News

Trump Budget Request; Student Aid Cuts; Antisemitism Bills

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President Melissa Gilliam met with Massachusetts lawmakers on Capitol Hill on April 29th. Gilliam spoke with Representatives Stephen Lynch, Richard Neal, and Lori Trahan about the impact of federal grant terminations, investing in student aid, and supporting BU's global community.

Christopher Robertson of the School of Law hosted a Congressional briefing regarding Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reimbursement discrimination and its impact on women's health on April 29th. Isabelle Ninh also attended.

PRESIDENT'S BUDGET REQUEST EXPECTED TODAY

President Donald J. Trump is expected to release a "skinny" budget proposal, a high-level overview of his funding priorities, later today. While the President's Budget Request (PBR) serves as a starting point for Congressional appropriators, it is Congress that holds the constitutional "power of the purse" and ultimately determines agency funding levels. Leaked documents suggest the President's proposal will call for steep cuts to science and cultural agency budgets, as well as student aid programs. In response, advocates are preparing to spend the summer urging lawmakers to write spending bills that robustly invest in federal research and student aid.

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HOUSE EDUCATION COMMITTEE APPROVES CUTS TO PELL GRANTS, STUDENT LENDING

The House Committee on Education and Workforce approved the Student Success and Taxpayer Savings Plan, a bill to reduce education spending by $330 billion over 10 years, on a party-line vote of 21-14 on Tuesday. The bill would cap undergraduate loans at $50,000, graduate loans at $100,000, and graduate professional loans at $150,000; limit parent PLUS loans; eliminate subsidized undergraduate loans and graduate PLUS loans; narrow eligibility for Pell Grants; and require colleges to pay the federal government for the unpaid federal loan balances of alumni. The bill will be included in a larger reconciliation package to be voted on by the full U.S. House of Representatives this summer as Congress identifies funds to pay for a tax bill this year. The Senate has not released its draft reconciliation bill.

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BUZZ BITS...

  • The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee postponed a vote on two campus antisemitism bills on Wednesday following a contentious markup. Republican Senators Rand Paul (KY) and Susan Collins (ME) joined Democrats in supporting amendments focused on free speech. Paul also backed an amendment offered by Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) opposing the revocation of student visas based on political speech. The path forward for the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which would codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, is now unclear.
  • The Senate Appropriations Committee held a hearing on Wednesday entitled "Biomedical Research: Keeping America’s Edge in Innovation." Chair Susan Collins (R-ME) voiced her opposition to the Trump Administration's cuts to research funding, reductions in staff at the National Institutes of Health, and proposed caps on facilities and administrative cost reimbursement.
  • Last week, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) appointed six new acting NIH institute directors, including Alison Cernich at the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development, Monica Webb Hooper at the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, Andrea Beckel-Mitchener at the National Institute of Mental Health, and Jeff Taubenberger at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The interim directors replace NIH officials who resigned or were placed on leave by the Trump Administration.

 

NSF Director; Accreditation; DOE F&A Caps

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Indara Suarez of the College of Arts & Sciences met with Congressional offices to discuss the importance of investing in physics research as part of the U.S. Large Hadron Collider Users Association (USLUA) visit to Capitol Hill on April 24th.

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION DIRECTOR RESIGNS

National Science Foundation (NSF) Director Sethuraman "Panch" Panchanathan announced yesterday that he is stepping down as leader of the agency, 16 months before the end of his six-year term. Panch joined the agency in 2020 after being appointed by President Donald J. Trump in 2019. His decision comes on the heels of the Trump Administration dissolving the agency's advisory committees and announcing the termination of NSF grants that do not align with the Administration's priorities. NSF did not announce an interim leader.

Read the NSF announcement

TRUMP ISSUES HIGHER EDUCATION EXECUTIVE ORDERS

On Wednesday, President Donald J. Trump issued several executive orders pertaining to higher education. They include:

The Department of Education will decide how to implement each order, including the specific steps required.

JUDGE BLOCKS DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY RESEARCH CUTS

Last week, a district court judge issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting the Department of Energy from moving forward with its planned 15% cap on reimbursements for facilities & administrative (F&A) costs for university grantees. A coalition of universities sued to stop the Trump Administration's April 11th action, which would apply to both current and future college and university grants. The Administration had previously proposed a similar cap on F&A reimbursement for National Institutes of Health grants; that cap is on hold due to a permanent nationwide injunction.

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The Rise of a Powerhouse BU Department: Economics

Notable alums—from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to the prime minister of Iceland to President Trump’s chief economic advisor to the Illinois secretary of state—have all helped boost the department’s notoriety, while talk about tariffs has made its subject matter all the more timely.