the Academic Research Infrastructure – Recover and Reinvestment (ARI-R2) program (http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2009/nsf09562/nsf09562.pdf). This program is supported by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). 

ARI-R² is designed to support 21st century research and research training infrastructure in our Nation’s academic institutions and non-profit research organizations, such as research museums, research laboratories, and research consortia. ARI-R² will revitalize existing research facilities so that they provide next-generation research infrastructure and facilitate the integration of researchers with shared resources such as remote instruments and research platforms, data repositories, and national computing facilities. Research facilities are shared space where sponsored and/or unsponsored research activities and research training take place. They may be “bricks and mortar,” mobile or virtual research space.

The National Science Foundation is in need of expertise in a wide range of fields to evaluate the proposals submitted to this competition. NSF is in need of reviewers in three broad categories: a) expertise in a scientific, engineering or architecture field, b) experience in managing large facilities and centers, or c) expertise in computer networking; it is not expected that individuals will have competence in all categories. The merit review panels for this activity will be held during three weeks in October, 2009. Each panelist will be asked to commit up to 3 days to serve on a panel at NSF headquarters in Arlington, VA.  Travel expenses, per diem and an honorarium will be provided for your services.

If you have an interest in participating in the merit review process of this important program and have the time to serve on a panel in October, 2009, please go to

http://www.nsf.gov/od/oia/programs/ari/ari_reviewer/
      
and complete and submit the short form indicating your field of expertise and availability.

Thank you for contributing your time and attention to this critical program in the revitalization of United States research resources.

HHS Recovery Act Funding Available to Expand Health Professions Training

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HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced the availability of $200 million to support grants, loans, loan repayment, and scholarships to expand the training of health care professionals.  The funds are expected to train approximately 8,000 students and credentialed health professionals by the end of fiscal year 2010.  Today’s funds are part of the $500 million allotted to HHS’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), to address workforce shortages under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

The $200 million will be directed to the following program areas:

  • $80.2 million for scholarships, loans, and loan repayment awards to students, health professionals, and faculty. Of those funds, $39 million will be targeted to nurses and nurse faculty, $40 million to disadvantaged students in a wide range of health professions, and $1.2 million to health professions faculty from disadvantaged backgrounds.
  • $50 million in grants to health professions training programs. Funds will be used to purchase equipment needed to expand programs and improve the quality of training.
  • $47.6 million to support primary care training programs. These funds will support the training of residents, medical students, physician assistants, dentists and individuals, many of whom will practice in underserved areas.
  • $10.5 million to strengthen the public health workforce. Funds will support public health traineeships and increase the number of individuals trained through preventive medicine and dental public health residencies.
  • $10.2 million to increase the diversity of the health professions workforce.
  • And $1.5 million to support the efforts of state professional licensing boards in reducing barrier to telemedicine.

HRSA is using a competitive process to award all funds. Some awards will be made over the next several months.  In addition, funding opportunities for some programs will be announced over the next several months, giving applicants adequate time to prepare materials.  The remaining $300 million in ARRA workforce funds is being used to expand HRSA’s National Health Service Corps, which provides scholarships and loan repayment for primary care providers who serve in health professional shortage areas.  In addition, HRSA received $2 billion through ARRA to expand health care services to low-income and uninsured individuals through its health center program.

FY09 and FY10 Administrative Savings

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On Monday, the Administration announced that federal agencies had met the goal set by President Obama of finding at least $100 million in administrative savings from their agency budgets.  The 77 cost-savings measures identified by agencies would yield $102 million in savings this fiscal year (FY09) and about $140 million in savings in fiscal 2010.  Most of the proposals pertain to asset management (e.g., facilities, equipment, and vehicles), energy and other resource usage, meetings and travel, procurement and contracting, and productivity or process improvements.  The largest is a Pentagon plan to save $52 million in 2010 by using commercial jet fuel, but the vast majority would provide just modest savings.

Read the complete list of proposed savings.

Update from Washington, DC

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Congress started off this week with the goal of advancing health care reform financing options in preparation for an overall vote on reform measures before their August recess.  By the end of the week, however, it became clear to House and Senate leaders – as well as the President – that they would not meet that deadline.  Instead they plan to continue negotiations through August and into September when they will try again to garner the votes they need to pass a comprehensive health care reform measure.  

This slight “slow down” has allowed everyone to catch their breath and focus on completing the remaining FY10 spending bills. 

The House is currently debating the Labor-HHS-Education spending bill on the floor and will likely vote on that final measure later today.  This follows the passage of the Transportation-HUD bill yesterday.  This leaves the FY10 Defense bill as the final spending measure in front of the House, which they will take action on next week. 

The Senate, meanwhile, continues to trail the House in their progress on spending measures.  On Monday they will take up the FY10 Energy & Water bill followed by action on their Agriculture and Military Construction-VA bills.  In addition to the Senate floor action on Energy-Water, the Senate Appropriations Committee next week plans to mark up another two of its bills: Transportation-HUD and Labor-HHS-Education. That will leave just Defense, which may not occur until after the August recess. 

The House and Senate will also continue negotiations over climate legislation.  The urgency on this issue is not as intense as it has been on health care reform and several members on both sides of the aisle seem to agree that this legislation will move after health care – sometime in the fall.  

While the Office of Federal Relations continues to monitor progress on all of these fronts, we are also beginning to look forward to August when many of our Delegation Members and their staff will return to the state.  They will likely focus their activities on meetings and other events focused on the current health care debate as well as continuing to seek feedback from constituencies on how best to craft climate change legislation.  

At the same time, we are beginning to talk with Congressional staff about their availability to be on campus for various meetings, briefings, and tours.  Please let us know if you are interested in inviting Members or their staff to campus for a particular event or if you would like to help organize a tour/briefing for your program area.  We’re here and happy to help coordinate schedules so that we can maximize the time that Congressional staff will give us for these activities.

Christy Gullion, Director

Update from Washington, DC

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In two short weeks, Members of Congress will flee Washington, DC and return to their home states for a 5-week summer break.  The Senate will work one week longer, starting their summer recess period on August 7th.  Both the House and the Senate have set lofty goals for the next two (or three) weeks, which makes this stretch one of the most intense periods so far in this session of Congress.  

The House democrats just last week unveiled major portions of their health care reform proposal and have been moving at a pretty fast clip to approve the measures in three different committees before moving it to the floor for action sometime in the next two weeks.  The Education & Labor and the Ways & Means committees both approved their portions of the bill last week, while the Energy & Commerce Committee will continue to debate their portions of the bill this coming week.                        

The Senate meanwhile has approved their health care reform proposal in the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, but the Finance Committee has not yet been able to come to agreement on how to finance the package.  After failing to meet their deadline last week, they will try again to move legislation out of that committee this week.  The sticking point appears to be how to find more Medicare and Medicaid cost-cutting measures and a mix of tax increases to pay for reform.

In addition to the efforts on health care reform, the House and Senate continue to make progress on their FY10 spending measures.  The House has approved seven of the twelve bills, and will take up the Labor-HHS-Education and Transportation-HUD bills this week.  The Senate has only approved two of the twelve bills, and will use the next three weeks to finish work on their remaining measures.  Both the House and Senate seem motivated to complete work on the twelve bills before the August recess. 

On Tuesday, the House Education and Labor Committee will begin marking up higher education legislation that would end a major student loan program.  The bill, released last week, would end the Federal Family Education Loan program and originate all federally backed student loans through the Education Department’s Direct Lending Program.  Some of the savings from this action would go toward increasing the amount of aid available to eligible students, as well as funding the President’s recently announced community college initiative.

Two different Senate committees – Agriculture and Environment & Public Works – will continue working on their portions of a climate and energy plan in anticipation of floor debate this fall (after the August recess).  They will hear this week from Obama administration officials and governors – including WA State Governor Chris Gregoire.

With so much action in so many different subject areas, the Office of Federal Relations will be busy working with our congressional friends to push for those issues that will benefit the University — particularly as they relate to appropriations measures and competitive grant opportunities in the climate, energy, and health care bills.  As we move through the next two to three weeks, please stay in touch and let us know if there are issues or bills that you’d like us to watch for you.

Christy Gullion, Director