One down, one to go...oh and a signature.

The House today passed the conference committee report known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, HR 1. 246-183. OK, the economic stimulus bill. No Repubs voted for the bill. Seven Dems voted no, with one "present." The senate should take it up shortly. Word is the president wants to sign on Monday.


One aspect of the bill not covered in my last entry is the State Fiscal Stabilization funding. [The research and financial aid provisions are noted below]. $53.6 billion to be exact. $39.5 billion is set for elementary, secondary, and public higher education. Nearly $8.8 billion would be allocated for "other government services." No word on the State of Texas share.


There are some "strings" attached and we're just now getting the first reading of the bill so details are sketchy. Even though infrastructure funding was not allocated per se, these "stabilization" dollars could be utilized for construction if deemed appropriate at the state level.


Oh, new word for Beltway speak: "covered funds." In essence any stimulus funds are now defined in the bill as "covered funds." So throw this around, as in, "I have a really great NSF proposal I submitted recently that got high marks so I'm hoping it will received covered funds.'"


Oh, on that note: PI's pay attention. It is possible that most if not all, "covered funds," will be allocated to projects/proposals that are already in the queue. That is, projects that were deemed meritorious by an agency (NSF, etc.) but there were not any funds available. So it is entirely possible that there will not be any "new" RFP's, BAA's or the like issued in order to distribute funding. We've heard this about NSF, not too sure if that applies to NIH.


AGAIN, THIS IS JUST TALK and NOT FACT. We'll have to wait for agencies to issue instructions.


Whew......