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Category: Higher Education

House Appropriations Process Marches On

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The FY2021 appropriations process continues to march on in the House, for now, with two more bills slated for committee action today. This afternoon, the Appropriations Committee is scheduled to take up the Labor-HHS-Education and Energy and Water Development bills.

Labor-HHS-Education

As part of the  overall level of $47 billion for NIH, the Labor-HHS-Education bill would fund:

  • HIV/AIDS Research at $3.1 billion
  • Alzheimer’s research at $2.9 billion

In addition, AHRQ would be funded at $343 million

Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA) Title VII health professions and Title VIII nursing  programs would be funded at $512.5 million and $270.0 million, respectively.

The Labor-HHS report also includes the following language with respect to the reporting of foreign gifts that meet certain criteria:

Disclosure of Foreign Gifts and Contracts.—The Committee reminds colleges and universities receiving Federal funds that section 117 of the HEA requires institutions to disclose certain gifts from or contracts with foreign entities and that the Department makes such information publicly available on its website. The Committee directs the Department to work with institutions to improve the reporting process. Disclosure requirements increase transparency and help protect our national security and academic integrity.

In addition to the funding levels for the programs we reported on last week, the House bill would also fund Title VI International Education programs at $80.3 million (an increase of $4.2 million), GAANN at $24.0 million (an increase of $1 million), and the Institute of Education Sciences at $630.5 million (an increase of $7 million).

Energy and Water

The Energy and Water Development bill under consideration today calls for $2.85 billion for the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EER&E) programs, an increase of $58 million.  Within EER&E, renewable energy programs would see a cut of $4 million and would be supported at $638 million.

The bill calls for ARPA-E to be funded at $1.02 billion, which represents an increase of $35 million.

The Office of Science would see $7.05 billion under this bill, an increase of $50 million.  Following programs within Science would be funded in the following manner:

  • Advanced Scientific Computing–  $1.02 billion (+$35 million)
  • Basic Energy Sciences– $2.24 billion (+$29 million)
  • Biological and Environmental Research–  $760 million (+$10 million)
  • Fusion– $680 million (+$9 million)
  • High Energy Physics– $1.08 billion (+$5 million)
  • Nuclear Physics– $715 million (+$2 million)

 

FY2021 Appropriations Bills Finally Moving

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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.

 

Presidential Proclamation on Non-Immigrant Visas

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Today, President Trump signed an executive order curtailing H-1B, H-2B, H-4, L, and certain J visas, as well as immigrant visas, through December 31, 2020: “Proclamation Suspending Entry of Aliens Who Present a Risk to the U.S. Labor Market Following the Coronavirus Outbreak”.

Limited exemptions may be provided for those working in the food supply chain, as well as limited national security exemptions as determined by the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security. Also exempted under Sec. 4(a)(i) are persons providing medical care for COVID-19 patients or conducting medical research to combat COVID-19. With regards to J visas, professors, alien physicians, and research scholars appear to be exempt.

The proclamation applies only to persons who are outside the United States and who do not hold a valid non-immigrant visa or official permission to travel as of June 24, 2020.

The full text of the proclamation is available here. Our office is actively working with our partners to better understand the scope of this proclamation, and will update this post as new information becomes available.

US Supreme Court Preserves DACA

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Today, the US Supreme Court ruled to keep DACA in place, finding the rescission of DACA to be “arbitrary and capricious”. The decision was based on the Department of Homeland Security’s failure to comply with the Administrative Procedure Act and provide reasoned explanation. The Administration could potentially make other attempts to end the program in the future.

The full decision is available here.

Statement Regarding Presidential Proclamation on the Suspension of Entry as Nonimmigrants of Certain Students and Researchers from the People’s Republic of China

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We are writing to share information and next steps regarding the May 29, 2020 proclamation from the Trump Administration. The University of Washington is partnering across and beyond the University to gain clarity around this proclamation and better understand its impact on Chinese students, scholars and faculty. These efforts are led by the UW Offices of Federal Relations, Global Affairs, Graduate School, and Research.

Overview of the proclamation

  • The proclamation asserts that “students or researchers from the PRC studying or researching beyond the undergraduate level who are or have been associated with the [People’s Liberation Army] PLA are at high risk of being exploited or co-opted by the [People’s Republic of China] PRC authorities.”
  • It forbids the entry of “any national of the PRC seeking to enter the U.S. pursuant to an F or J visa to study or conduct research” who is or has been affiliated with an “entity in the PRC that implements or supports the PRC’s ‘military-civil fusion strategy’.”
  • This could mean that UW students or scholars with current or previous affiliation to Chinese institutions identified as high risk by the U.S. Department of State could be denied entry to the U.S. or flagged for additional screening. No information has thus far been provided about which institutions are or will be deemed high risk, or how this determination will be made.
  • It is our understanding that the determination will be made at the consulate/embassy level when an individual applies for a visa, and therefore institutions will not need to consider, review, or attempt to determine who meets the unknown criteria for this category.
  • It is expected that these decisions will impact new visa applications only. However, the proclamation may provide additional discretion to cancel/revoke visas already issued for students in the U.S.
  • NAFSA also has posted information about this new proclamation on their page.

Our commitment to Chinese students and scholars

  • The UW is committed to continuing our mission as a global university and to supporting all members of our community, no matter where they call home.
  • We will continue to admit and welcome Chinese students and scholars, and we will use the resources at our disposal to support our community members in obtaining appropriate and necessary documentation to enter the country and study on our campus.

Next steps

  • We will issue updates to the UW community as more information becomes available.
  • We ask that Chinese students and scholars remain in open communication with us.
  • Please share any official written or email communications received from the U.S. Department of State or Department of Homeland Security relating to this matter with the UW Office of Global Affairs at uwoga@uw.edu AND International Student Services or Office of Academic Personnel. This will allow us to monitor trends and understand the implementation of this proclamation so that we can better assist and advocate on behalf of our community members.

Respectively,

Sarah Castro, Director of Federal Relations

Mary Lidstrom, Vice Provost for Research

Jeff Riedinger, Vice Provost for Global Affairs

Joy Williamson-Lott, Dean of the Graduate School