Now Its The Senate's Turn

The Senate has come up with its own version of a stimulus package. For an overview of the non-tax related portions (spending that is) here's the committee's release:

http://appropriations.senate.gov/News/2009_01_27_Senate_Appropriations_Committee_Approves_American_Recovery_and_Reinvestment_Plan.pdf?CFID=4081109&CFTOKEN=98619761



In essence, this is how it affects us:



Senate Appropriations Stimulus Package:
Overview on Higher Education Related Issues

Infrastructure Improvements:
· School Modernization: $16 billion to repair, renovate and construct public schools in ways that will raise energy efficiency and provide greater access to information technology, and $3.5 billion to improve higher education facilities.

· National Science Foundation (NSF) $350 million for scientific infrastructure.


Research
· National Science Foundation (NSF) Research: $1.4 billion total for NSF including: $1 billion to help America compete globally; and $50 million for competitive grants to improve the quality of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education.

· National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA): $1.5 billion total for NASA including: $500 million for Earth science missions to provide critical data about the Earth’s resources and climate; $250 million to enable research and testing of environmentally responsible aircraft and for verification and validation methods for complex aerospace systems and software; $500 million to reduce the gap in time that the U.S. does not have a vehicle to access the International Space Station; and $250 million for repair, upgrade and construction at NASA facilities.

· National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA): $1.2 billion total for NOAA, including $772 million to construct and repair NOAA facilities, equipment and vessels; to $80 million to reduce the Nation’s coastal charting backlog; $70 million for supercomputer infrastructure for climate research; and $300 million to restore critical habitat around the Nation.

· National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST): $575 million total for NIST including: $357 million for renovation of NIST facilities and new laboratories using green technologies; $218 million for scientific and technical research at NIST to strengthen the agency’s IT infrastructure; provide additional NIST research fellowships; provide substantial funding for advanced research and measurement equipment and supplies; increase external grants for NIST-related research.

· The Department of Energy’s Science program sees $430 million for laboratory infrastructure, for construction, and for advanced computing development.

· $3.5 billion to conduct biomedical research in areas such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, heart disease and stem cells, and to improve NIH facilities.

· $1.1 billion to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, NIH and the HHS Office of the Secretary to evaluate the relative effectiveness of different health care services and treatment options.


Financial Aid
· Pell Grants: $13.9 billion to increase the Pell Grant maximum award and pay for increases in program costs resulting from increased eligibility and higher Pell Grant awards. The bill supports an increased Pell Grant maximum award of $281 in the 2009- 2010 academic year and $400 in the 2010-2011 academic year. This aid will help 7 million students pursue postsecondary education.

NEW DAY IN DC

OK, the 111th Congress has convened. Committee assignments are being doled out. A new president has been sworn in, twice, and the cabinet officials and czars are practically in place. So what now?

For us, follow the money. Policy issues will emerge thereafter.

So where are we?


FY '09--Appropriations has been put to bed. We just haven't seen the effects. Congress adjourned last year without officially funding the remaining part of the year--outside of defense and homeland security that is. Staff have finished the bill and a vote is expected probably after the stimulus package vote.

Stimulus--treat this as a supplemental to FY '09 even though we don't actually know what's in '09. And some of '10 too since funds will be spent later this year if a package is approved. So what's in it? The House Democrats are pushing an $800 billion plus package. A nice summary from the committee is found in their report language. This passed last night out of committee and expect on the floor next week. http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/RecoveryReport01-15-09.pdf

For higher education, one can break down the package this way:

1. Infrastructure


2. Research, S&T R&D


3. Financial Aid


4. General State support.

1. Infrastructure is mainly a $6 billion repair and renovation allocation to the states based on student full time equivalents. Some "green" requirements attached. No "new" construction. Other infrastructure projects are noted at NSF, NIH but these are mainly for existing approved projects that were simply not funded due to lack of money.

2. R&D. Lot's of direct and indirect stuff. The good folks at the AAAS put this together:

AAAS estimates that the just-released House version of the 2009 stimulus appropriations bills contains $13.3 billion in federal research and development (R&D) funding out of a total $550 billion in federal spending. Of that amount, $9.9 billion would go to the conduct of R&D and $3.4 billion for R&D facilities and capital equipment.

The three agencies highlighted in the America COMPETES Act of 2007 and President Bush's American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI) would do extremely well in the stimulus appropriations bill. The National Science Foundation (NSF) would receive $3.0 billion; the Department of Energy's Office of Science (DOE OS) would receive $2.0 billion; and Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) would receive $520 million; nearly all of these supplementals are for R&D activities. The $5.5 billion allocated to these three agencies would finally put all three budgets on track to double over the next 7 to 10 years as envisioned in the ACI, America COMPETES, and Obama campaign promises.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) would receive $3.9 billion in the stimulus appropriations bill, divided roughly evenly between research and infrastructure (construction and maintenance of facilities). The stimulus funding would turn around a NIH budget that has been in decline since 2004. The Department of Energy's (DOE) energy programs would also be a winner with $2.0 billion for R&D and related activities in renewable energy and energy conservation, with billions more for DOE in weatherization, loan guarantee, and clean energy demonstration funds. And the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) would receive $600 million, mostly for R&D.

3. Financial Aid, from the report language: "Pell Grants provide need-based scholarships for undergraduate students. Under the economic recovery bill, the (discretionary) maximum Pell Grant would increase by $500, from $4,360 to $4,860 for the 2009-2010 academic year. With the additional $490 in mandatory funding, the total Pell maximum would be $5,350. The cost of a $500 Pell award increase, plus retiring prior year shortfalls, is now $15.6 billion over two years, based on interim updated CBO economic assumptions and applicant growth, as more students are applying and qualifying for more assistance. These additional funds will provide immediate financial relief to an additional 800,000 students..."

"College Work-Study provides funds to colleges, which must be matched with 25 percent non-
Federal funds, to support low and moderate-income undergraduate and graduate students who
work while attending school. In addition, each participating institution must use at least 7 percent of its Work-Study allocation for payments to students employed in community service activities, such as community-accessible childcare and assistance for disabled students. Providing increased funding would increase the number of students working in local communities. The additional funds in the economic recovery bill, when combined with institutional matching funds, will result in a total of $613 million that will be available to support an estimated 200,000 new students in fiscal years 2009 and 2010."

4. And last, general state support. $79 billion to the state to help their own budgets. Apportioned by population. 61% must go to K-12 and HE. Each governor must request the funds to receive the allocation.


The senate is working on their own package.

STAY TUNED!

Inside Higher Education provides this overview of our president-elect's stance on higher education as gleamed through the campaign.

Obama on Higher Ed
Many higher education leaders had hoped to see college issues, or education generally, emerge as a major issue in the 2008 race. That never quite happened. And with the war in Iraq and the collapse of the economy, that may not be surprising. But over the course of two years leading up to his election, Sen. Barack Obama has given many policy addresses and issued many proposals about education that may guide his work in office — at least after he deals with the economy, Iraq and Afghanistan. Here are some of the highlights:

Loan programs: Obama responded to a scandal last spring about student loan programs by proposing a series of reforms. In a May 2007 proposal, he called for eliminating subsidies to lenders and pushing all borrowing into the direct lending program. He said that eliminating subsidies would allow for a significant boost in support for Pell Grants. At around the same time Obama made his proposal, similar ideas were unveiled by Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, who were at that time emerging as top competitors in the race for the Democratic nomination. In part because all of the leading candidates were more sympathetic to direct lending than to the guaranteed loan program, and the Republicans at the time were largely ignoring higher education issues, there was little sustained debate about these proposals.

Access to higher education: While Obama started with a focus on loan programs, he went on to issue more detailed proposals on college access, saying repeatedly that he worried about the challenges families faced paying for college. Included in his college access plans:

• A fully refundable tax credit to cover the first $4,000 in college costs — enough for two years of community college tuition in most cases — for everyone. The only requirement would be 100 hours of public service a year; this could be performed in the summer or between semesters.
• Simplification of federal aid applications. (There has been some progress on this issue, which attracts bipartisan support, since Obama spoke on it and prior to the election.)
• A pledge to keep Pell Grant maximums rising at the level of inflation or higher if possible.

Community colleges: Obama has proposed a new grant program that would provide funds to community colleges to conduct more thorough analysis of the types of skills and technical education that are in high demand from students and local businesses; to create new associate of arts degree programs that cater to emerging careers; and to reward institutions that graduate more students and also increase their numbers of transfer students to four-year institutions.

Science and technology: During the campaign, the president-elect repeatedly linked investments in science and technology to improvements in the economy, and he made a number of specific proposals. Obama has called for expanded financing of federal research programs, with special efforts for those academic scientists starting their careers; the creation of new programs to improve math and science education and to attract more students to them — with special efforts to recruit minority and female students to fields where they have been underrepresented; and special efforts to promote research and education related to climate change and health care. Obama has backed stem cell research and opposed Bush administration limits on such funds.

Further, he has pledged to “restore the basic principle that government decisions should be based on the best-available, scientifically valid evidence and not on the ideological predispositions of agency officials or political appointees.” A more philosophical outline of Obama’s views on the link between education, science and economic competitiveness may be found in his speech in June at Kettering University.

Affirmative action: Obama has repeatedly said that affirmative action should not be eliminated, but he has suggested a combination of class and race as factors. In a 2007 interview with ABC, asked if his daughters will deserve affirmative action when they apply to college, he said that they “should probably be treated by any admissions officer as folks who are pretty advantaged.” Further, in Obama’s Philadelphia speech on race, he noted with sympathy the frustrations of some while people “when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed.” But in that speech, as in others, Obama has also repeatedly stressed that the economic and educational gaps between some minority individuals and others are real and need attention.

While presidential candidates prepare policies on issues such as education and research, they also end up speaking on other higher education issues when they are asked surprise questions on the campaign trail or in debates, or when they happen to be campaigning in an area that is focused on a particular issue. In these situations, Obama has:

• Called for colleges to lift bans on Reserve Officers Training Corps programs. Obama opposes the military’s discriminatory policies against gay people — the source of much campus opposition to ROTC. But in an appearance at Columbia University in September, he said that “the notion that young people here at Columbia or anywhere, in any university, aren’t offered the choice, the option of participating in military service, I think is a mistake.”


• Criticized the cost of college textbooks and professors who assign their own books. In an appearance in Texas, he said: “Books are a big scam.... I taught law at the University of Chicago for 10 years, and one of the biggest scams is law professors write their own text books and then assign it to their students. They make a mint. It’s a huge racket.”


• Backed the right to attend community college for those without legal status to be in the United States. Obama spoke on this issue in North Carolina, where this has been the subject of much debate. In an interview, he said: “For us to deny them access to community college, even though they’ve never lived in Mexico, at least as far as they can tell ... is to deny that this is how we’ve always built this country up.”

Money, Money, Money, Money

Before the Wall Street financial crisis hit the Hill like Hurricane Ike, congress and the president addressed the federal budget--well a temporary fix for the most part.


Last week the president signed into law the FY09 continuing resolution (CR). [Note last blog entry below]. This will fund the federal government through March 6, 2009. After the new session of Congress begins in January we should have a better idea of how they will go about funding the rest of FY 09...or at least that's the plan.

In short, the CR freezes funding for most federal agencies at their FY08 levels during that period, including those federal agencies of major interest to A&M researchers: the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy Office of Science, and NASA.

Regarding financial aid, the CR includes an additional $2.5 billion to help address a projected $6 billion shortfall in the Pell Grant program over three academic years (07-08, 08-09, 09-10) and maintain the maximum award at its current level. Some $750 million of the appropriated amount is a down payment on the shortfall.

Funded for the full fiscal year “minibus” of three national security full-year appropriations bills—Defense, Homeland Security, and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs.
Within the Department of Defense (DOD) bill, funding for basic research (budget function 6.1) is $1.842 billion, a 12.7-percent increase above FY08 and higher than either the House or Senate subcommittee-approved levels.

Let's Get Fiscal

With the federal fiscal year ending next Tuesday, this is what we know:

1. There will be some humongous bailout for troubled financial firms.

2. Congress must approve funding to keep federal agencies and programs running beyond September 30 into the new fiscal year (FY09). That process is in flux.

3. What’s being discussed is a “minibus,” instead of an “omnibus,” of the three national security appropriations bills (Defense, Homeland Security, and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs) and a continuing resolution (CR) to fund agencies and programs covered by the remaining nine appropriations bills. The combined measure would also fund a number of other priorities, such as disaster relief, etc. The minibus of three appropriations bills is expected to run for the entire fiscal year and increase funding for national security agencies and programs above their FY08 levels. The CR, as currently drafted, would run through March 6—and the start of a new Administration and Congress—and freeze funding for most of its agencies and programs at their FY08 levels.

Now of course this could all change.....developing.

Science Policy Anyone?

You wonks that are having trouble sleeping at night not knowing the presidential candidate's position on science and technology issues pressing the nation, restful slumber is around the corner!  

OK maybe not.  But the science related issues don't always emerge in the national debate so here's a link to questions that should be of interest to most university researchers and those that care about science policy in America.

http://www.sciencedebate2008.com

HEA Implementation

Couple of points relating to the new higher education act. The federal education department will be holding hearings across the country regarding the implementation of the act and rules the department may create. If anyone on campus has any comments regarding implementation--now mind you that does not mean we can voice if we think the new law is good, bad or ugly; rather the implementation of the law as passed and signed by the president--then please let me know.

For a really nice side-by-side analysis of the new law's key provisions, here's a link to the AAU site noting issues of interest. http://www.aau.edu/education/Comparison_HEA_Conf_Side-by-Side_09-02-2008.pdf