Congressional Leadership, Priorities Take Shape
BU IN DC
BU faculty staff have been busy in Washington this fall. Here are just a few of your colleagues who recently visited the nation’s capital:
College of Engineering Dean Kenneth Lutchen attended the fall meeting of the National Science Foundation’s Engineering Advisory Council, of which he is a member, on October 19 and 20.
President Robert A. Brown attended the fall membership meeting of the Association of American Universities from October 23 through 25.
Scott Solberg and Judith Martin of the School of Education met with the National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth on October 23.
Jessica Stern of the Pardee School of Global Studies spoke about counterterrorism at an alumni event on October 26.
Pardee School of Global Studies Dean Adil Najam gave a presentation at the United States Institute for Peace on security and climate change in Asia on November 3, and spoke with alumni about the future of the Pardee School on November 15.
The Initiative on Cities hosted a panel on the election’s implications for cities featuring Graham Wilson of the Initiative on Cities (IOC), Katherine Einstein of the College of Arts & Sciences, and officials from the White House and the city of Washington, DC, on November 14. Conor LeBlanc and Patricia Cahill of the IOC also attended.
CONGRESSIONAL LEADERSHIP, PRIORITIES TAKE SHAPE
In the wake of the Republican party’s sweep of both Congress and the White House in last week’s election, both House Republicans and Senate Republicans voted to keep their respective leadership teams in place. The House leadership quickly announced their intention to delay action on spending bills until March 2017, midway through the current fiscal year, rather than negotiate agency budgets with the Obama Administration. Should the spending bills be delayed, federal research agencies will likely limit grant awards and renewals until their budgets are finalized.
Senate Democrats chose Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) as their new Minority Leader, replacing retiring longtime leader Harry Reid (D-NV). Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) will continue as Vice Chair of the Democratic Conference. House Democrats delayed selecting their leadership until November 30, to give the caucus time to assess their recent loss and whether change at the top is needed.
BUZZ BITS…
- The U.S. Department of Defense announced plans to implement three recommendations made by its Defense Innovation Board in order to foster a stronger culture of innovation.
- The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) at the National Institutes of Health released an analysis of stakeholder input on the modernization of biomedical graduate education. The comments will inform the development of a new predoctoral T32 funding announcement from NIGMS.
- President Barack Obama announced his intention to appoint Victor McCrary of Morgan State University and Emilio Moran of Michigan State University as members of the National Science Board.
GRANT NEWS YOU CAN USE
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued a solicitation for its Joint Statistical Research Program, which seeks to pair up non-governmental scholars with IRS researchers to analyze taxpayer behavior and effective tax policy. Offered every two years, the IRS aims to fund research projects that explore a wide variety of tax issues and create new datasets that will inform future tax policy decisions. Applications are due by December 31, and winning projects will be announced by spring 2017.
Learn more