The House Education and Labor Committee is scheduled to mark up this morning the HEA reauthorization legislation that was introduced approximately two weeks ago. Yesterday, an amendment to the bill that would essentially serve as the substitute to the original at the markup session was filed.
We expect the markup to be fairly partisan, given the nature of the bill. We will provide further updates.
Here is a selection of articles the Federal Relations team has enjoyed reading this week.
California to Allow Athletes to Profit from Image: California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill which would allow athletes at California universities to enter into brand deals, and profit from their image and likeness. The NCAA objects to this move, arguing that it would eliminate amateurism from college athletics and create an unfair recruiting advantage. The bill will go into effect in three years, which allows time for the NCAA to mount a response. Visit LA Times for the full story.
NIH Weighs in on Foreign Influence: In an interview with Science, NIH Director of Extramural Research Michael Lauer offered his description as to how the US research enterprise is undermined by foreign influence. According to Lauer, this involves a two-pronged approach of infiltrating grant proposals and setting up overseas shadow labs. The US Government considers the breach of scientific research to be a national security concern, and warns researchers of failure to disclose ties to foreign institutions. Recent crackdowns on undisclosed foreign influence have left several institutions in hot water, and resulted in the dismissal of a number of faculty around the country. Of primary concern is China and the Thousand Talents Program, which leads some to argue that undue scrutiny is being placed on ethnically Chinese researchers. For the full story see Science Magazine.
Word of Impeachment Gets Louder: The US House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry into President Trump, based on a whistleblower complaint and accusations of quid pro quo, is getting more intense. Trump confidant Rudy Giuliani has been issued a subpoena, the whisteblower is expected to testify before the House Select Committee on Intelligence, and there is further accusations of involvement against members of Trump’s cabinet. The President has lashed out at top Democrats, highlighting strong partisan divides which could potentially distract from other key issues. You can find the latest updates at The Washington Post.
Supreme Court Upholds Internet Deregulation: On Tuesday the US Supreme Court voted to uphold a ruling repealing net neutrality regulations. The Court found that the FCC was within its’ authority to deregulate internet service providers. This decision earmarks a major victory for the Trump Administration, and could potentially allow internet providers to block content or charge premium prices for accessing certain websites. The Court did also find the FCC cannot bar state and local governments from passing their own regulations, so the debate will likely continue at the local level. For the full story, see The New York Times.
Harvard Wins Controversial Affirmative Action Case: A Federal Judge in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts ruled in favor of Harvard University, curtailing a highly controversial court case against affirmative action. The case was brought forth by a group representing Harvard-rejected Asian-American students. The group claims that the Harvard admissions process is racist in favor of Black and Hispanic students. Judge Allison D. Burroughs ruled that Harvard adhered to the constitutional standard for considering race in admissions. Race may be considered, however it must be one of many factors, and racial quotas are prohibited based on legal precedent. Universities nationwide have been watching this case closely, as college admissions processes have come under scrutiny in light of recent corruption scandals. Read more at The New York Times.
The House adopted yesterday by a vote of 226 to 203 H.R. 2740, the first set of spending bills for FY2020.
Shortly after its passage, the chamber started debate on the next set of measures, a five-bill package, which includes the Commerce-Justice-Science, Agriculture, Interior and Environment, Transportation and Housing, and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs bills. Due to the large number of amendments made in order for the floor, the House is expected to carry over its work on the legislation into next week.
Even as the House continues to move forward on its appropriations process, an agreement between the two houses of Congress and between Congress and the White House on how to deal with the budget caps remains elusive. While representatives from all sides met yesterday, no deal was reached. With no changes to current law, for next year, there would be a cut of $125 billion below this year’s overall spending levels.
As scheduled, three different subcommittees approved their respective FY2020 appropriations bills earlier today. No full committee markup date has been for the three measures– the Defense, Energy and Water Development, and Interior bills. Detailed reports for the bills have not yet been released.
The full Appropriations Committee is slated to take up the State-Foreign Operations bill tomorrow.
On Friday, the Commerce-Justice-Science Subcommittee is scheduled to take up its FY2020 measure, which funds, among other agencies, several of great interest to UW, such as the National Science Foundation, NOAA, and NASA.
When the House Appropriations Committee convenes later this morning, it will take up a Labor-HHS-Education measure that includes increases for myriad programs of importance to the University of Washington.
Biomedical/health-care
In the arena of biomedical research and health-care related matters, as previously noted, the bill would increase funding to NIH by $2 billion to $41.1 billion.
The measure would also increase support to the Health Resources and Services Administration by $472 million above the current level to a total of $7.32 billion. Within that amount, the Health Professions portfolio would be funded at $854.9 million, an increase of $108.2 million.
The Centers for Disease Control would see a bump of $920 million to a total of $8.26 billion, with $1.35 billion slated for the Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotions account.
The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health would see an increase of $10 million to $346.3 million in FY2020.
The bill would fund the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration at $5.86 billion, an increase of $114.5 million.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality would be increased by $20 million to $358.2 million in FY2020.
Student Aid/ Higher Education
With respect to student aid and higher education programs, the bill would increase the Pell Grant maximum award by $150 to $6,345. The bill would direct $2 million to the Institute for Education Sciences to study the effectiveness of the Second Chance Pell Program.
Other student aid and higher education programs of interest to UW and the broader higher education community would seen increases as well, including:
On the international education front, the domestic portion of Title VI would see a $15.3-million increase to a total of $80.4 million while the “overseas” portion would be increased by $1.7 million to $8.7 million.
The Institute for Educational Sciences would be funded at a total of $650 million, which would represent a $34-million increase above the current level. Within that about, $205 million is slated for research and $61 million would be allocated to research on special education.