News and updates

Today on Capitol Hill, the House of Representatives approved a $410 billion omnibus spending bill for the remainder of fiscal year ‘09.  It was not without some controversy, with Republican leaders urging President Obama to veto the bill. House Members voted 245-178 for the package, which includes significant increases in spending on a range of domestic programs, including education, health care, and energy.  Additionally, the bill contains funding for a handful of UW-specific projects, including:

$469,000 for the Center for International Trade in Forest Products or CINTRAFOR (College of Forestry)

The USDA Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) account within the Department of Agriculture supports CINTRAFOR at UW and the International Marketing Program for Agricultural Commodities and Trade (IMPPACT) program at Washington State University.  The funds will be split between the two universities.

$475,750 for Biofuels Research and Development Infrastructure (College of Forestry)

This funding will likely support the purchase of a major piece of equipment necessary to convert biomass into fuel.

$333,000 for the UW Bothell Nursing Faculty Consortium

This funding was requested to continue the UW’s efforts to increase the number of master’s prepared nursing faculty available to teach in Washington’s community and technical colleges.

The bill, which now goes to the Senate, also prevents a cost-of-living increase for Members of Congress.  The Senate will begin debate on the bill this week but it is not likely that they will vote until sometime next week.  President Obama is expected to sign the bill.

Last night, President Barack Obama addressed a joint session of Congress to give a preview of his first budget request. While it was short on actual numbers, the President did pledge to seek cuts in certain defense, farm, and education programs and root out waste in government spending. He further said that his administration has already identified nearly $2 trillion dollars in savings over the next decade through cuts to programs that they consider wasteful and ineffective. Obama is expected to release an outline of his first budget request on Thursday.  We expect that this will provide broad budget numbers at the agency level but not a lot of detail for individual programs. It will, however, provide us with a glimpse of how the administration will begin to increase — or decrease — funding for certain programs. The Office of Federal Relations will look for those items that might affect the UW, including those affecting education and research programs.

The $410 billion omnibus appropriations bill may pass the House of Representatives as early as this Wednesday and in the following few days in the Senate. The higher education community was successful in its advocacy for increases in some agencies and programs of critical importance. Additionally, UW was successful in securing support for congressionally directed appropriations for high priority campus projects in the FY09 cycle. The government is faced with a March 6th deadline to complete work on the omnibus, as the continuing resolution — that is currently funding the government at FY2008 levels — expires at that point. Continue reading “FY09 Omnibus Figures Available for Key Higher Education Accounts”