A staple since COSSA’s earliest days, the biweekly COSSA Washington Update newsletter provides members and the public with comprehensive coverage of policy developments impacting social and behavioral science research.
Senate Appropriations Committee Approves FY 2019 Commerce, Justice, Science Bill
On June 14, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the fiscal year (FY) 2019 Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies (CJS) Appropriations Bill; the bill was marked up in subcommittee on June 12. The CJS bill serves as the vehicle for annual appropriations for the National Science Foundation (NSF), Census Bureau, National Institute of Justice (NIJ), Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), and many other federal departments and agencies. The House Appropriations Committee passed its bill on May 17. Read COSSA’s full analysis of the House bill here. At a Glance… The Senate CJS bill includes $8.1 billion for NSF in FY…
Full Implementation of Common Rule Delayed through January 2019
On June 19, the Office of Human Research Protections (OHRP) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a final rule adopting a proposal released in April to delay the compliance date for revisions to the Common Rule (the set of regulations governing research involving human participants) by six months. COSSA submitted comment on this proposal asking that the implementation of the new regulations not be delayed any further than is necessary. The new compliance date for the majority of the new regulations is now January 21, 2019. However, beginning on July 19, 2018, institutions (on a study-by-study…
Emilda Rivers Appointed to Lead NCSES
Emilda B. Rivers has been appointed to lead the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES), the principal statistical agency housed within the National Science Foundation (NSF), effective June 24. Prior to her appointment, Rivers was NCSES’ Acting Division Director, following the retirement of the previous director, John Gawalt. Rivers has been with NCSES since 2003, serving as Deputy Division Director and leading its largest division, the Human Resources Statistics Program. She has also worked for the Census Bureau and the Department of Energy. Back to this issue’s table of contents.
Academies Report Recommends Strategies to Address Sexual Harassment in Academia
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has released a new consensus study report, Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The report details the impacts of sexual harassment in terms of damage to research integrity and loss of talent and argues that institutions should view sexual harassment as “equally important as research misconduct in terms of its effect on the integrity of research.” The report makes seven broad recommendations for how academic institutions can better address and prevent sexual harassment: address gender harassment (sexist hostility and crude behavior); move beyond legal…
Innovation: An American Imperative Releases Progress Report
In celebration of the third anniversary of Innovation: An American Imperative, a group of the endorsing organizations issued a report on the progress made by Congress on areas of focus highlighted in the original 2015 report. The Innovation Imperative effort brought U.S. industry, higher education, science and engineering organizations, including COSSA, together to urge Congress to enact policies and make investments to help ensure the United States remains the global innovation leader. The original statement on congressional progress provided seven areas of focus for congressional action moving forward: renewing the federal commitment to scientific discovery by ending sequestration level spending…
COSSA Washington Update, Volume 37 Issue 12
Featured News NIH Releases Data Science Strategic Plan COSSA in Action Letters & Statements Congressional News Congress Moves Forward on FY 2019 Spending Federal Agency & Administration News Census Issues Request for Comment on Decennial Data Collection Minerva Initiative Releases 2018 Funding Opportunity Announcement, Topics of Interest BLS Releases New Data on the “Gig Economy” Nomination Opportunities Funding Opportunities Notices & Requests for Comment Recent Reports Open Positions Fellowships & Professional Development Community News & Reports NASEM Report Outlines Future of Graduate STEM Education New NASEM Report Identifies “Indicators for Monitoring Undergraduate STEM Education” Notices & Requests for Comment Recent…
NIH Releases Data Science Strategic Plan
On June 4, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) released its first strategic plan for data science. The strategic plan will serve as a roadmap for modernizing the NIH-supported biomedical data science ecosystem and provide leadership within the broader biomedical research data community. NIH will begin implementing the plan over the next year and focus on usability of NIH-funded biomedical data sets and resources, integration of existing data management tools and development of new ones, and the growing costs of data management. NIH will seek community input during the implementation phase and plans to hire a Chief Data Strategist to…
Congress Moves Forward on FY 2019 Spending
With a little less than four months remaining in fiscal year (FY) 2018, Congress is behind schedule but well underway in their work to consider the spending bills for FY 2019. The House Appropriations Committee has approved seven of the twelve annual appropriations bills, including two important to social and behavioral science research. On June 8, the full House of Representatives approved a three-bill package of historically uncontroversial bills, kick-starting what is expected to be a busy summer of votes. On the other side of the Capitol, Senate appropriators have been slower to consider the FY 2019 appropriations bills, having…
Census Issues Request for Comment on Decennial Data Collection
In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act, the Census Bureau issued a request for comments on the 2020 Census on June 8. The request provides an opportunity for feedback on the Bureau’s proposed information collection activities associated with the 2020 Census, including the addition of a citizenship question (which COSSA opposes). Comments must be submitted by August 7, 2018. More information is available in the Federal Register notice.
Minerva Initiative Releases 2018 Funding Opportunity Announcement, Topics of Interest
The Minerva Research Initiative, the social science research program administered jointly by the Office of Basic Research and the Office of Policy at the U.S. Department of Defense, has released its 2018 funding opportunity announcement (FOA) and 2018 topics of interest. The Minerva Research Initiative supports university-based, unclassified, research in areas of strategic importance to U.S. national security policy. Research topics of interest for 2018 include: sociopolitical (in)stability, resilience, and recovery; economic interdependence and security; alliances and burden sharing; fundamental dynamics of scientific discovery; adversarial information campaigns; automated cyber vulnerability analysis; and security risks in ungoverned and semi-governed spaces. White…
BLS Releases New Data on the “Gig Economy”
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has released new data on contingent and alternative employment arrangements, the first data of its kind released since 2005. The data includes totals for contingent workers (whose jobs are temporary or otherwise not expected to last), independent contractors, on-call workers, temp workers, and workers provided by contract firms. In addition to this data, BLS is testing questions on short-term work found through websites or mobile apps and expects to release data on this population in September. More information about the release is available on the BLS website.
NASEM Report Outlines Future of Graduate STEM Education
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) recently released a new consensus study report on Graduate STEM Education for the 21st Century, which outlines ways to better to prepare students from all backgrounds for careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The study was written by a committee chaired by Alan Leshner, CEO Emeritus of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and was sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the Burroughs Welcome Fund, the Institute of Education Sciences, and the Spencer Foundation. The report describes an ideal system of STEM graduate education and outlines…
New NASEM Report Identifies “Indicators for Monitoring Undergraduate STEM Education”
On May 21, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) hosted a webinar to mark the release of a new report, Indicators for Monitoring Undergraduate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education. The goal of the report was to improve undergraduate STEM education by developing metrics by which it can be measured. To do this, NASEM conducted a consensus study of indicators that would allow STEM education quality to be tracked over time. The report found that improving the quality and impact of undergraduate STEM education would require progress towards: (1) “increasing students’ mastery of STEM concepts and…
COSSA Washington Update, Volume 37 Issue 11
Featured News House Panel Passes FY 2019 Funding for NSF, Census, NIJ COSSA in Action COSSA Presents Rep. Dan Lipinski with Distinguished Service Award Letters & Statements Congressional News House and Senate Committees Approve FY 2019 Agriculture Funding Senate Subcommittee Holds Hearing on 2019 NIH Budget Federal Agency & Administration News Nomination Opportunities Funding Opportunities Notices & Requests for Comment Open Positions Community News & Reports CNSF Hosts 24th Annual Capitol Hill Exhibition Funding Opportunities Open Positions Fellowships & Professional Development Events Calendar
House Panel Passes FY 2019 Funding for NSF, Census, NIJ
On May 17, the House Appropriations Committee approved the fiscal year (FY) 2019 Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies (CJS) Appropriations Bill; the bill was marked up in subcommittee on May 9. The CJS bill serves as the vehicle for annual appropriations for the National Science Foundation (NSF), Census Bureau, National Institute of Justice (NIJ), Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), and many other federal departments and agencies. The Senate has not yet released the details of its CJS bill. At a Glance… The House CJS bill includes $8.2 billion for NSF in FY 2019, which is 5.2 percent above the…
COSSA Presents Rep. Dan Lipinski with Distinguished Service Award
On May 17, following the 2018 COSSA Science Policy Conference and Social Science Advocacy Day, representatives of COSSA’s governing member associations presented the 2018 Distinguished Service Award to Representative Daniel Lipinski (D-IL). Lipinski, who serves on the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, as Ranking Member on the Subcommittee on Research, and holds a Ph.D. in political science, has been a strong advocate for scientific research at all levels and across all fields of study. He has worked productively with his colleagues on both sides of the aisle to enact legislation that strengthens the U.S. scientific enterprise and has…
House and Senate Committees Approve FY 2019 Agriculture Funding
The House and Senate Appropriations Committees have approved their fiscal year (FY) 2019 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bills. This bill contains funding for the two U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) statistical agencies, the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), as well as the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), which funds competitive research projects. The House bill (H.R. 5961) was approved by the subcommittee on May 9 and by the full committee on May 16. The Senate version of the bill, which does not yet have a…
Senate Subcommittee Holds Hearing on 2019 NIH Budget
The Senate 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) 2019 budget request. NIH Director Francis Collins, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Director Walter Koroshetz, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, National Cancer Institute Director Norman Sharpless, and National Institute on Drug Abuse Director Nora Volkow all testified. Senators from both parties praised NIH for its accomplishments, further solidifying its position as a bipartisan priority. Subcommittee Chair Roy Blunt (R-MO), Ranking Member…
CNSF Hosts 24th Annual Capitol Hill Exhibition
On May 9, the Coalition for National Science Funding (CNSF), of which COSSA is a member, hosted its 24th Annual Capitol Hill Exhibition and Reception, titled “Investments in Scientific and Educational Research: Fueling American Innovation.” Several COSSA member associations and universities featured researchers whose work has been supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The event seeks to highlight the importance of NSF-supported basic research with policymakers. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) produced a video featuring some of the presenters. COSSA co-sponsored the event. Back to this issue’s table of contents.
COSSA Washington Update, Volume 37 Issue 10
Featured News House Appropriations Subcommittees Begin Marking Up Spending Legislation COSSA in Action CJRA and COSSA to Host “Ask a Criminologist” Panel on How the Opioid Epidemic and Police-Community Relations Impact Homicides Letters & Statements Congressional News Congress Questions Commerce, Census on Citizenship Question Federal Agency & Administration News National Science Board Elects New Leadership NSF and Air Force Sign Letter of Intent Nomination Opportunities Funding Opportunities Notices & Requests for Comment Community News & Reports Funding Opportunities Recent Reports Events Calendar