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A Word from COSSA
Dear Friends: This is the last COSSA Washington Update of 2024, but it certainly is not the end of our work for the year. As I write, our team is busily preparing for what everyone expects will be a challenging year ahead for policymaking. We are headed into uncertain terrain with the return of the Trump Administration come January 20 and a new Congress with margins tighter than we have seen in a long time. Last week, COSSA hosted a webinar for our members previewing some of the expected actions of the next Congress and Administration and outlining many of the unknowns…
President-Elect Trump and a New Majority Congress: 2025 Policy Outlook
With the results of the 2024 Presidential election cycle nearing completion, Former President Donald Trump pulled out an electoral victory with 312 electoral college votes compared to Vice President Kamala Harrisâs 226. In addition, Republicans outperformed expectations in the Congressional races, taking control of the Senate and still in contention to hold on to the majority in the House (although not all races have been called), potentially giving President-elect Trump an ideal landscape in which to enact his policy agenda after the transition. Presidential Transition With the presidential race decided, attention now turns to the presidential transition. The President-elect has…
Preparing for Next Week’s Elections: Content from COSSA!
In anticipation of next week’s elections, we wanted to share some of our past Why Social Science? posts and Headlines webinars to help you navigate the next few days. Why Social Science? COSSA Headlines Webinars In our recent COSSA Washington Update, we compiled a list of Competitive Elections for the SBS Community to Watch where you can find some races that will have an effect on our community. The article also includes links to the Cook Political Reports where you can keep a close eye on the races. We also recommend another tracker from The Hill to keep a close…
Congress: Competitive Elections for the SBS Community to Watch
As November 5 rapidly approaches, Congress is likely to see some leadership changes in both the House and the Senate. With a current slim majority in both chambers, competitive races have Democrats and Republicans battling for control. The 2024 CPR Senate Race Ratings from the Cook Political Report details the Senate races that are competitive, including Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Significantly more Democrat-held seats are in competitive races than Republican-held seats in the Senate. Similarly, the 2024 CPR House Race Ratings from the Cook Political Report details the House races that are competitive, including races in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado,…
Congress Passes CR; Pushes Deadline to December 20
Last week, Congress passed a continuing resolution (CR) to push the budget deadline of September 30 to December 20, allowing members to depart for the campaign trail in October. The Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act (H.R. 9747) extended current fiscal year (FY) 2024 spending levels for the twelve-week interim. As previously reported by COSSA, the House attempted to attach the CR to a bill seeking to require proof of U.S. citizenship to vote during federal elections that did not receive support. With the deadline pushed to after the elections, itâs unclear whether Congress will return ready to draft the final appropriations…
Let’s Get Ready to Work!
Dear Friends â I hope you had a wonderful summer and took some time to relax, especially now that we are heading into what will be a busy fall and historic election season. Last we spoke, Congress had made progress on the FY 2025 appropriations bills but still remains far off from finalizing them before the start of the fiscal year on October 1. Congress returns to Washington next week and is expected to immediately turn to negotiating a stop-gap measure to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the month. COSSA will also be busy this fall gearing up for the…
COSSA Releases Full Analysis of FY 2025 House Appropriations Bills for Federal Science Agencies
Over the last several weeks, appropriators in the House of Representatives have been considering funding legislation for fiscal year (FY) 2025, which beings October 1. This is the first appropriations cycle under the leadership of Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK). As previously reported, the year began with an understanding that the FY 2025 appropriations process was going to be an especially difficult one. Thanks to strict budget caps set last year for FY 2024 and FY 2025, discretionary spending is once again on the chopping block. The caps as currently set have the potential to further decimate agency budgets, especially…
COSSA Releases Preview of FY 2025 House Spending Bills Analysis
In late June, the House Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies (CJS) Subcommittee marked up and reported out their bill that funds the National Science Foundation (NSF), U.S. Census Bureau, National Institute of Justice (NIJ), Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), and other agencies. The House Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies (LHHS) Subcommittee also considered its bill, which is responsible for funding the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other HHS agencies, the Department of Education, and the Department of Labor. COSSA is preparing a full analysis of the bills, which are being considered by the full…
House Moves on Appropriations Bills Ahead of Fourth of July Recess; CJS and LHHS Bills Expected this Week
As previously reported by COSSA, the fiscal year (FY) 2025 budget process is underway as Congress looks to complete funding bills before the House and a third of the Senate embark on the campaign trail. The House is moving forward with multiple spending bills this week as expected. The House Appropriations committee has already passed six of twelve bills in full-committee, including Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies, Defense, Financial Services and General Government, Homeland Security, Legislative Branch, and State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs. On June 26, the House Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) Subcommittee is…
Congressional Committees Review NSFâs FY 2025 Budget
Earlier this month, two Congressional committees heard testimony on the National Science Foundationâs (NSF) fiscal year (FY) 2025 budget request. On May 23, the Senate Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) Appropriations Subcommittee heard testimony from the NSF Director and the Administrator of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on the agenciesâ budget requests for fiscal year (FY) 2025. In her opening remarks, Chairwoman Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) expressed her interest in the committee working on a bipartisan CJS appropriations bill again this year; however, she noted the challenging budget environment, specifically the cuts taken to federal science agencies in FY 2024 as a result of the…
Congress Begins FY 2025 Budget Process with newly elected House Appropriations Full Committee Chair, Rep. Tom Cole
With the fiscal year (FY) 2024 budget finalized (previously reported by COSSA), Congress is looking ahead to FY 2025. The process has begun for FY 2025 with the Presidential Budget Request (see COSSAâs in-depth analysis), which had a delayed release of March 11. The Appropriations subcommittees in both chambers have also begun scheduling oversight budget hearings with the heads of Federal Agencies in preparation of drafting their respective bills for the FY 2025 budget. As a reminder, the fiscal year for 2025 will begin October 1, 2024, requiring Congress to have finalized the budget by this date unless a continuing…
COSSA’s Analysis of the President’s FY 2025 Budget Request for Social and Behavioral Science
On March 11, the Biden Administration transmitted its fiscal year (FY) 2025 budget request to Congress. The FY 2025 budget was released while Congress was still working to finalize its annual appropriations bills for FY 2024 (the fiscal year that began October 1, 2023). The FY 2024 appropriations process was completed on March 22 with the passage of a second omnibus package (see related article). The first package was passed on March 8. As COSSA has been reporting over the last several months, the FY 2024 appropriations bills were bound by strict budget caps that were agreed to in January (although the same deal was floated much earlier…
Congress Works to Finalize FY 2024 Budget, Looking Forward to FY 2025
The first six of the twelve annual appropriations bills for fiscal year (FY) 2024 were passed by Congress and signed into law by President Biden last week. As previously reported, this included funding for the National Science Foundation, Census Bureau, National Institute of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, and other federal agencies and departments. The bills resulted in funding cuts across all agencies, including the National Science Foundation which received an 8.2 percent cut from FY 2023. COSSAâs in-depth analysis for these bills can be found here. The remaining six bills have a deadline of Friday, March 22, leaving only a…
NSF selects Kaye Husbands Fealing to lead the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate
On February 29, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced that Kaye Husbands Fealing has been selected to lead the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE). Her appointment will begin on April 22. Husbands Fealing is dean of the Georgia Institute of Technology Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts and former chair of the Georgia Tech School of Public Policy. She specializes in the science of science and innovation policy, the public value of research expenditures and the underrepresentation of women and minorities in STEM fields and the workforce. Husbands Fealing developed and was the inaugural program director for NSFâs Science…
Congress Balances FY 2024 Budget and Supplemental Funding Package as CR Deadline Approaches
As previously reported, Congress is slowly inching closer to the end of their continuing resolution (CR) that expires on tiered deadlines in the first two weeks of March. While House Appropriations subcommittees have received their allocations for their respective bills, itâs still unclear whether Congress will produce the required twelve bills by the deadlines, produce a large or partial omnibus package, or extend the current CR. In past weeks, Congress has been working to pass a National Security supplemental funding package to provide aid to Ukraine, Israel, and the border crisis. However, this bill has been highly contentious and, while…
Congress Inches Toward FY 2024 Conclusion
As we move further into the fiscal year (FY), lawmakers on Capitol Hill continue to work toward finalizing appropriations for FY 2024. As previously reported, Congress pushed its deadline to complete the FY 2024 bills until March, leaving just a few weeks to find agreement across the 12 annual appropriations bills and pass them in each chamber. After months of stalemate, reports suggest that the end may be in sight now that leadership has agreed to top-line funding levels for discretionary spending. COSSA recently issued an action alert calling on the research community to contact their elected offices to urge the highest possible funding levels…
Congress Narrowly Passes CR to Extend Funding to March
As reported by COSSA, Congress previously passed two stop-gap measures to allow additional time to complete the fiscal year (FY) 2024 appropriations bills. On January 18, the day before the last continuing resolution (CR) deadline, the House and Senate struck a deal to extend funding to March. Like the previous CR, the new stop-gap measure includes âtiered deadlinesâ for the unpassed spending bills. The deadline for the first tranche of bills (the Military Construction-VA, Agriculture, Energy-Water and Transportation-HUD bills) has been extended to March 1. The remaining bills (including Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Commerce, Justice Science, which…
COSSA Remembers Science Champion Eddie Bernice Johnson
On New Yearâs Eve, the scientific community lost one of its most dedicated champions. Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) represented the people of Dallas in Congress for 30 years, retiring at the end of 2022. Over those 15 terms in Congress, Johnson served as a member of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, most recently serving as Chair. Johnson began her career as a nurse after being told that women could not be doctors. She rose through the ranks of the Veterans Administration hospital in Dallas, ultimately becoming chief psychiatric nurse. She became active in civil rights efforts and…
Funding Deal Struck: House and Senate Leaders Take First Step Towards Avoiding Government Shutdown
On Sunday, House and Senate leaders took the first step to avoiding a government shutdown by reaching an agreement to fund the federal government for the rest of fiscal year (FY) 2024. This agreement includes a total of $1.66 trillion for discretionary spending in FY 2024. The spending is divided into $886.3 billion for defense and $772.7 billion for domestic discretionary spending. This allocation adheres to the previous deal between President Biden and then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, which included a $69 billion side deal for non-defense discretionary funding to keep those accounts whole. Under the agreement, the defense budget will receive a 3…
Analysis of the FY 2024 House Appropriations Bills for Federal Science Agencies
In late October, details of the U.S. House of Representativesâ fiscal year (FY) 2024 appropriations bills were made public. Before leaving town for the Thanksgiving break, the Houseâunder the leadership of newly-elected House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA)âtook initial steps toward passing the bills. However, despite two days of debate, the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education (LHHS) appropriations billâthe measure that funds the National Institutes of Health, Department of Education, and several other agencies of interest to the science communityâdid not receive a final vote and consideration was punted until after the holiday. The other bill of interestâthe Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS)…