Government Shutdown Looms
BU IN DC
Diane Baldwin and Ryan Russell of Sponsored Programs and Kate Mellouk of Research Compliance participated in the Federal Demonstration Project’s meeting on January 8 and 9.
GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN LOOMS
The U.S. Senate is poised to vote on a continuing resolution that will keep the federal government operating at its current spending level through February 16, but the outcome of the vote is unclear due to political disagreements over immigration, health care, and other issues. Should the resolution fail, the federal government will temporarily cease operations until lawmakers can reach agreement. If the resolution passes, Congress will give itself more time to negotiate the fiscal year 2018 spending package that is nearly four months overdue. Federal grant-making agencies will continue to withhold funds to grantees until they have certainty about their budgets for the remainder of the fiscal year.
See how agencies plan for a shutdown
WHAT’S ON WASHINGTON’S AGENDA?
With Congress back in session, what can we expect from Washington in 2018?
- Budget: The President’s State of the Union address and budget release early in the year will set the stage for fiscal year 2019 budget deliberations. While the President may propose cuts to key research and student aid priorities, Congress is unlikely to go along.
- Higher Education: Leaders of the Senate’s education committee are working on a bipartisan bill to renew the programs of the Higher Education Act. Should they succeed, it would stand in contrast to the bill passed on a party-line vote by the House Education and the Workforce Committee last year. Separately, the U.S. Department of Education plans to release new rules this spring governing sexual misconduct on college campuses.
- Immigration: Policymakers are struggling to reach agreement on the fate of young immigrants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which is set to expire in March. Later this fall, the Trump Administration plans to release rules impacting student and employment visas.
BUZZ BITS…
- Dr. Peter Highnam has been appointed Deputy Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Highnam has held roles in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, and the National Institutes of Health.
- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration released its 2018 Strategic Policy Roadmap on January 11. The roadmap addresses priorities such as opioid policies, reducing the harm caused by tobacco, generic drug availability, advanced drug manufacturing, nutritional advice, digital health, and scientific computing in support of product review.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Brenda Fitzgerald denied reports the CDC had “banned, prohibited, or forbidden employees from using” words such as “fetus” or “transgender.”