Obama Issues Final Budget Request
BU IN DC
Provost of the Medical Campus and Dean of the School of Medicine Karen Antman participated in both the Association of American Medical Colleges’ board meeting and the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual conference this week.
School of Public Health Dean Sandro Galea participated in a meeting of the National Advisory Council on Minority Health and Health Disparities, of which he is a member, on February 9.
Associate Vice President for Enrollment and Student Affairs Christine McGuire attended meetings with Congressional staff and federal agency officials with the Higher Education Loan Coalition on February 8 and 9.
Mitchell Zuckoff of the College of Communication spoke about his book, 13 Hours: Benghazi Behind the Scenes, and its film adaptation at an event organized by Development and Alumni Relations on February 10.
OBAMA ISSUES FINAL BUDGET REQUEST
President Barack Obama released his budget proposal for fiscal year 2017 on Tuesday, the opening move in the annual federal budget process.
Reflecting the austere budget caps put in place by last October’s two-year budget deal, the President recommended modest increases through regular, discretionary funding. He also proposed to augment research and education priorities through a novel budget maneuver that would create new, mandatory streams of funding. While Congress has flatly stated it will not enact the President’s budget proposal, federal agencies will adopt the key research themes of the document, including cancer, neuroscience, Alzheimer’s research, basic and applied energy, and advanced computing. The budget also recommends increasing student aid and providing incentives for students to complete college on time. Next, Congress will work to complete the annual spending bills that determine agency budgets prior to the start of the new fiscal year on October 1st.
Details for select agencies and programs of particular interest to BU can be found at:
- Overall budget
- National Institutes of Health
- National Science Foundation
- NASA Science
- Department of Energy Office of Science
- Department of Defense
- National Endowment for the Humanities
- Institute of Education Sciences
- Student Aid
HOUSE PASSES NSF BILL, SENATE UNLIKELY TO FOLLOW
On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Scientific Research in the National Interest Act (H.R. 3293), a bill that would require the National Science Foundation (NSF) to publicly announce that each grant is “worthy of federal funding” and “in the national interest.” The bill was opposed by most House Democrats and the Obama Administration, which issued a statement saying the bill would “add nothing to accountability…while adding needlessly to bureaucratic burden.” The U.S. Senate does not intend to vote on the measure, so the bill is unlikely to be enacted into law.
GRANT NEWS YOU CAN USE
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is inviting proposals that address the spread of the Zika virus through both its RAPID and Ecology & Evolution of Infectious Disease (EEID) programs. According to a February 9 Dear Colleague letter, NSF is seeking submissions regarding “the ecological transmission dynamics of Zika virus.” NSF’s RAPID mechanism is used to support proposals requiring severe urgency; therefore, RAPID proposals should produce results that can be used to manage the spread of Zika within the next 12 months. For projects with a longer time line, proposers should submit to the next EEID deadline of November 16, 2016.