CONTENTS:
- AAU Announces 2019 Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Misconduct
- Budget and Appropriations Update
- Senate to vote Monday on FY19 “Minibus”
- House Releases FY19 Budget Resolution
- House Delays Immigration “Compromise” Bill Vote Until Next Week
- Administration Releases Agency Reorganization Proposal
- NDAA Moves to Conference After Senate Approval
AAU ANNOUNCES 2019 CAMPUS CLIMATE SURVEY ON SEXUAL ASSAULT AND MISCONDUCT
AAU on Monday announced publicly the decision to contract with Westat to conduct a 2019 Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Misconduct. AAU will later this year announce a list of participating universities.
BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS UPDATE
The Senate is expected to vote Monday on an appropriations “minibus” (H.R. 5895) that includes the FY19 Energy and Water spending bill. The spending package would provide $6.65 billion for the Energy Department’s Office of Science, a $390 million increase over FY18, and would fund ARPA-E at $375 million, a $22 million boost over FY18. The White House Office of Management and Budget issued a statement of administration policy to express the administration’s disappointment in several funding decisions.
AAU has updated the FY19 Energy Department and FY19 Funding Priorities tables.
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House Budget Chairman Steve Womack released his committee’s FY19 budget resolution Tuesday, Budget for a Brighter American Future, which would boost defense spending to $736 billion (up from $647B for FY19 as specified in the Bipartisan Budget Act) and cut nondefense discretionary spending to $555 billion (down from $597B for FY19 as specified in the Bipartisan Budget Act) through 2028. The resolution proposes to balance the budget in nine years through mandatory spending cuts, a nondefense discretionary spending freeze, and assumes economic growth of 2.6 percent per year (CBO estimates 1.8 percent annual growth).
The plan includes reconciliation instructions for 11 House authorizing committees to save $302 billion over 10 years, nearly 50 percent more than the $203 billion in savings of the FY18 House budget resolution. The House Education and Workforce Committee would receive a reconciliation instruction of -$20 billion which could impact mandatory spending on student loan programs and/or the mandatory portion of the Pell Grant program.
Roll Call has more.
HOUSE DELAYS IMMIGRATION “COMPROMISE” BILL VOTE UNTIL NEXT WEEK
After first rejecting immigration legislation by House Judiciary Chairman Goodlatte 193-231, the House then delayed a vote on the GOP leadership-backed “compromise” immigration package until next week. A vote had been set for Thursday, but leaders announced last night it would be pushed until next week after further revisions are made to win the required 218 votes for passage. As currently written, the House compromise bill (H.R. 6136) includes a complex, renewable merit-based visa program and pathway to citizenship for DACA-eligible individuals, provides border security funds, ends the diversity visa lottery program, and limits family-based migration.
AAU President Mary Sue Coleman issued a statement Wednesday urging Congress to forge a nonpartisan, permanent legislative solution to provide legal certainty for all DACA students and Dreamers. Also on Wednesday, AAU joined several other higher education associations in a letter to Speaker Ryan asking that he "decisively address DACA and provide immediate and long-term legal status for 1.8 million Dreamers." The letter also expresses gratitude to those members of Congress who have acted in good faith to protect Dreamers and DACA students.
ADMINISTRATION RELEASES AGENCY REORGANIZATION PROPOSAL
President Trump last year signed an executive order directing the Office of Management and Budget to develop a comprehensive plan to the reorganize the executive branch of the federal government. The White House this week released a report, “Delivering Government Solutions in the 21st Century: Reform Plan and Reorganization Recommendations,” which makes several notable reform recommendations to the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the National Science Foundation, including the following actions:
- Consolidating the DOE Office of Science field and headquarters activities;
- Restructuring NIH’s administrative functions;
- Integrating three research programs into NIH, including the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research; and
- The introduction of two NSF “Convergence Accelerators” to fund on interdisciplinary research that focuses on “harnessing the data revolution” and the “future of work at the human-technology frontier.”
The executive branch reorganization plan also includes a proposed merger of the Departments of Education and Labor into a new Department of Education and the Workforce. The new agency would be charged with meeting the needs of American students and workers, from education and skill development to workplace protection to retirement security. Additionally, the proposal calls for the creation of the Next Generation Financial Services Environment (Next Gen) to administer student loans. The Department of Education, as part of its agency reform plan submitted to OMB last fall, proposed taking over a slew of programs currently managed by the Labor Department, but it did not propose merging.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has scheduled a June 27 hearing on the administration’s plan.
NDAA MOVES TO CONFERENCE AFTER SENATE APPROVAL
The Senate Monday approved, 85-10, a $716 billion FY19 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The House and Senate will move to conference to resolve differences between the two bill versions. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry yesterday said he hopes to wrap up conference by the end of July.
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