CONTENTS
BUDGET, APPROPRIATIONS & TAX ISSUES
- House Subcommittee Approves FY17 Labor-HHS-Education Funding Bill
- AAU Issues Statement on House Labor-HHS-Education Bill
OTHER
- AAU Seeks Two Student Interns for Fall 2016
BUDGET, APPROPRIATIONS & TAX ISSUES
HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE APPROVES FY17 LABOR-HHS-ED FUNDING BILL
The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor-HHS-Education on July 7 approved its FY17 appropriations bill with no changes from the draft released publicly the previous day. No report language has been released, so details of the bill will likely remain unclear until full committee consideration next week.
Full committee markup of the bill is scheduled for Wednesday, July 13, at 10:00 a.m. EDT in 2359 Rayburn House Office Building.
The measure would increase funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to $33.3 billion, an increase of $1.25 billion above the FY16 level, but does not include the Senate bill’s funding to restore the year-round Pell Grant. The bill includes a provision to prohibit the Department of Labor from implementing its new overtime rule.
Subcommittee Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK) said he saw the panel’s funding for NIH as a “floor, not a ceiling,” and that the issue of restoring year-round Pell may be revisited in the House-Senate conference.
National Institutes of Health . As described in the committee press release, the NIH funding includes $165 million for the National Children’s Study, $511.5 million for Clinical and Translational Sciences Awards, and $333.3 million for Institutional Development Awards (IDeA) programs. Other details include:
- $1.26 billion, a $350 million increase, for the Alzheimer’s disease research initiative;
- $195 million, a $45 million increase, for the Brain Research through Application of Innovative Neuro-technologies (BRAIN) initiative; and
- $300 million for the Precision Medicine Initiative.
The bill also maintains the salary cap on external NIH grants at Executive Level II of the Federal Executive pay scale.
For Higher Education, the press release says the Pell Grant maximum award would be increased to $5,935 through a combination of discretionary and mandatory funds (which is the same as the Administration’s request and the Senate bill). The bill also would prohibit the Department of Education from moving ahead on regulations on teacher preparation, defining “gainful employment” and “credit hour,” and how states license institutions of higher education.
The Senate committee-passed bill funds NIH at $34 billion, a $2 billion increase, and uses part of the Pell Grant program surplus to restore the year-round Pell Grant.
AAU ISSUES STATEMENT ON HOUSE LABOR-HHS-EDUCATION BILL
In advance of the markup, AAU issued a statement thanking House appropriators for providing a significant funding increase for NIH in their draft bill, singling out Subcommittee Chairman Cole and Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) for working to make that possible.
The statement expressed concern, however, that the draft bill does not restore the year-round Pell Grant and includes an overall cut in other federal student aid programs. While noting that final details of the bill are not available, the statement says that cuts in student aid programs would be a “move in the wrong direction” at a time when the nation needs to be improving access to college.
United for Medical Research, a coalition in which AAU participates, issued a statement on July 7 thanking the subcommittee “for recognizing the importance of innovative medical research through the $1.25 billion increase for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) included in the Subcommittee’s FY 2017 spending bill.” The statement added, “We look forward to working with both chambers to ensure robust funding growth for the agency as the process moves forward.”
OTHER
AAU SEEKS TWO STUDENT INTERNS FOR FALL 2016
AAU is seeking applicants for two student internships in its Washington, D.C. office for the upcoming fall semester. Applicants may be undergraduate or graduate students and do not need to attend an AAU university. The deadline for applications is Friday, July 22.
The internships focus on science and higher education policy and public affairs. Campus officials and others are asked to encourage students to apply.
Information about the internships, including full descriptions of the positions and past intern projects and comments, is available on the AAU Internship Program webpage.