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News and updates

News and updates

What We’re Reading, March 19-23

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Here’s a selection of articles we read this week.

What does a scientist look like? When asked to draw a scientist, school-age kids in the United States are increasingly sketching women. That’s the main conclusion of a new study that compiled information about 20,860 pictures drawn by students age 5 to 18 over 5 decades. Read more from Science Magazine.

The Omnibus – Congressional negotiators reached a tentative agreement Wednesday night on a $1.3 trillion federal spending bill, releasing it to the public just 52 hours before a government shutdown deadline. The draft billruns 2,232 pages, and we’re going through it so you don’t have to. Click through to Washington Post for the key highlights.

Word on the Hill – Roll Call is all over Capitol Hill and its surrounding haunts looking for good stories. Some of their best are ones they come across while reporting the big stories. Read ’em at Roll Call.

Randy’s blog is back! –  Randy Hodgins, UW’s vice president for external affairs (and our boss) is back to blogging! Read his first post which happens to discuss his recent trip to DC here.

Senate Clears Spending Package

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A few hours after House did its part, the Senate cleared the FY2018 omnibus spending package by a vote of 65 – 32. President Trump has signaled that he will sign the measure, avoiding a shutdown, which would occur if it were not signed into law before midnight tonight.

More Omnibus Details Available

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On the Defense front, the omnibus package would fund DoD basic research (“6.1”) programs at a total of $2.34 billion, an increase of $114.6 million above the Administration request.  Applied research (“6.2”) programs would be funded at $5.68 billion, or $708.2 million above the request.

Basic research funding breaks down in the following manner in the bill:

  • Army:  $470.0 million ($40 million above the request)
  • Navy:  $621.9 million ($26 million above the request)
  • Air Force:  $520.3 million ($15 million above the request)
  • Defense-wide:  $731.0 million ($33.6 million above the request)

Funding for applied research is divided up in the following manner:

  • Army:  $1.37 billion ($480.2 million above the request)
  • Navy:  $994.1 million ($108.0 million above the request)
  • Air Force:  $1.43 billion ($150.6 million above the request)
  • Defense-wide:  $1.88 billion ($30.6 million below the request)

 

Additional Details of Omnibus Package Available

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More details of the FY2018 Omnibus spending package unveiled last are now available.

Within the budget for the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Nursing Workforce Development programs would be funded at $249.5 million, an increase of $20 million above the final FY2017 enacted levels.  The Public Health and Preventive Medicine program would be level funded at $17.0 million under this bill.

With respect to programs funded by the Department of Education, Title VI/ International Education programs would collectively be level funded at $72.2 million.  The Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) program would see a cut of $5 million to $23.0 million.

The bill provides $350 million to allow borrowers not currently eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program to join it.  It also would use a portion of the surplus from the Pell Grant program to over the increased mandatory expense associated with the increase in the maximum award.

The Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction account at the National Science Foundation would be funded at the Administration-requested level of $182.8 million, with $57.8 million dedicated to the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, also as requested by the Administration.

Within the NASA budget, Earth Science programs would essentially be level funded at $1.9 billion.  The popular Space Grant program would be level funded at the FY2017 level of $40.0 million.

The Commerce-Justice-State portion of the package funds, among other agencies and programs, NOAA and its various programs.  Sea Grant, which was proposed for elimination by the Administration, would see a slight increase to $76.5 million while the Integrated Ocean Observing System program would be funded at $35.0 million, also a slight increase above the FY2017 level.  As part of the Climate Research account within the Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) line, Climate Research Labs and Cooperative Institutes are slated for level funding of $60 million.

Of interest in the Interior portion of the massive legislative package, the bill would level fund the Cooperative Research Units at the U.S. Geological Survey at $17.4 million while mandating that the Survey maintain a total of eight Climate Science Centers around the country in FY2018 and keeping them level funded at $25.3 million.

Office of Federal Relations will provide further details.