Volume 38 (2019)
Trump Administration to Release FY 2020 Budget Request Next Week
The Trump Administration is planning to release its fiscal year (FY) 2020 Budget Request in batches over the next couple of weeks. Due to the 35-day partial government shutdown and delayed ending to the FY 2019 appropriations process (see previous coverage), the President’s budget, which is supposed to be delivered to Congress in early February, is not expected until mid-March. Reports indicate that preliminary details will be released the week of March 11 with full details available the week of March 18. The research community is expecting another tough year for federal science agencies and programs, especially as the President…
NIH Seeks Input on the Need for an Administrative Data Enclave
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has issued a Request for Information (RFI) on the potential development of a secure data enclave within the NIH using existing funds. This enclave would allow approved research organizations to access sensitive non-public NIH information such as information on peer review outcomes, grant progress reports, and demographic information of NIH grant applicants. NIH approval would be required for researchers to access the data. The NIH is seeking information about this proposed data enclave including examples of research that is currently not pursuable without such access, whether the benefits of a data enclave are worth…
NIH Publishes Update on Efforts to Address Sexual Harassment in Science
On February 28, the Office of the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) released an update on efforts underway at NIH to address sexual harassment in science. The update outlines that, following the National Academies of Sciences’ report on sexual harassment of women in science, NIH established the Working Group of the Advisory Committee to the Director (ACD) on Changing the Culture to End Sexual Harassment. The task of the working group is to assess the current state of sexual harassment, advise on accountability measures, propose policies, and develop strategies for encouraging research on anti-harassment policies and measures…
NASEM Report Evaluates Strategies for Reducing Child Poverty
In response to a 2015 Congressional directive to conduct a comprehensive study of child poverty in the United States, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has released a new report, A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty. The consensus study report evaluates the evidence surrounding the efficacy of existing federal programs such as the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and proposes a strategy for reducing the child poverty rate in the United States by half over the next decade. The authoring committee identifies several priority areas for research, including developing effective work-oriented child…
COSSA Washington Update, Volume 38 Issue 4
Featured News Compromise on FY 2019 Funding Reached, Averting Second Shutdown; Read COSSA’s Analysis of the Omnibus COSSA in Action COSSA Submits Comments on Draft NICHD Strategic Plan COSSA Endorses Census Idea Act Letters & Statements Congressional News Pingree Reintroduces Bill to Block USDA Research Moves Federal Agency & Administration News Supreme Court to Decide Fate of Census Citizenship Question Department of Commerce Seeks Input on 2020 Census Data Collection Nomination Opportunities Funding Opportunities Notices & Requests for Comment Open Positions Fellowships & Professional Development Community News & Reports AAAS CEO Rush Holt to Retire in 2019; Search Underway for…
Compromise on FY 2019 Funding Reached, Averting Second Shutdown; Read COSSA’s Analysis of the Omnibus
After the longest partial-government shutdown in U.S. history, Congress came to a compromise on February 14 on funding the entire federal government for the remainder of fiscal year (FY) 2019, which began on October 1, 2018. The omnibus spending package contains 7 individual appropriations bills, including the Agriculture; Commerce, Justice, Science; Interior and Environment; Homeland Security; Financial Services and General Government; State and Foreign Operations; and Transportation and Housing and Urban Development appropriations bills. On February 15, President Trump signed the bill into law, closing a painful chapter and officially kicking off work on FY 2020 funding. The final package…
COSSA Submits Comments on Draft NICHD Strategic Plan
On January 2, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) released a request for information (RFI) to accompany the institute’s strategic plan for the next five years, allowing the community to comment on the scientific themes, goals, and opportunities under consideration in the new plan. On February 15, COSSA submitted an official response to the RFI on behalf of the social and behavioral science community. COSSA’s comments included the following recommendations: The Strategic Plan should focus on the “whole person,” to include research on development at the molecular, cellular, social, environmental, behavioral, biobehavioral, and…
COSSA Endorses Census Idea Act
On February 8, COSSA endorsed the Census Improving Data and Enhanced Accuracy (IDEA) Act (S. 358) as introduced by Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI). The bill would prohibit the Department of Commerce from making any major change to the operational design of the decennial census that has not been “researched, studied, and tested” for at least three years. The Census Bureau routinely spends the years leading up to a decennial census carefully researching all proposed changes to its design and wording to ensure that they do not affect the quality of the responses received. This bill would formalize that longstanding practice…
Pingree Reintroduces Bill to Block USDA Research Moves
Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME) has reintroduced a bill from the last Congress that would prevent the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) from moving the authority of any of the agencies within the USDA mission area of Research, Education, and Economics (REE) to elsewhere within the Department of Agriculture and from moving the headquarters of agencies within the REE mission area from outside of the National Capitol Region. The bill, the Agriculture Research Integrity Act (ARIA) (H.R. 1221) would prevent the Administration’s controversial plans to move the Economic Research Service (ERS) to the Office of the Chief Economist and to physically…
Supreme Court to Decide Fate of Census Citizenship Question
The Supreme Court has announced that it will consider whether the Secretary of Commerce was within his rights to add a question on citizenship to the 2020 Census, after a judge in a lower court struck down the question in January. The Court agreed to hear arguments in the case in April and render a decision by the end of June to give the Administration enough time to make final preparations for the Census to be conducted next year. As COSSA has reported, the decision to add the citizenship question without conducting research to ensure the quality of Census data…
Department of Commerce Seeks Input on 2020 Census Data Collection
The Department of Commerce has released a request for information on whether the data collection planned for the 2020 Census meets the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act. Given the ongoing battle over the legality of the citizenship question (see previous article), the White House Office of Management and Budget, which is charged with ensuring the Bureau complies with administrative procedures, will evaluate the proposed data collection on two tracks: one containing the citizenship question and one without. According to the Federal Register notice: “Should the government prevail in pending litigation regarding the reinstatement of the citizenship question, the Census…
AAAS CEO Rush Holt to Retire in 2019; Search Underway for Successor
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) announced that chief executive Rush D. Holt will retire later in 2019. Holt has stated his intention to remain CEO until the fall of 2019 while the AAAS Board of Directors undergoes an international search for Holt’s successor. Holt, who came to AAAS in 2015, has been a long-time champion of national science policy. His tenure as CEO of AAAS follows a decorated career in science and public service including serving eight terms as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, as a visiting scholar for the Institute of Advanced…
COSSA Washington Update, Volume 38 Issue 3
Featured News Social Scientists Encouraged to Explore NSF’s Ten Big Ideas Solicitations COSSA in Action February’s Headlines Webchat to Feature a Deep Dive on Evidence-Based Policymaking COSSA Releases 2019 Rankings of College and University Social Science Investment The Research-to-Policy Collaboration Answers “Why Social Science?” Letters & Statements Congressional News Government Reopens; Final Funding for FY 2019 Still Unclear Federal Agency & Administration News Nomination Opportunities Funding Opportunities Notices & Requests for Comment Recent Reports Open Positions Fellowships & Professional Development Community News & Reports National Academies Seeking Nominations for New Decadal Survey of Social and Behavioral Science Research Related to…
COSSA Releases 2019 Rankings of College and University Social Science Investment
COSSA recently released its 2019 College and University Rankings for Federal Social and Behavioral R&D, which highlight the top university recipients of federal research dollars in the social and behavioral sciences. This year’s rankings also feature a dashboard with an interactive map of recipients of social and behavioral science R&D funding so you can see how your university stacks up against more than 450 U.S. institutions. Based on the most recent available federal data, the COSSA rankings use an inclusive selection of fields representing the breadth of the social and behavioral sciences to calculate the total federal R&D funding received by universities…
Government Reopens; Final Funding for FY 2019 Still Unclear
Following the longest partial-government shutdown in U.S. history and the passage of a short-term stopgap measure to reopen the government, the fate of fiscal year (FY) 2019 appropriations is still unclear. On January 25, Congress passed a continuing resolution (CR) to reopen all federal agencies until February 15, allowing more time to negotiate a compromise on border security—the policy issue at the center of the government funding debate. While the timing for finalizing FY 2019 spending remains uncertain, negotiations on all spending levels (except for Homeland Security) have been finalized. The end product for agencies awaiting their final appropriation is…
National Academies Seeking Nominations for New Decadal Survey of Social and Behavioral Science Research Related to Alzheimer’s Disease: DEADLINE FEBRUARY 6
The Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education (DBASSE) at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) is seeking nominations to a committee that will be charged with developing a Decadal Survey of Behavioral and Social Science Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease-Related Dementias. The study will identify research opportunities throughout the social and behavioral sciences, including psychology, sociology, demography, economics, anthropology, cognition, and behavioral neuroscience, that can be brought to bear on prevention, care, and better understanding of the effects of the disease on society. Various techniques will be used to identify the community of…
COSSA Joins Call for Department of Education to Halt Proposed Title IX Amendments
COSSA joined over 60 other organizations in a letter urging the U.S. Department of Education to halt its proposed amendments to Title IX implementing regulations that would restrict the definition of sexual harassment in academic institutions and the overall scope of the Title IX regulation. The letter recognizes that “existing legal structures (including Title IX) alone are insufficient to create the needed changes of conduct to reduce barriers to full participation,” adding that the proposed regulations “are without an evidence-based justification and are not consistent with Title IX.” The signatory societies, including COSSA, emphasize the importance that rules concerning sexual…
February’s Headlines Webchat to Feature a Deep Dive on Evidence-Based Policymaking
COSSA members are encouraged to sign up for the monthly Headlines webchat on February 14 at 2:00 pm Eastern, in which COSSA staff will recap the most important social and behavioral science news from the past month and answer participants’ questions. The February chat will feature a deep dive discussion on the recently-passed Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 with special guest Nick Hart, Director of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Evidence Project. Individuals employed by or affiliated with a COSSA member organization or university can register for the webchat here. Back to this issue’s table of contents.