CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE BRANCH
- President Calls for Cancer Cure “Moonshot” in His State of the Union Address
- Legislators Call on HHS to Use March-in Rights to Curb Rising Drug Prices
OTHER
- AAU Board of Directors Reaffirms Opposition to Academic Boycott of Israel
EXECUTIVE BRANCH
PRESIDENT CALLS FOR CANCER CURE “MOONSHOT” IN HIS STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS
In his final State of the Union address on January 12, President Obama referenced a number of issues of interest to higher education, including a new “moonshot” to find a cure for cancer, support for clean energy development, and a renewed call for free community college. Presumably, further details on these proposals will be provided when the White House releases its FY17 budget on February 8.
On the cancer “moonshot,” the President discussed how the U.S. reacted to the Russians’ launch of the Sputnik satellite by beefing up the space program with the goal of landing a man on the moon by 1970. “We didn’t argue about the science, or shrink our research and development budget,” he said. “We built a space program almost overnight, and twelve years later, we were walking on the moon.”
The President is proposing a similar concerted effort to cure cancer, with Vice President Joe Biden heading up “Mission Control.” The President noted that last month Mr. Biden “worked with this Congress to give scientists at the National Institutes of Health the strongest resources they’ve had in over a decade. Tonight, I’m announcing a new national effort to get it done...For the loved ones we’ve all lost, for the family we can still save, let’s make America the country that cures cancer once and for all.” This was met with loud, sustained, and bipartisan applause from Members of Congress.
Although the President’s remarks on clean energy development focused more on its importance to climate change and opportunities for U.S. businesses, he did say, “Medical research is critical. We need the same level of commitment when it comes to developing clean energy sources.” His FY17 budget will show how much funding he is actually proposing for energy research.
On higher education, the President called for “making college affordable for every American.” He referenced the income-contingent student loan repayment program as helpful in that effort, adding, “Now, we’ve actually got to cut the cost of college.” He said one of the best ways to do that is providing two years of community college “at no cost for every responsible student,” which he said he will work for this year.
On STEM education, the President noted the increase in graduates in “fields like engineering,” and called for “offering every student the hands-on computer science and math classes that make them job-ready on day one.”
LEGISLATORS CALL ON HHS TO USE MARCH-IN RIGHTS TO CURB RISING DRUG PRICES
A group of more than 50 House Democrats sent a letter to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) officials on January 11 urging them to develop guidelines for exercising “march-in” rights on certain drug patents to encourage drug manufacturers to moderate their prices.
The Bayh-Dole Act authorizes federal agencies that fund extramural research to retain certain rights to patented inventions that arise from that research. This includes the authority, in certain specified circumstances, to require the funding recipient to license a federally funded invention to a third party "on reasonable terms" or to grant such a license itself.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) within HHS has viewed march-in rights as an “extraordinary remedy” and has not previously used that authority.
OTHER
AAU Board of Directors Reaffirms Opposition to Academic Boycott of Israel
The AAU Board of Directors on January 14 reissued a 2013 association statement opposing a boycott of Israeli academic institutions. The action was a response to the recent approval of a resolution at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association supporting such a boycott. The full membership of the anthropologists’ group will vote on its resolution later this year.
The 2013 AAU statement, also issued by the AAU governing board at that time, reads, in part:
“Any such boycott of academic institutions directly violates academic freedom, which is a fundamental principle of AAU universities and of American higher education in general.
“Academic freedom is the freedom of university faculty responsibly to produce and disseminate knowledge through research, teaching, and service, without undue constraint. It is a principle that should not be abridged by political considerations. American colleges and universities, as well as like institutions elsewhere, must stand as the first line of defense against attacks on academic freedom.”