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News and updates

What We’re Reading this Week (July 6th-10th, 2020)

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Below is a selection of articles the Federal Relations team read this week.

Robert Fuller: The FBI’s Civil Rights Division will look into the death of Robert Fuller, a 24 year old black man who was found dead outside LA. Police ruled the death a suicide, however the Fuller family suspects foul play. More at BBC.

Outrage over Death of Spc. Vanessa Guillen: Public outrage has mounted after Vanessa Guillen, a US Army soldier stationed at Ft. Hood, was found dead after being reported missing for months. Her disappearance came after she filed sexual harassment allegations. A suspect in the case committed suicide during a police encounter. More at Washington Post.

USDA Leadership Changes: On Friday it was announced that Dr. Parag Chitnis will serve as Acting Director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Press Release.

President in Florida: President Trump has arrived in Florida for a fundraiser and an anti-drug trafficking meeting, however many express concerns that cases are spiking in the state. More at USA Today.

Disney: America’s most recognizable theme park, Disney World, will reopen on July 11th in a phased approach. More at CNN.

Seoul Mayor Passes Away: Park Won-Soon, the Mayor of Seoul, South Korea, was found dead on a mountainside near his home. Police declined to give further details, but ruled out foul play. Media reports note that a sexual misconduct allegation had been filed against Park on Wednesday, however under Korean law investigations close if the accused dies. More at CNN.

House Spending Bills Continue to Move Along

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The House Appropriations Committee cleared this morning two more FY2021 spending bills:  Legislative Branch and Interior.  The committee has now approved five of the 12 bills for the year.  It is slated to take up the remaining seven measures next week, with the Energy and Water Development and Labor-HHS-Education bills teed up for Monday.  On Tuesday, the following are currently on the agenda:  Defense, Commerce-Justice-Science, and Transportation-Housing.  The Homeland Security and Financial Services-General Government spending measures are scheduled for Wednesday.

While the report accompanying the Defense bill is not yet publicly available, we do know several details about various accounts funded by the DOD.  These include, for example:

  • Overall basic research:  $2.62 billion (0.7% increase)
  • Overall applied research:  $5.92 billion (2.5% decrease)
  • Army basic research:  $570.6 million (0.7% decrease)
  • Army applied research:  $1.23 billion (2.0% decrease)
  • Navy basic research:  $638.9 million (1.8% decrease)
  • Navy applied research:  $1.04 billion (10.2% decrease)
  • Air Force basic research:  $527.3 million (4.1% decrease)
  • Air Force applied research:  $1.53 billion (7.7% decrease)
  • Defense-wide basic research:  $884.7 million (6.8% increase)
  • Defense-wide applied research:  $1.95 billion (2.0% decrease)
  • DARPA (Total):  $3.51 billion (1.5% increase)

In addition, we will provide details about the other spending bills of relevance as they become available.

 

Appropriations Details Begin to Emerge

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With a number of bills moving to the full committee stage, details contained in various appropriations bills are beginning to emerge.  For example, the House Interior Appropriations bill would provide:

  • $25 million for the USGS Cooperative Research Units (an increase of $1 million);
  • $41.3 million for the USGS Climate Adaptation Science Centers program ($3-million increase);
  • $25.7 million for the ShakeAlert West Coast earthquake early warning system (level funded);

The bill is scheduled to be marked up by the full Appropriations Committee tomorrow morning.  We will continue to provide updates as more details become available.

FY2021 Appropriations Bills Finally Moving

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With schedules and logistics thrown into complete disarray by COVID-19, progress on the FY2021 spending bills had been stalled.  The logjam has been partially broken, at least for now, in the House, with all 12 bills scheduled for markup this week.

Office of Federal Relations will provide additional details as they become available.  The following are some of the highlights of several different bills so far:

Labor-HHS-Education

National Institutes of Health

  • $47 billion total, an increase of $5.5 billion above current level ($5 billion of the increase is emergency appropriations, meaning the regular appropriation for the agency is $42 billion)

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

  • $343 million, an increase of $500 million

Student Aid

  • Pell Grant Maximum:  $6,945, an increase of $150
  • SEOG:  $880 M ($15-million increase)
  • Federal Work Study:  $1.2 billion ($30-million increase)
  • GEAR UP:  $1.1 billion (an increase of $5 million)

The legislation would also prohibit the Department of Education from implementing its new Title IX regulations.

The text of the bill is available here and a summary of the bill prepared by the committee staff is available here.  The report accompanying the bill, which contains most of the detailed breakdown of funding, is not yet available.

Commerce-Justice-Science

National Science Foundation

Under the bill unveiled earlier today, NSF would be funded at $8.55 billion, an increase of $270 million.  Within NSF:

  • Research and Related Activities Directorate would be funded at $6.97 billion (an increase of $229.9 million
  • Education and Human Resources would be funded at $970 million (an increase of $30 million.

NASA

NASA would be flat-funded at $22.63 billion in the bill.  The bill proposes to divide up the funding, in part, in the following manner:

  • Science:  $7.1 billion (a decrease of $42 million)
  • Aeronautics:  $819 million (an increase of $35 million)
  • Space Tech:  $1.1 billion (level funded)
  • Space Grant:  $50 million (an increase of $2 million)

NOAA

The bill would fund NOAA at $5.45 billion, an increase of $101.9 million.

This is the text of the bill and a summary is available here.

Interior

The current version of the House bill contains $36.76 billion in regular appropriations, an increase of $771 million, and $15 billion in emergency appropriations.

While we have not yet seen further breakdowns for the agency, the USGS is slated to receive an increase of $22 million under this bill.

Both the NEH and the NEA would each be funded at $170 million, an increase of $7.5 million.

The bill text is available here and the summary of the bill is available here.

Energy and Water

Under the the subcommittee-approved bill, the Department of Energy Office of Science would see an increase of $50 million and would be funded at $7.05 billion.

ARPA-E would see an increase of $10 million, while the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy program.would be funded at $2.85 billion, an increase of $58 million.

The summary for the bill is available here.

Full Committee

The full Appropriations Committee is slated to take up the Interior bill on Friday and is scheduled to mark up both the Labor-HHS-Education and Energy and Water bills next Monday.

We will provide further details as they become available.

 

ICE SEVP Modifies Temporary Exemptions for Student Visas

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Today, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Student Exchange and Visitor Program (SEVP) modified temporary exemptions for non-immigrant students taking online classes due to COVID-19.

The modifications include:

  • Nonimmigrant F-1 and M-1 students attending schools operating entirely online may not take a full online course load and remain in the United States.
  • Nonimmigrant F-1 students attending schools operating under normal in-person classes are bound by existing federal regulations.
  • Nonimmigrant F-1 students attending schools adopting a hybrid model—that is, a mixture of online and in person classes—will be allowed to take more than one class or three credit hours online. These schools must certify to SEVP, through the Form I-20, “Certificate of Eligibility for Nonimmigrant Student Status,” certifying that the program is not entirely online, that the student is not taking an entirely online course load this semester, and that the student is taking the minimum number of online classes required to make normal progress in their degree program.

Even under the hybrid model, F-1 students may not remain in the US if all of their classes are online.

Currently, US Embassies and Consulates are still not conducting any routine visa services. Additionally, foreign students may be affected by COVID-19 entry restrictions, which bar foreign nationals coming from Brazil, China, the Schengen Area, UK, Ireland, and Iran.