CONTENTS
BUDGET, APPROPRIATIONS & TAX ISSUES
- Short-Term Continuing Resolution Seems Likely
- Broad Coalition Urges Funding Increase for NIH
EXECUTIVE BRANCH
- Associations Urge Permanent Solution to Graduate Student Health Insurance Issue
BUDGET, APPROPRIATIONS & TAX ISSUES
SHORT-TERM CONTINUING RESOLUTION SEEMS LIKELY
It now seems likely that Congress this month will keep the government funded when the new fiscal year begins on October 1 by approving a stopgap continuing resolution (CR) that lasts into December. The goal is to provide time for policymakers to craft and approve one or more FY17 omnibus appropriations packages in a post-election lame-duck session.
Although a group of conservative legislators has promoted a six-month CR to avoid a lame-duck session and leave final FY17 funding decisions to the next Congress and president, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said this week he supported a CR lasting through December 9, while Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has said Senate Democrats would oppose a CR lasting beyond December.
In the House, Republican leaders have not settled on a year-end funding strategy, reports Politico, but Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and senior appropriators are interested in advancing smaller appropriations packages in September. This might reduce conservatives’ opposition to a short-term CR, said the publication.
The House and Senate appropriations committees have each approved all of their FY17 appropriations bills, but none has been conferenced and given final congressional approval.
AAU last month sent a letter to House and Senate leaders urging them to complete the FY17 appropriations process this year and avoid punting funding decisions to the new Congress and president.
BROAD COALITION URGES FUNDING INCREASE FOR NIH
AAU was among a coalition of 210 organizations that on September 7 sent a letter to House and Senate appropriations leaders thanking them for their continued support of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and urging them to provide the agency with the Senate Appropriations Committee-proposed funding level of $34.1 billion in FY17. The letter was led by the Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research, in which AAU is represented on the steering committee.
EXECUTIVE BRANCH
ASSOCIATIONS URGE PERMANENT SOLUTION TO GRADUATE STUDENT HEALTH INSURANCE ISSUE
A group of seven higher education associations, including AAU, on September 6 sent a letter to three federal agency leaders urging them to find a permanent solution to allow universities to continue providing subsidized health insurance plans (SHIPs) for their graduate students, without running afoul of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The associations’ letter followed up on a similar letter sent to the three agency leaders in June by Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) and 16 other Democratic senators.
Last February, the Secretaries of the Departments of Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services issued guidance concluding that SHIPs likely violated the ACA, but providing higher education institutions a transition period through the 2016-2017 academic year.
The association letter expresses appreciation for the temporary transition relief, but describes the magnitude of the problem for thousands of graduate students and their institutions. The letter emphasizes the urgent need to resolve the issue because universities have already begun negotiating the terms and costs of their student health insurance coverage for the 2017-2018 academic year.
The letter proposes some alternatives the regulators might consider to allow universities to continue providing SHIPs, or, at the very least, offer universities extended transitional relief to give schools time to seek a statutory change in the next Congress to resolve the issue.