CONTENTS
BUDGET, APPROPRIATIONS, TAX ISSUES
- AAU and APLU Urge FY16 Budget Conferees to Repeal Spending Caps
- Associations Submit Statements to Three Senate Finance Committee Working Groups
PATENT ISSUES
- USPTO Head Tells House Committee That Patent Legislation Should be Narrowly Drawn
- University Presidents’ Wall Street Journal Op-ed Details Concerns with Innovation Act
- House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee Holds Hearing on TROL Act
- AAU and APLU Statement Thanks Panel for its Targeted Approach
- House and Senate Members Introduce Grace Period Restoration Act
OTHER CONGRESSIONAL ISSUES
- House Committee Chairman Introduces COMPETES Act
BUDGET, APPROPRIATIONS, TAX ISSUES
AAU AND APLU URGE FY16 BUDGET CONFEREES TO REPEAL SPENDING CAPS
AAU and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) on April 16 sent a letter to House and Senate leaders and conferees on the FY16 budget resolution urging them to repeal the current sequestration-level discretionary spending caps. The associations also asked congressional leaders to reverse the proposed massive cuts to student financial aid programs and to reassert strong support for scientific research.
The letter, signed by AAU President Hunter Rawlings and APLU President Peter McPherson, added:
“As you resolve differences between the Senate and House FY2016 budget resolutions, we urge you to set the stage for a major budget agreement that includes tax and entitlement reforms and that places a high priority on critical investments in scientific research and higher education to close the innovation deficit and improve the outlook for our nation’s future.”
ASSOCIATIONS SUBMIT STATEMENTS TO THREE SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE WORKING GROUPS
The Senate Finance Committee has created several working groups to solicit comments from interested stakeholders on how best to reform the U.S. tax code. This week, several higher education associations, including AAU, submitted comments to three of the working groups:
· A group led by the National Association of College and University Business Officers submitted a statement to the Working Group on Business Income Tax regarding the tax-exempt status of colleges and universities;
· A group led by the American Council on Education provided a statement to the Working Group on Individual Income Tax focused on tax provisions that promote college participation and charitable giving to colleges and universities; and
· A group of health and higher education associations submitted a statement to the Working Group on Community Development and Infrastructure on the importance of tax-exempt financing.
PATENT ISSUES
USPTO HEAD TELLS HOUSE COMMITTEE THAT PATENT LEGISLATION SHOULD BE NARROWLY DRAWN
During a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Chairman Bob Goodlatte’s (R-VA) legislation to address abusive patent litigation practices (H.R. 9), U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Director Michelle Lee said that such legislation “should be narrowly drawn with clear boundaries.” Her written testimony noted that while USPTO supports the principles of deterring abusive patent litigants, “implementing them through legislation is difficult.”
UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTS’ WALL STREET JOURNAL OP-ED DETAILS CONCERNS WITH INNOVATION ACT
The Wall Street Journal on April 14 published an op-ed by Boston University President Robert A. Brown and Clemson University President James P. Clements that describes their concerns that legislation pending in the House to address abusive practices by patent trolls would have the broader effect of disrupting university technology transfer.
In “A Patent-Troll Bill with Bad College Grades,” the two presidents express agreement that patent trolls are a problem, but they argue that the Innovation Act (H.R. 9) is so broad that it would make patent enforcement considerably more costly and risky for all patent holders, not just patent trolls. They note that recent court decisions and regulatory actions have strengthened the patent system’s capacity to protect businesses from patent trolls, which suggests that Congress should “proceed with caution in considering broad statutory changes.” They add, “As we work to address the abusive practices of bad actors in the patent system, let’s tread carefully to ensure that the ideas and inventions produced by university research continue to be nurtured and supported for the benefit of all.”
President Brown is co-chair of the AAU Patent Technology Transfer Working Group; President Clements chairs the APLU Board of Directors.
HOUSE ENERGY & COMMERCE SUBCOMMITTEE HOLDS HEARING ON TROL ACT
The House Energy & Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade held a hearing on April 16 to discuss the Targeting Rogue and Opaque Letters (TROL) Act, the panel’s draft legislation to address abusive patent demand letters.
As described in the written testimony of David Long, speaking on behalf of the Innovation Alliance, the goal of the draft legislation is to provide a “balanced, targeted measure appropriate for addressing bad faith demand letters while respecting patent rights and legitimate communications used to efficiently reach reasonable business solutions to patent infringement concerns.”
AAU and APLU Statement Thanks Panel for its Targeted Approach
AAU and APLU issued a statement thanking the subcommittee for holding the hearing on the TROL Act. They said:
“We appreciate the Subcommittee's efforts to meaningfully address the abusive demand letter practices of patent trolls in a targeted fashion. The TROL Act appropriately employs a practical approach to combating patent troll practices, including by authorizing the Federal Trade Commission to use its authority even more effectively to treat such demand letters as an abusive, deceptive, and potentially fraudulent business practice.”
HOUSE AND SENATE MEMBERS INTRODUCE GRACE PERIOD RESTORATION ACT
A bipartisan group of House and Senate members has introduced legislation to clarify that the comprehensive patent reform bill enacted in 2011, the America Invents Act (AIA), provides a one-year grace period during which inventors can discuss or write publicly about their discoveries without jeopardizing their intellectual property rights.
The Grace Period Restoration Act (S. 926, H.R. 1791), which AAU supports, was introduced by Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and David Vitter (R-LA), and by Reps. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI).
Since enactment of the AIA in 2011, AAU and other higher education associations have expressed concern that the grace period language in the AIA was ambiguous and has been interpreted too narrowly by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
OTHER CONGRESSIONAL ISSUES
HOUSE COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN INTRODUCES COMPETES ACT
On April 15, House Science, Space, and Technology (SST) Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX), introduced the America COMPETES Act of 2015 (H.R. 1810), a two-year reauthorization of programs in three federal research agencies. The measure covers the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy Office of Science, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, as well as the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education programs.
National Science Foundation. For NSF, the bill authorizes a budget of $7.6 billion in FY16, $126 million below the Administration’s FY16 request and $253 million above the agency’s FY15 funding level. In a departure from the 2007 and 2010 reauthorizations of the America COMPETES Act, the bill authorizes NSF funding down to the directorate level. Thus, it calls for a 45-percent cut in authorized funding for the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate (SBE), and an eight-percent cut for the Geosciences Directorate (GEO). The measure holds authorization levels for the Education and Human Resources Directorate (EHR) flat at $866 million.
The bill contains notable policy provisions, including one that requires NSF to issue a non-technical, written explanation of how an NSF grant award or cooperative agreement is in the national interest. The provision broadly defines "national interest" as research that: increases economic competitiveness; advances the health and welfare of the American public; develops an American STEM workforce; increases scientific literacy; increases partnerships between academia and industry; supports the national defense; or promotes the progress of science in the United States. The language makes clear that the national interest requirement in no way "shall be construed as altering the Foundation's intellectual merit or broader impacts criteria for evaluating grant applications."
Other important policy provisions deal with the agency’s management of large and multi-user facilities, misrepresentation of research results, and reproducibility of research results.
Department of Energy Office of Science: H.R. 1810 authorizes the Department of Energy's Office of Science at $5.3 billion in FY16, the same as the Administration’s FY16 request. As with the Administration’s request, the bill would increase authorized funding for Advanced Scientific Computing Research ($621 million), Basic Energy Science ($1.85 billion), High Energy Physics ($788 million), and Nuclear Physics ($625 million). In contrast to the Administration's proposed 10-percent cut, the bill authorizes increased funding for Fusion Energy Sciences ($488 million).
Other DOE offices and programs did not fare as well in the bill. For example, authorized funding for the Office of Biological and Environmental Research would be cut by $62.4 million from the FY15 level, funding for ARPA-E would be cut in half from $280 million to $140 million, and funding for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy would be cut by $496 million from the FY15 level.
The full committee plans to mark up the bill on Wednesday, April 22, 2015.