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Senate Judiciary Approves PATENT Act, House Begins to Move on Innovation Act

Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the PATENT Act by a vote of 16 to 4, with only Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chris Coons (D-DE), David Vitter (R-LA), and Ted Cruz (R-TX) voting against it.

During consideration of the bill, the Committee approved an amendment offered by John Cornyn (R-TX) that alters the definition of micro-entity status in a way that is potentially helpful to universities, technology transfer organizations, and research foundations. The panel also approved the manager’s amendment, which among other changes, clarifies that the burden is on the prevailing party to demonstrate that it is entitled to fee shifting, a provision which universities support.

The bill now waits for time by the Full Senate.

The House is now seeing motion on HR 9, the Innovation Act. The measure has been somewhat difficult to move due to substantial opposition by stakeholders, including higher education, which was not voiced last Congress when the measure passed overwhelmingly. The House is expected to potentially mark up the bill, with changes, late next week.

What We’re Reading This Week, June 1-5

Here’s a selection of article the UW Federal Relations team is reading this week.

 

Not So Easy – Six months in to his tenure as Majority Leader, Senator Mitch McConnell has increasingly had challenges maintaining the Senate agenda with three Senators running for President. Governing is hard. Read more at The Hill.

Running Point – Washington Congressman Dave Reichert is the point person for policing and police issues within the House Republican caucus. With increasing attention on police and police tactics, Reichert is becoming a leading voice on how Congress can best respond to the issues in community policing. Read more a Roll Call. 

America All the Way – Chinese students are increasingly picking the US as their choice destination for higher education. There are more than a quarter of a million students from China in colleges in the United States – a third of all international students in the country – and almost a fivefold increase since 2000. University of Illinois Urbana-Champlain is the example. Read more at the BBC. 

Just Like Cable – The college tuition bill to your Comcast bill and the many bundled services and shockingly high charges within there. The bulk of these prices are being blamed on financial shortfalls universities see when students use transfer credits. Read more at the Washington Post. A similar story on colleges down playing the true cost of attending college is in USA Today.

Mind the Gap – While most are concerned about the enrollment gap for lower-income students, equal attention is not typically paid to the graduation gap, which these students also face. The graduation gap, and the hurdles to completing your college education, are actually wider than enrolling. The New York Times examines the widening gulf.

FIFA officials finally admitted to taking bribes!!!!

T-HUD Goes to House Floor

House Republicans are bringing the fifth spending measure to the House floor this year. Late Wednesday, the House began consideration of the $55.3 billion FY16 Transportation-HUD bill. Debate is expected to continue Thursday. Final votes for the week are expected in the afternoon. Rail safety dominated the floor debate Wednesday, as it has for the Transportation-HUD bill since the deadly derailment of an Amtrak train near Philadelphia on May 12. Amtrak accounts saw some modest boosts, though Thursday’s amendment votes will give House members a chance to cut funding for the railroad service.

House Passes CJS

Today, the House of Representatives passed HR 2578the FY16  Commerce, Justice, Science bill by a vote of 242–183. Twelve Democrats voted for and ten Republicans voted against the $51.4 billion measure. The legislation had a host of amendments ranging from Cuba, bullets, immigration, to marijuana.

Unfortunately, no amendments were offered on some of the most concerning provisions to the research community, mainly the cuts to NSF’s Geosciences (GEO) and Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE) directorates. Overall, the legislation appropriates $7.3 billion for NSF, which is $50 million or a 0.7 percent increase over FY15. The bill appropriates $5.9 billion for the Research and Related Activities account which is an increase of $50 million, or 0.8 percent above the FY15 level. Both the Education and Human Resources ($866 million) and Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction ($200 million) Directorates are flat funded.

While avoiding specific funding levels by directorate, the House Committee Report language directs NSF to allocate no less than 70% of research and related activity funding to Biological Sciences, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, Engineering, and Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering.  Moreover. Further, the language also directs NSF to allocate no less than FY15 levels for the: Office of International Science and Engineering; Integrative Activities; and U.S. Arctic Commission. The results of this direction would significant cut to the two directorates not explicitly named: GEO and SBE.  This language would force NSF to cut over $250 million.  The combined current budget for these two directorates is $1,576.6 million; the FY 2016 budget in the House bill is $256.7 million or 16.3 percent less. In FY15, the GEO budget  $1.3 billion and the SBE budget $272 million.

These cuts reflects similar assaults on these directorates from the House’s recently passed America COMPETES legislation.

In the May 14th Science Insider article, House CJS Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Culberson (R-TX) indicated the rationale behind such a cut was that geosciences is not a “pure science.” Clearly there is strong communication between the two committees.

Unfortunately, there are additional report language concerns. the report language also directs the NSF to develop guidelines and present a plan to the committee within 180 days of enactment to ensure that research conducted by NSF grantees is replicable. At this time, the community does not fully know the implications, if any, such language could have on the research conducted at U.S. universities.

Amendments of note:

  • The House narrowly defeated an amendment (213 to 214) from Rep. Elizabeth Esty (D-CT) that would have increased funding for Industrial Technology Servicese (ITS). ITS consists of 3 programs, including the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership. The amendment would have increased funding for ITS by $11 million and reduced funding for buildings and facilities of the federal prison system by $31M.
  • An amendment from Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX), which would have reduced funding for the science mission directorate by $103M, and directed $67M to the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and exploration. Rep. Babin decided not to offer the amendment.
  • An amendment offered by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)  that would reduce funds in the bill by 1 percent across-the-board excepting the FBI and specified accounts for the Department of Justice. The Blackburn amendment failed by a vote of 168-257.
  • An amendment offered by Reps. Bill Foster (D-IL) and Scott Garrett (R-NJ) that would prohibit the use of funds to fund any Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) program within NSF or NASA. The Foster-Garrett amendment failed by a vote of 195-232.

Here is a list of all the amendments that passed.

In addition, the White House has issued a Statement of Administration Policy opposing the passage of the House legislation.

Attention on FY16 CJS now turns to the Senate.

This Week in Congress, June 1-5

Congress is back in session today after a week long recess. This week the House is expected to consider Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations beginning Tuesday at noon and floor consideration of Transportation-HUD Appropriations may begin as early as Thursday. The Senate is expected to continue consideration of a bill that would extend provisions of the Patriot Act and overhaul domestic surveillance authorities.

Here are a few committee hearings we’re watching this week.

TUESDAY, JUNE 2

House Appropriations
FISCAL 2016 APPROPRIATIONS: DEFENSE
10:15 a.m., 2359 Rayburn Bldg.
Full Committee Markup

House Judiciary
PUBLIC COLLEGES AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT
2 p.m., 2141 Rayburn Bldg.
Subcommittee Hearing

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3

Senate HELP
COLLEGE AFFORDABILITY
10 a.m., 430 Dirksen Bldg.
Full Committee Hearing

THURSDAY, JUNE 4

Senate Judiciary
PATENT OVERHAUL AND JUDICIAL NOMINATIONS
9:30 a.m., 226 Dirksen Bldg.
Full Committee Markup