CONTENTS
President’s FY18 Budget Outline Would Significantly Cut Research and Higher Education
Associations Urge Appropriators to Restore Year-round Pell Grants
PRESIDENT’S FY18 BUDGET OUTLINE WOULD SIGNIFICANTLY CUT RESEARCH AND HIGHER EDUCATION
The Administration on March 16 released a 53-page blueprint of its FY18 budget. The so-called “skinny budget” addresses only discretionary spending and proposes a $54-billion increase for defense programs and commensurate cuts in nondefense discretionary programs. The blueprint includes specific funding levels for some federal agencies and programs, but details for most are not mentioned. The Administration is expected to release its full FY18 budget in May.
The blueprint includes significant funding cuts or program eliminations for many research, student aid, higher education, humanities, and arts programs. AAU has prepared a summary of how the federal agencies and programs of interest to research universities would fare under this budget plan.
AAU’s statement on the blueprint can be found here. Coalitions of which AAU is a member – the Task Force on American Innovation, United for Medical Research, and the Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research Funding – also issued statements. (The Task Force statement is accessed via its Facebook page.)
ASSOCIATIONS URGE APPROPRIATORS TO RESTORE YEAR-ROUND PELL GRANTS
A group of 39 higher education associations, including AAU, on March 16 sent leaders of the House and Senate appropriations committees a letter encouraging them to restore year-round eligibility for Pell grants in the final FY17 funding bill. The letter noted that Congress eliminated year-round Pell eligibility in 2010 to address a significant program shortfall, but that the Pell Grant program now has a projected program surplus of $10.5 billion in FY17.