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Research Community Reiterates Call for At Least $26 Billion for Research

In an updated letter to Congressional leadership, associations representing a swath of research institutions reiterated their call to invest at least $26 billion in scientific research in future COVID-19 response bills.  Unlike previous communications, this letter calls out specific funding levels for a number of individual agencies, including:

  • $3 billion for NSF
  • $3 billion for DOD
  • $10 billion for NSF
  • $5 billion for DOE
  • $2 billion for NASA

The letter also calls for additional funds for agencies which have research budgets greater than $100 million, including NOAA and the Institute for Education Science.

The letter is available here.

Opposing the EPA “Transparency Rule”

On November 13th, UW signed onto a letter circulated by the Michael J Fox Foundation to the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. The letter opposes the Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science rule, which would require raw data to be made publicly available when it is used to formulate new regulations. UW is joined by over sixty other higher education institutions, associations, and research organizations in opposing these rule changes. There are many instances, especially in the health sciences, when making raw data publicly available would be infeasible or harm the confidentiality of research subjects. Therefore, this rule could limit the quality of data used in the regulatory process, as only data which could be made publicly available would be utilized.

First “Minibus” Signed Into Law

As expected, President Trump signed into law earlier today the first “minibus” appropriations package for FY2019, a measure that combines the Energy and Water, Veterans Affairs-Military Construction, and Legislative Brach Appropriations Bills.

Congress and the White House must still agree on nine more bills for FY2019.

First “Minibus” Expected to be Signed Today

Barring any last minute changes, the first “minibus” spending package for FY2019 is expected to get signed into law today.  The measure combines the Energy and Water, Veterans Affairs-Military Construction, and Legislative Branch appropriations bills.

The Senate cleared earlier this week the Labor-HHS-Education and Defense package, which the House is expected to take up sometime next week.

The sides chambers are also currently negotiating over a four-bill minibus that includes the agriculture, interior, financial services, and transportation-housing bills.