The University of Washington’s 2018 Federal Agenda is available for you to view. Thank you to everyone on campus who participated in the federal agenda development process in the fall. We look forward to seeing many of you in DC this spring! Click through below to view a pdf version.
Today Dr. Oren Etzioni, CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence and UW Professor of Computer Science, was invited by the subcommittee chair to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Information Technology in the first of two committee meetings slated to discuss the future of artificial intelligence. Dr. Etzioni was joined by experts from Intel, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and NVIDIA. Check out the hearing on YouTube.
Department of Defense
The Pentagon’s FY2019 budget request includes $445.9 million for the basic research (6.1) programs funded by the Army, a cut of about $41 million compared to the FY2017 level. At the same time, the budget request asks for $919.6 million for Army applied research (6.2) programs, a decrease of about $300 million from FY2017.
Navy 6.1 programs would be cut by about $34 million and would receive approximately $597 million and Navy 6.2 programs would see a cut of roughly $89 million below the FY2017 level and would be funded at about $891 million under the FY2019 budget proposal.
At nearly $518 million, Air Force 6.1 would be cut by $27 million while Air Force 6.2 programs would see a total of roughly $1.31 billion, a $13-million cut.
Defense-wide basic research program would see a slight bump to $708 million while defense-wide 6.2 program would seen an increase of $207 million to $1.98 billion.
Additional details about the FY2019 Pentagon research budget request are available here.
Here is a selection of committee meetings taking place next week.
U.S. House of Representatives
HOUSE BUDGET
Full Committee Hearing
FY2019 Budget
Feb. 14, 10 a.m., 1334 Longworth Bldg.
HOUSE ENERGY & COMMERCE
Subcommittee Hearing
Health Care Consolidation
Feb. 14, 10:15 a.m., 2322 Rayburn Bldg.
HOUSE OVERSIGHT & GOVERNMENT REFORM
Subcommittee Hearing
Artificial Intelligence (Part I)
Feb. 14, 2 p.m., 2154 Rayburn Bldg.
HOUSE NATURAL RESOURCES
Subcommittee Hearing
U.S. Water and Power Infrastructure
Feb. 14, 2 p.m., 1324 Longworth Bldg.
HOUSE EDUCATION & THE WORKFORCE
Subcommittee Hearing
Opioids Epidemic
Feb. 15, 10 a.m., 2175 Rayburn Bldg.
HOUSE JUDICIARY
Subcommittee Hearing
Sanctuary City Policies and Opioid Epidemic
Feb. 15, 9 a.m., 2141 Rayburn Bldg.
HOUSE SCIENCE, SPACE & TECHNOLOGY
Subcommittee Hearing
STEM Education and Careers Training
Feb. 15, 10 a.m., 2318 Rayburn Bldg.
HOUSE WAYS & MEANS
Full Committee Hearing
HHS Budget
Feb. 14, 10 a.m., 1100 Longworth Bldg.
U.S. Senate
SENATE ARMED SERVICES
Subcommittee Hearing
DOD’s Role in Protecting Democratic Elections
Feb. 13, 2:30 p.m., 222 Russell Bldg.
SENATE BUDGET
Full Committee Hearing
FY2019 Budget
Feb. 13, 10 a.m., 608 Dirksen Bldg.
SENATE FINANCE
Full Committee Hearing
FY2019 Budget
Feb. 14, 10:30 a.m., 215 Dirksen Bldg.
SENATE FINANCE
Full Committee Hearing
HHS Budget
Feb. 15, 9 a.m., 215 Dirksen Bldg.
More details from the president’s budget request (PBR) are now becoming available and Office of Federal Relations will continue to provide further information after additional analysis.
Education
The Administration is seeking to make short-term programs eligible for the Pell Grant program in its Department of Education (ED) PBR. The PBR also calls for formula changes in the Federal Work Study program while calling for a $483-million cut to the program in FY2019.
In addition, the Administration calls for a $35-million cut to the TEACH Grant program.
The budget would restore $1.6 billion in the Pell surplus.
Additional details about the ED budget are available here.
Interior
Within the Department of Interior, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) would receive $859.7 million under the PBR, a cut of more than $200 million below FY2017 levels.
The USGS budget proposes to fund Earthquake Hazards at about $13 million below current levels and would eliminate funding for the Earthquake Early Warning System. The Administration’s PBR also would terminate the Cooperative Research Units in FY2019.
Additional details about the USGS budget are available here.
NASA
As previously mentioned, the PBR would eliminate the NASA Education Office, which would lead to the termination of the Space Grant program.
While the overall NASA Science account would see at modest increase at a total of $5.865 billion, most of the increase would be composed of an increase to Planetary Science. Earth Science, on the other hand, would be funded at $1.78 billion, a cut of approximately $120 million below FY2017 levels.
Additional details about NASA are available here.
NOAA
The Operations, Research, and Facilities (ORF) account for NOAA would be funded at approximately $2.94 billion FY2019 under this PBR, a cut of approximately $400 million below the FY2017 level.
The National Ocean Service ORF account would receive approximately $380 million in FY2019, a cut of roughly $138 million compared to the FY2017 level. This total amount includes a proposed cut of $11.1 million to the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS). At the same time, the Oceanic and Atmospheric Research ORF account would see a total of $296 million, a cut of $183 million. Once again, the PBR calls for the elimination of the Sea Grant Program.
NOAA budget numbers are available here.