President Issues Budget Request for 2016
BU IN DC
Gloria Waters, associate provost and vice president for research, attended a Universities Research Association meeting on February 4.
Christine McGuire, associate vice president of enrollment and student affairs, participated in the National Direct Student Loan Coalition’s national loan forum on February 2 and 3.
Ambassador Charles Stith of the African Presidential Archives and Research Center held a reception at the State Department for the release of the book he co-edited on African Americans in American foreign policy on February 4.
PRESIDENT ISSUES BUDGET REQUEST FOR 2016
The President released his proposed budget for fiscal year 2016 (FY16) on Monday, signaling the opening of this year’s budget process in Washington. While the President’s proposal is unlikely to be enacted wholesale, his budget lays out the Administration’s priorities for each federal agency and sets the terms of the budget debate. The President recommends increasing spending by 7% over the budgetary caps that had been established for FY16, a position that is opposed by fiscal conservatives on Capitol Hill.
Research and student aid fared well in the President’s proposal given the austere budget climate in Washington. Highlights include (all comparisons are to the Fiscal Year 2015 enacted level):
- National Institutes of Health: Would receive $31.3 billion, a $1 billion increase
- National Science Foundation: Would receive $7.72 billion, a $379 million increase
- NASA Science: Would receive $5.29 billion, a $43.9 million increase
- Department of Energy Office of Science: Would receive $5.34 billion, a $272 million increase
- Department of Defense Basic Research: Would receive $2.08 billion, a $189 million decrease
- National Endowment for the Humanities: Would receive $147.9 million, a $1.9 million increase
- Institute of Education Sciences: Would receive $675.9 million, a $101.9 million increase
- Pell Grants: Maximum award would rise to $5,915, a $140 increase
- Federal Work Study: Would receive $990 million, level funding
The President also proposed to streamline higher education tax credits, simplify the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), and extend the federal income-based loan repayment plan to all student borrowers. He recommended bolstering staffing at the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights in order to increase enforcement of Title IX gender equity regulations. The budget also includes $215 million to launch a Precision Medicine Initiative, $1.2 billion to combat antibiotic resistant diseases, and funding to expand the BRAIN Initiative.
Next, Congress will write the annual spending bills that determine agency budgets; Congressional Republicans hope to complete work on all the bills in time for the new fiscal year to start on October 1st.
NRC RELEASES DECADAL SURVEY OF OCEAN SCIENCES
Last week, the National Research Council (NRC) released its “Sea Change: 2015-2025 Decadal Survey of Ocean Sciences” report, which was requested by the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Division of Ocean Sciences (OCE) in 2013 to help guide ocean science priorities in the coming decade. The report calls on NSF to better balance funding for ocean science and research infrastructure and recommends an immediate 10% reduction in OCE’s major infrastructure costs in its next budget. The report also defines eight “priority science questions” facing ocean researchers for the next decade.