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Category: Federal Agency Developments

Congress Home for the Holidays

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After a busy week, Senators huddled on the floor Thursday night as they made an eleventh-hour attempt to find a path forward on bringing up a bundle of five bills or minibus for consideration before the end of 2025. No agreement to move forward was reached after Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, both of Colorado, announced they would hold up the package after White House OMB director Russ Vought’s decision to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research, which is based in Colorado.

 

The package under consideration in the Senate would fund the Departments of Defense, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Commerce (including NOAA), Health and Human Services (including NIH), Transportation, Labor and Interior, along with the EPA and NSF.

A few Republican Senators have held the bill from moving forward but released a hold after Senate leadership agreed to an amendment vote on stripping earmarks in the legislation. The Colorado hold is new to the OMB decision.

The Senate will resume consideration and negotiations in January.

 

 

WH Launches Genesis Mission for AI

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On November 24, President Trump signed an Executive Order entitled Launching the Genesis Mission, which establishes a coordinated national effort to unleash a new age of AI‑accelerated innovation and discovery.

    • Full text can be found here
    • The Fact Sheet can be found here
    • An additional article from the White House can be found here

Some highlights:

    • The EO launches the Genesis Mission to transform the use of AI in how scientific research is conducted and accelerate the speed of scientific discovery.
    • The Secretary of Energy will leverage the National Labs to create a cooperative research system, focusing on computing power and data.
    • DOE will create a closed-loop AI experimentation platform to integrate supercomputers and data assets to generate a foundation model as well as power robotic laboratories.
    • The Secretary of Energy will establish and operate the American Science and Security Platform to serve as the infrastructure for the Mission.
    • The Assistant to the President for Science and Technology (Kratsios), will coordinate the national initiative and integrate data and infrastructure from across the government.
    • The Asst. to the President for S&T is also tasked with coordinating with NSF, NIST, NIH and other federal agencies.
    • The Secretary of Energy, Assistant to the President for S&T, and the Special Advisor for AI & Crypto (Sacks) will collaborate with academia and the private sector to support the Mission.
    • The EO also outlines focus areas to be addressed by the Mission:
      • biotechnology, critical materials, nuclear fission and fusion energy, space exploration, quantum information science, and semiconductors and microelectronics.
    • The EO also directs the Secretary of Energy to share a list with the Asst. to the President for S&T of at least 20 science and technology challenges of national importance that the Secretary assesses to have potential to be addressed through the Mission.

Administration Seeks to Dismantle ED by Moving Programs to Different Agencies

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While publicly acknowledging earlier this year that Congressional approval would be needed to officially terminate the Education Department, the Administration announced today a series of Interagency Agreements (IAA) to move vast portions of its portfolio to other agencies in an effort to dismantle it from the inside.  The announcement from ED is available here.

Specifically, ED is proposing to move six sets of programs to four other federal agencies:

  • Programs  currently under jurisdiction of Office of Higher Education (NOT Title IV student financial aid programs) and the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education would be transferred to the Department of Labor– the factsheets for these agreements are here and here.
  • Most of tribal and Native American education programs would be moved to the Department of Interior– the factsheet is available here.
  • International Education and Foreign Language Studies would be shipped to State Department– the factsheet on that transfer is available here. 
  • Two sets of programs would be moved to the Department of Health and Human Services:  Foreign Medical Accreditation and Child Care Access Means Parents in School– the factsheets for these proposed moves are here and here.

Additional reports about the proposed moves are available here, here, and here.

Although these moves have been proposed by the Administration, they are unlikely to be the last word on this front.  We should expect legal and other challenges to today’s annoucements.

The End is in Sight

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The longest government shutdown in U.S. history is poised to end, with the House of Representatives scheduled to reconvene at approximately 4 p.m. Wednesday to vote on a funding bill passed by the Senate earlier this week.

The Senate measure advanced with the support of all Republican senators and a group of eight Democrats, a move that has sparked intense backlash from progressive activists and deepened divisions within the Democratic caucus. While the bipartisan support helped propel the bill forward procedurally, most Senate Democrats remain staunchly opposed to the package, citing concerns over spending priorities and the exclusion of key Democratic provisions.

In the House, the funding bill faces similar resistance from Democratic lawmakers. Despite this, Speaker Mike Johnson has expressed confidence that the measure will garner sufficient Republican support to pass, effectively ending the shutdown that has paralyzed federal operations for weeks.

The proposed legislation includes a short-term extension of funding for most federal agencies through January 30, 2026, providing a temporary reprieve while negotiations continue on broader appropriations. In addition to the stopgap funding, the package incorporates three full-year appropriations bills covering:

  • Military Construction and Veterans Affairs: Ensuring continued support for infrastructure projects and essential services for veterans.
  • Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA): Funding critical programs related to food safety, rural development, and agricultural subsidies.
  • Legislative Branch Operations: Maintaining the functioning of Congress and its support agencies, including staff salaries and administrative services.

House Democrats are expected to introduce an amendment aimed at extending Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits for an additional three years—a provision that has broad support among the party’s base. However, the amendment is unlikely to pass given the Republican opposition.