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Appropriations Details Begin to Emerge

With a number of bills moving to the full committee stage, details contained in various appropriations bills are beginning to emerge.  For example, the House Interior Appropriations bill would provide:

  • $25 million for the USGS Cooperative Research Units (an increase of $1 million);
  • $41.3 million for the USGS Climate Adaptation Science Centers program ($3-million increase);
  • $25.7 million for the ShakeAlert West Coast earthquake early warning system (level funded);

The bill is scheduled to be marked up by the full Appropriations Committee tomorrow morning.  We will continue to provide updates as more details become available.

FY2021 Appropriations Bills Finally Moving

With schedules and logistics thrown into complete disarray by COVID-19, progress on the FY2021 spending bills had been stalled.  The logjam has been partially broken, at least for now, in the House, with all 12 bills scheduled for markup this week.

Office of Federal Relations will provide additional details as they become available.  The following are some of the highlights of several different bills so far:

Labor-HHS-Education

National Institutes of Health

  • $47 billion total, an increase of $5.5 billion above current level ($5 billion of the increase is emergency appropriations, meaning the regular appropriation for the agency is $42 billion)

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

  • $343 million, an increase of $500 million

Student Aid

  • Pell Grant Maximum:  $6,945, an increase of $150
  • SEOG:  $880 M ($15-million increase)
  • Federal Work Study:  $1.2 billion ($30-million increase)
  • GEAR UP:  $1.1 billion (an increase of $5 million)

The legislation would also prohibit the Department of Education from implementing its new Title IX regulations.

The text of the bill is available here and a summary of the bill prepared by the committee staff is available here.  The report accompanying the bill, which contains most of the detailed breakdown of funding, is not yet available.

Commerce-Justice-Science

National Science Foundation

Under the bill unveiled earlier today, NSF would be funded at $8.55 billion, an increase of $270 million.  Within NSF:

  • Research and Related Activities Directorate would be funded at $6.97 billion (an increase of $229.9 million
  • Education and Human Resources would be funded at $970 million (an increase of $30 million.

NASA

NASA would be flat-funded at $22.63 billion in the bill.  The bill proposes to divide up the funding, in part, in the following manner:

  • Science:  $7.1 billion (a decrease of $42 million)
  • Aeronautics:  $819 million (an increase of $35 million)
  • Space Tech:  $1.1 billion (level funded)
  • Space Grant:  $50 million (an increase of $2 million)

NOAA

The bill would fund NOAA at $5.45 billion, an increase of $101.9 million.

This is the text of the bill and a summary is available here.

Interior

The current version of the House bill contains $36.76 billion in regular appropriations, an increase of $771 million, and $15 billion in emergency appropriations.

While we have not yet seen further breakdowns for the agency, the USGS is slated to receive an increase of $22 million under this bill.

Both the NEH and the NEA would each be funded at $170 million, an increase of $7.5 million.

The bill text is available here and the summary of the bill is available here.

Energy and Water

Under the the subcommittee-approved bill, the Department of Energy Office of Science would see an increase of $50 million and would be funded at $7.05 billion.

ARPA-E would see an increase of $10 million, while the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy program.would be funded at $2.85 billion, an increase of $58 million.

The summary for the bill is available here.

Full Committee

The full Appropriations Committee is slated to take up the Interior bill on Friday and is scheduled to mark up both the Labor-HHS-Education and Energy and Water bills next Monday.

We will provide further details as they become available.

 

Executive Order on “Immigration Ban” Expected Today

Even though President Trump announced Monday that he would suspend immigration through an executive order, Administration officials were still working through the details Tuesday night and the order is expected to be officially signed today.  The “ban” is actually expected to be a 60-day halt on certain kinds of “green card” applications and not a complete ban on the flow of individuals.

Read more about the “ban” herehere, and here.

We will provide further details as they become available.

Guidance Sought from State Department on International Students and Personnel

In a letter sent earlier today, higher education associations asked the State Department for further guidance and assistance on the hurdles faced by international students, faculty, and staff at colleges and universities across the nation.

While acknowledging clarity and needed guidance that provided in some areas, the letter also highlights the fact a number of other problems still remain.  Read the letter here.

 

 

NSF to Implement Regulatory Flexibility Authorized by OMB

On March 19, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued Memorandum M-20-17 to federal agencies granting them the authority to provide regulatory flexibility to entities conducting federal research as they struggle to response to the coronavirus.  Earlier today, NSF issued guidance on its implementation of the OMB memo.

Along with the guidance, NSF Director France Cordova issued a notice to the science and engineering community with respect to NSF and COVID-19.