CONTENTS
CONGRESSIONAL ISSUES
- Senate Begins Work on Energy Authorization Bill
EXECUTIVE BRANCH
- Judge Extends OPT Program Rule to May 10
- Associations Question OMB’s Lowered Micro-Purchase Threshold
OTHER
- NACUBO Endowment Study Shows Smaller Earnings, Rise in Spending
CONGRESSIONAL ISSUES SENATE BEGINS WORK ON ENERGY AUTHORIZATION BILL
The Senate this week began consideration of a comprehensive, bipartisan energy reauthorization bill. The legislation includes provisions on research that AAU supports.
Along with language to update federal energy policies broadly, the Energy Policy Modernization Act (S. 2012) contains language to reauthorize the energy programs in the America COMPETES Act: the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science and the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E).
The DOE Science and ARPA-E provisions were introduced last May as. S. 1398 by a bipartisan group of Senators led by Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Chris Coons (D-DE). AAU issued a statement in support of that measure.
Work on the comprehensive bill will continue next week under the leadership of Senate Energy and Natural ResourcesChairman Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-WA), with debate and votes on as many as 85 amendments.
Among the research-related amendments already approved are one by Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) to increase funding for ARPA-E and another by Senators Michael Crapo (R-ID) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) to support collaborations among academia, the national laboratories, and private industry on nuclear energy research.
EXECUTIVE BRANCH
JUDGE EXTENDS OPT PROGRAM RULE TO MAY 10
The rule governing the STEM OPT work authorization program for international students will remain in place until May 10, reports Inside Higher Ed.
A U.S. District judge has granted the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) an additional 90 days to implement a new proposed rule for the program to replace the rule that another court ruled invalid on procedural grounds. DHS had argued that allowing the regulation to expire on February 12, as scheduled, would create significant hardship for several thousand student participants.
The DHS Optional Practical Training (OPT) program authorizes international students who have earned degrees in the U.S. to spend a year after graduation in paid employment that complements their field of study. Universities are responsible for maintaining students’ visa records during this period, while employers are required to develop and implement a mentoring and training plan for each student.
International students who have earned U.S. degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields can receive authorization to work an additional 17 months. It is this STEM OPT rule that is at issue.
Last November, AAU joined a group of 12 higher education associations in submitting comments to DHS on the proposed new rule for the STEM OPT program. The associations’ letter was generally positive about the proposed rule, including the plan to increase the extension period from 17 to 24 months.
The letter asked DHS officials to consider extending the OPT period for students in all fields of study, not only STEM. It also detailed concerns about the complexities of compliance for students, employers, and universities, particularly the additional burden on campus Designated Service Officers to manage and track the employment placements for OPT students.
ASSOCIATIONS QUESTION OMB’S LOWERED MICRO-PURCHASE THRESHOLD
AAU joined with other associations in support of a January 20 letter to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) sent by the Council on Governmental Relations expressing concern about OMB guidance that would lower the micro-purchase threshold for research grants to $3,000.
In general, this would mean that for any purchases of $3,000 or more for services, materials, or equipment required for the research, grant recipients would have to explore multiple pricing options and document all price and rate quotes. The associations note this would impose an additional administrative burden on institutions and researchers and delay researchers’ purchases of standard research materials and tools.
For years research universities and other nonprofit research organizations have operated at micro-purchase thresholds of $5,000, $10,000, or in some cases more, based on internal institutional risk assessments and state law. OMB has justified lowering the micro-purchase level for grants to $3,000 as being consistent with the Federal Acquisition Regulations for purchases made from government contracts.
The associations respectfully disagree with OMB’s interpretation.
OMB’s uniform guidance, entitled Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (2 CFR part 200), took effect on December 26, 2014, but concerns raised about the procurement provisions prompted officials to delay implementation of those provisions until FY18 (July 1, 2017 for most research institutions).
OTHER
NACUBO ENDOWMENT STUDY SHOWS SMALLER EARNINGS, RISE IN SPENDING
The investment returns on college and university endowments fell to an average of 2.4 percent in FY15, a drop from the double-digit average growth of the two previous years, according to the NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments , released on January 27.
The study also showed that despite the lower investment returns, 78 percent of institutions participating in the study withdrew more funds from their endowments during the year to support “student financial aid, faculty research, and other mission-critical campus operations.”