News

Travel Ban; Proposed Pell Cuts; Gold Standard Science

BU IN DC

President Melissa Gilliam addressed more than 200 Washington-area alumni on May 28th as part of her Presidential Welcome Series.

Andrew Taylor of the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine attended the Association of American Medical Colleges Group on Research Advancement and Development (GRAND) meeting between June 4th and 6th.

Diane Baldwin, Rachelle Joseph, Kathryn Mellouk, and Ryan Russell of the Office of Research attended the Council on Governmental Relations meeting on June 5th and 6th.

Vinit Nijhawan of the Questrom School of Business received the Bayh-Dole Coalition's American Innovator Award at a ceremony on June 4th.

ADMINISTRATION ANNOUNCES TRAVEL BAN, CHINA VISA SCRUTINY, PAUSE TO STUDENT VISA INTERVIEWS

On Wednesday, President Donald J. Trump issued a proclamation that will ban foreign nationals from 12 countries, including Iran and Myanmar, from entering the United States after June 9th. The order also restricts visas for nationals from nine additional countries, including Venezuela and Cuba. Unlike the travel bans imposed in the first Trump Administration, the proclamation applies to students and exchange visitors. The President also signed a proclamation temporarily preventing international students and scholars from entering the country to attend Harvard University.

The proclamations follow news from last week that the Administration intends to revoke visas for certain Chinese students with ties to the Chinese Communist Party or who are studying in sensitive fields. The State Department has also paused interviews for student visas while it updates its policy on reviewing applicants' social media.

Last week, the Massachusetts Congressional delegation decried the Administration's treatment of international students in a letter sent to several Trump Administration officials.

The BU International Students & Scholars Office maintains a news webpage with updates for the BU community.

WHITE HOUSE RELEASES MORE DETAILS ON PROPOSED STUDENT AID, RESEARCH CUTS

On Friday, the White House released additional details on the President's Budget Request for fiscal year 2026, building on the "skinny budget" released in early May. Members of Congress have already expressed bipartisan opposition to the President's proposal, which merely serves as a starting point as Congress writes the spending bills that determine the federal budget. In addition to the previously announced recommendation to cut the National Science Foundation by 56% and the National Institutes of Health by 40%, the White House revealed it would like to reduce the maximum Pell Grant award for low-income students by 23% and have colleges and employers pay for more of the Federal Work-Study program.

Read the White House's proposed education budget

BUZZ BITS...

• The White House withdrew the nomination of Jared Isaacman to serve as administrator of NASA on Saturday, with a spokesperson saying, "it’s imperative everyone, especially in a role as important as the head of NASA, is mission-aligned with the Trump administration." Isaacman was scheduled to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate this week.
• Last week, the Department of Education announced that Dr. Amber Northern will join the agency as a senior advisor "who will focus on reforming the Institute of Education Sciences." Northern will take leave from her role as senior vice president for research at the right-leaning Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
• President Trump issued an executive order on "Restoring Gold Standard Science" last week calling on federal agencies to support science that is “reproducible, transparent, accepting of negative results as positive outcomes, and subject to unbiased peer review.” The order gives political appointees responsibility for correcting the scientific information their agencies produce.
• Secretary of Education Linda McMahon defended the Trump Administration's proposed budget cuts during appearances before Congressional committees this week. Both Republican and Democratic Senators criticized the Administration's plan to cut funding for TRIO college preparatory programs and the Department's Office for Civil Rights.
• On Wednesday, a House Judiciary Subcommittee held a hearing entitled, "The Elite Universities Cartel: A History of Anticompetitive Collusion Inflating the Cost of Higher Education." Subcommittee Chairman Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI) claimed that Ivy League universities "collude to raise prices and spend their inflated cartel earnings on administrative bloat."

Trump Science Plans; McMahon; DARPA

BU IN DC

Julie Wickstrom of Enrollment and Student Administration joined the Higher Education Loan Coalition for meetings with Congressional offices and Department of Education officials regarding federal financial aid from May 18th to 21st.

Catherine Klapperich of the College of Engineering discussed federal investments in women’s health research with Congressional staff as part of Women’s Health Hill Day on May 21st.

Gerald Denis of the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine participated in the Association of American Cancer Institutes and American Association for Cancer Research annual Hill Day on Thursday, May 22nd.

KRATSIOS LAYS OUT ADMINISTRATION'S SCIENCE PRIORITIES

On Monday, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios said the Trump Administration wants to support "Gold Standard" science that is reproducible and transparent. During remarks on "Reinvigorating America’s Scientific Enterprise" delivered at the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), Kratsios said that diversity initiatives "degrade our scientific enterprise" and that the public has a "crisis of confidence" in science because "political biases are displacing the vital search for truth." He added that "spending more money on the wrong things is far worse than spending less money on the right things." In response to a question from NAS Director Marcia McNutt, Kratsios said he did not believe that scientists were considering leaving the United States to work abroad due to the current changes at federal science agencies.

Read his remarks

CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS FOCUS ON NIH CUTS, COLLEGE PREP PROGRAMS, AND STUDENT VISAS

Trump Administration Cabinet secretaries faced sharp questioning from Congressional Democrats during several Appropriations Committee hearings on Capitol Hill this week.

• Secretary of Education Linda McMahon answered questions from House Appropriations Committee Democrats on Wednesday about the reorganization of the Department of Education and cuts to its staff. Committee Republicans urged more action to address the "influence of the Chinese Communist Party" and antisemitism on campuses. McMahon defended the Administration's proposal to eliminate TRIO and GEAR UP college preparation programs, asserting the federal government should center career and technical training.
• Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert Kennedy claimed public colleges have appropriately used reimbursements for facilities & administrative costs from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), while some wealthy private universities have abused them during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on Tuesday. He also asserted that NIH "has gone off the rails over the past 20 years," citing its support for certain types of Alzheimer's disease research.
• Secretary of State Marco Rubio was asked during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on Tuesday how many student visas the Trump Administration had terminated. He responded, "I don't know the latest count, but we probably have more to do." Rubio also claimed a BU School of Public Health tracker that estimated the number of deaths attributable to the dismantling of USAID was "false or fake."

BUZZ BITS...

• The U.S. House of Representatives passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1), a bill that would expand the college endowment excise tax and reduce federal support for student loans and Pell Grants, by a vote of 215 to 214 on Thursday. The bill advances to the Senate, where lawmakers are expected to take a different approach to the tax package.
• Last Wednesday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth issued an internal memorandum signaling that the Department of Defense would cap reimbursement for facilities & administrative costs for university grantees at 15%. The Department has not yet issued public guidance on how the cap will be implemented; similar proposals at other federal agencies are currently on hold due to lawsuits.
• The Department of Defense has two new science leaders: Emil Michael is under secretary of defense for research and engineering and Steve Winchell is director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Michael previously served as chief business officer at Uber and Winchell came from the Department's Strategic Capabilities Office.
• On Tuesday, Massachusetts Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey sent a letter to the White House expressing concerns with the Administration's recent grant terminations and proposed reorganization of the National Science Foundation.

A NOTE TO OUR READERS

With Congress entering a District Work Period, Beltway BUzz will temporarily pause next week. Visit our website or follow us on LinkedIn for updates.