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UW President Cauce & Senator Cantwell Participate in EDGE Consortium Summit

On October 24, the EDGE Consortium —  a group of universities dedicated to increasing women and underrepresented in STEM — hosted a Fall Summit which convened a group of educators, university presidents, industry leaders, and lawmakers. Senator Cantwell, a long-time advocate for science education, research, and inclusion gave remarks, introduced by President Cauce, alongside an impressive group of advocates that are working to increase representation in STEM education and workforce. The Summit, titled “Building a More Inclusive and Resilient Semiconductor Workforce”, brought the group together to talk about how to leverage the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act to increase the number of engineers in the growing semiconductor industry.

The EDGE Consortium is made up of women presidents and deans of engineering from the nation’s leading research universities and schools of engineering including: Dartmouth, Indiana University, Brown University, University of California-Berkeley, University of Rochester, the University of Washington, and the Olin College of Engineering.

House CJS Appropriations Bill Details Released

The House has released details on its Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations bill.

Highlights include recommendations for:

  • National Ocean Service: House—$636.2M
  • Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR): House– $597M, about $2M below FY22 levels. For comparison, the Senate bill funds the same account at $661M.
  • Climate Cooperative Institutes (CIs): House — $89M, which is at the FY22 level. The Senate bill funds the Climate CIs at $104.1, which is at the FY23 level.
  • Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS): House — $41.0 M. The Senate bill funds IOOS at $42.5 million.
  • Sea Grant: House — $89.5M. The Senate bill funds Sea Grant at $84 million.

To see the House recommendations for more accounts within CJS including NSF, NASA, and other NOAA accounts, take a look at the UW Appropriations Tracker here and see the full bill report here.

We Have a Speaker

After more than three weeks without a leader, the House finally elected its new Speaker a few minutes ago.  Unlike the last three Speaker designees, Mike Johnson of Louisiana received the support of every Republican today.  The final vote was 220 to 209.

Read more about the developments here and here

Nominee to Head NIH Clears Committee

Earlier this morning, the nomination of Monica Bertagnolli to head the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee by a bipartisan vote of 15 to 6.  Bertagnolli, the current director of the National Cancer Institute, was nominated by President Biden earlier this year to take over the NIH, which has not had a permanent head since the retirement of Francis Collins.

Uh, Take Four?

After Tom Emmer’s candidacy for Speaker sank earlier in the day, House Republicans convened again last evening to see if they could find someone else to fill that role.  Emerging from several rounds of voting, the most recent Speaker designee is Mike Johnson of Louisiana.  The House is currently scheduled to vote on the nomination at approximately Noon ET today.  It remains to be seen whether he actually has enough votes from the House and whether the vote will even occur today.

Read more about the developments here, here, and here.