Congressional News
Senate Finance Committee Holds Hearing on Foreign Threats to Taxpayer-Funded Research
On June 5, the Senate Committee on Finance held a hearing to discuss the espionage of publicly funded medical research by foreign governments as well as potential oversight or policy solutions. Witnesses present were Assistant Deputy Secretary for National Security at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Captain Michael Schmoyer, Principal Deputy Director at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Dr. Lawrence Tabak, Chief of Investigative Operations at the HHS Office of Inspector General Les Hollie, Deputy Assistant Director of Homeland Security Investigations at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Louis Rodi, and Associate Director for Biophysical Oncology…
House Panel Approves FY 2020 Funding for NSF, Census, BJS, and NIJ
On May 22, the House Appropriations Committee approved its fiscal year (FY) 2020 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) Appropriations Bill; the CJS Subcommittee advanced the bill on May 17. This bill contains annual funding proposals for the National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Justice (DOJ), and Census Bureau, among other federal departments and agencies. Overall, the House bill is favorable to agencies important to the COSSA community, with increases proposed across the bill’s jurisdiction. At a glance… The House CJS bill includes $8.6 billion for the National Science Foundation in FY 2020, which, if appropriated, would be a…
Joint Economic Committee Holds Hearing on 2020 Census and Business Impacts
On May 22, Congress’ Joint Economic Committee held a hearing on “The Economic Impacts of the 2020 Census and Business Uses of Federal Data.” Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), who co-chairs the House Census Caucus, presided over the hearing, which featured testimony from Andrew Reamer, Research Professor at the George Washington University’s George Washington Institute of Public Policy; Howard Feinberg, Vice President for Advocacy at the Insights Association and Co-Director of the Census Project; Mallory Bateman, Senior Research Analyst at the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute; and Nicholas Eberstadt, Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy at the American…
International Education Reauthorization Bills Introduced in Both Chambers
On May 7, Representatives David Price (D-NC), Susan Davis (D-CA) and Andy Levin (D-NJ) introduced Advancing International and Foreign Language Education Act (H.R. 2562) to reauthorize the Title VI International Education programs at the Department of Education. Both bills aim to support the existing international education programs at the Department. The bill is a companion to S. 342 introduced earlier this year by Senators Todd Young (R-IN) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI). More information can be found in Rep. Price’s press release. Back to this issue’s table of contents.
House Committee Approves FY 2020 Spending for NIH, CDC, BLS, AHRQ, ED
On May 8, the House Appropriations Committee approved its fiscal year (FY) 2020 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) Appropriations Bill; the Labor-HHS Subcommittee advanced the bill on April 30. This bill contains annual funding proposals for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Education (ED), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), among other federal departments and agencies. In a departure from what has become regular practice, the Labor-HHS bill was one of the first out the gate this year; the…
House Science Committee Holds Hearing on NSF Fiscal Year 2020 Budget Request
On May 8, the Research and Technology Subcommittee of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology held a hearing to discuss the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) budget request for fiscal year (FY) 2020. Witnesses included NSF Director Dr. France Córdova and National Science Board Chair Dr. Diane Souvaine. Research and Technology Subcommittee Chairwoman Haley Stevens (D-MI) presided over the hearing and used her opening statement to highlight the accomplishments of NSF and its important role as the only federal agency that supports basic research across all disciplines of science. She also drew attention to the fact that NSF serves…
Congress Returns; Subcommittees Begin Marking Up Spending Legislation
After a two-week spring recess, Congress is back in session and is moving ahead on fiscal year (FY) 2020 spending. As COSSA has reported, many agency leaders have already testified in front of appropriations subcommittees, with more expected in the coming weeks. Additionally, agency leaders important to the social and behavioral science enterprise, including leaders from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are expected to testify in front of committees with authorization jurisdiction over their agencies in the next month. Appropriations subcommittees are also moving quickly on drafting spending bills, with the Labor, Health…
Talks Continue as Congress Attempts to Raise Budget Caps
As previously reported, fiscal year (FY) 2020 discretionary spending is subject to austere caps that were put in place in 2011 as part of a larger effort to significantly reduce the size of the federal budget over 10 years. The Budget Control Act of 2011, or BCA, put in place caps on discretionary spending for both nondefense and defense spending for the period of 2013 through 2021. COSSA joined a letter with over 800 organizational signatures urging Congress to raise these spending caps. Congressional leaders are now considering several solutions to raise the discretionary spending caps and are currently taking…
Congress Holds Hearings on FY 2020 NIH Budget
On April 2, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (LHHS) hosted leadership from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to testify on the agency’s fiscal year (FY) 2020 budget request on April 2. Present were NIH Director Francis Collins, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Director Diana Bianchi, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Anthony Fauci, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Director Gary Gibbons, National Cancer Institute (NCI) Deputy Director Doug Lowy, and National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Director Nora Volkow. Members from…
Release of President’s Budget Puts Pressure on Congress to Raise Caps; COSSA Urges Advocates to Take Action
The release of the President’s budget request signals the official kick-off of the annual appropriations process in Congress. However, before Congress can fully dive into the FY 2020 bills, lawmakers must address a larger threat facing federal funding for next year. As COSSA has been reporting, discretionary spending that is appropriated every year by Congress has been subject to austere caps that were put in place in 2011 as part of a larger effort to significantly reduce the size of the federal budget over 10 years. The Budget Control Act of 2011, or BCA, put in place caps on discretionary…
Congressional Appropriators Get to Work; NSF Director Testifies
Following the release of the Administration’s fiscal year (FY) 2020 budget request, Congressional leaders have gotten to work on spending bills for the coming fiscal year. As COSSA has previously reported, Congress must first address the limits to discretionary spending (“raise the caps”) before they can complete the FY 2020 appropriations process. Congress has until the end of September to finalize all government spending. COSSA has signed onto a letter as part of the Coalition for National Science Funding (CNSF) to encourage Congress to raise the caps on discretionary spending. While Congress has yet to reach a broader budget deal…
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…
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 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…
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…
Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act Becomes Law
On January 14, President Trump signed the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 into law. Championed by former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), the legislation represents a bipartisan recognition of the importance of science and data in helping to design and improve policies (see COSSA’s previous coverage for more details on the legislation). After the bill was signed, COSSA released a statement applauding the legislation. We will continue to report on details of the bill’s implementation as they become available. Back to this issue’s table of contents.
Committees Begin to Announce Leadership, Membership as FY 2019 Funding Remains Uncertain
While some parts of the federal government, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Department of the Interior, and the Census Bureau, remain closed as part of the partial government shutdown, Congress is at work organizing committees, selecting leaders, and preparing for the work of the 116th Congress. Many Congressional leadership positions important to the social and behavioral sciences have been announced over the past few weeks. The House and Senate Appropriations Committees have both announced their subcommittee leadership, and while leadership on Senate subcommittees important to the social and behavioral sciences will remain…
Chairwoman Johnson Introduces Gun Violence Research Act
On January 11, Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), Chair of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, introduced the National Gun Violence Research Act. If enacted, the law would create a national gun violence research program overseen by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and carried out by the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Justice. In a statement released after the bill was introduced, Rep. Johnson said that more research is needed on the impact of policies on gun violence and…
Government Shutdown Continues into Third Week, Leaving Uncertainty for FY 2019
The partial government shutdown has stretched into its third week, leaving many government agencies, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Department of the Interior, and the Census Bureau, shuttered. Unlike government shutdowns of the recent past, this shutdown is not related to disputed funding levels, but rather policy disagreements and political maneuvering. This means that we already have an idea of what the final funding numbers will be once the policy impasse has cleared, as Congress has already negotiated most of its appropriations bills. Once funding is finalized, COSSA will release an analysis…