Washington Update
July 10, 2008
Following the July 4th recess, Congress has reconvened to continue work on several critical pieces of legislation, including the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA) and all Fiscal Year 2009 (FY09) appropriations bills. Prior to the recess, the House and Senate approved the FY08 supplemental appropriations bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which also included some discretionary spending that is discussed below. The President signed the FY08 supplemental into law on June 30.
The following report is a wrap-up of recent activities in Washington leading up to the July 4th recess. We will continue to monitor developments on Capitol Hill and within federal agencies and will provide periodic updates.
I. FY200 8 SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS BILL
On June 26 the Senate approved the House-passed FY08 supplemental appropriations bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan , sending the measure to the President for his signature. After months of wrangling over the bill, Congress and the White House finally negotiated a bipartisan compromise that eliminated certain restrictions on the war and boosted domestic spending. The final supplemental contained nearly $162 billion in defense funding plus $21 billion for activities not related to the wars, including science funding, veterans' education benefits, unemployment benefits, and disaster relief for the Midwest. The defense component of the bill was cut by $3.6 billion to help pay for the non-defense elements of the measure.
Science Funding:
The FY08 supplemental included nearly $340 million for science research to help offset shortfalls at certain agencies from the FY08 omnibus appropriations bill. Funding allocations include:
- National Institutes of Health (NIH): $150 million, to be distributed by the Office of the Director to all NIH institutes and centers on a basis proportional to their FY08 allocations.
- National Science Foundation (NSF): $62.5 million. Congress has directed that $22.5 million goes to Research and Related Activities, of which $5 million is set aside for specific programs authorized by the America COMPETES Act. The other $40 million will go to Education and Human Resources to fund the Robert Noyce Scholarship program, Graduate Research Fellowships, Graduate Teaching Fellowships, and the Federal Scholarship for Service.
- NASA: $62.5 million for Science, Aeronautics, and Exploration activities.
- Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science: $62.5 million to eliminate workforce reductions that resulted directly from FY08 budgetary constraints. Roughly half of the funds will be used to avert layoffs at various national laboratories, including the Fermi National Accelerator Lab and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Lab. The remaining funds will go to support Basic Energy Sciences and ITER-related research.
The science funding included in the FY08 supplemental was provided on an emergency basis and is considered a one-time appropriation that will not increase the spending baseline for future fiscal years.
Veterans' Education Benefits:
The FY08 war supplemental also contained language referred to as the “New GI Bill” to expand education benefits for our nation's veterans. Specifically, this measure will guarantee that veterans who have served in the military for at least three years since September 11, 2001 will receive tuition aid up to the cost of attending the most-expensive public college in their state. In addition, they will receive a regionally-based monthly housing stipend to help defray the cost of living plus payments for tutorial assistance, licensure and certification tests. Entitlement to these education benefits will be made without regard to prior educational achievements unless the government paid for those degrees. This means the benefit is available to cover graduate and professional school, but the tuition cap will still be limited to the most expensive in-state public school undergraduate rate.
As a way to encourage current military personnel to stay in the service, Congress and the White House agreed to a “transferability provision” that will allow Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to transfer their full education benefits to their spouses or children instead of using the benefits for themselves.
More than 1.6 million veterans have served since 2001 and about 450,000 veterans are expected to make use of the new GI benefits, including the 100+ veterans currently enrolled at UCLA. The duration of educational payments will be linked to time served in the military. On average, veterans will be eligible to receive assistance for 36 months, which equals approximately four academic years. Under the new legislation, veterans will be allowed up fifteen years to use their education benefits, as compared to ten years under the previous Montgomery GI bill.
For more on the new GI benefits, please visit: http://www.advocacy.ucla.edu/legislation.html
Medicaid Regulations:
The FY08 supplemental also included language to block implementation of six out of the seven Medicaid regulations proposed by the White House to curb fraud and abuse. Implementation of these regulations as written would have significantly reduced funding to safety-net hospitals, including approximately $120 million annually for the University of California 's five academic medical centers.
II. FY2009 APPROPRIATIONS BILLS
In the week preceding the July 4 recess, the full House Appropriations Committee approved several FY09 spending bills. Proposed funding levels for programs of interest to UCLA are summarized below, by bill.
Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS)
The National Science Foundation (N SF) would receive $6.9 billion, which is equal to the Administration's request and $788 million over FY2008 levels. The House Appropriations Committee recommended the following program levels:
- $5.4 billion for Research and Related Activities ($50 million below the Administration's request, but $720 million above FY08);
- $840 million for Education and Human Resources ($50 million above the Administration's request and $115 million over FY08);
- $147 million for Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (same as the Administration's request and $73 million below FY08)
NASA would receive $17.8 billion, a $155 million increase over the Administration's request and $459 million above FY08 spending levels. The Science account would receive $4.5 billion, which is $76 million over the Administration's request.
The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) would receive $4.2 billion in FY09 funding, an increase of $181 million above the Administration's request and $388 million above FY08.
The National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) would receive $817 million, which is $179 million above the Administration's request and $55 million increase over FY08. This bill includes $65.2 million for the Technology Innovation Program (TIP) despite the Administration's proposed elimination of the program.
Energy and Water (E&W)
The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science would receive $4.9 billion, which is a $138 million increase above the Administration's request and $842 million over FY08 levels. The House Appropriations Committee recommended the following funding levels:
- $805 million for High Energy Physics (equal to the Administration's request and $117 million over FY08)
- $517 million for Nuclear Physics ($7 million over the Administration's request and $84 million over FY08)
- $579 million for Biological and Environmental ($10 million over the Administration's request)
- $1.6 billion for Basic Energy Science ($31 million over the Administration's request and $329 million above FY08)
- $379 million for Advanced Scientific Computing ($27 million over FY08 levels)
- $499 million for Fusion Energy ($6 million over the Administration's request and $212 million above FY08)
Homeland Security
The House Appropriations Committee approved a total of $40 billion in FY09 DHS spending. The bill would provide $52 million dollars for university programs, which is $7.5 million above the Administration's requested amount.
Other House Appropriations Bills
The House Appropriations Committee was scheduled to consider FY09 Labor-HHS-Education spending and the Agriculture spending, but markup of these two bills has been postponed indefinitely due to a partisan dispute over the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies bill. It remains unclear as to when the Committee will reconvene to consider the remaining FY09 appropriations bills.
Senate Appropriations Update
Just prior to the July 4 recess, the full Senate Appropriations Committee approved its FY09 Labor-HHS-Education bill.
Federal Student Aid: The Senate bill would add $2.7 billion to the Pell Grant program, which would raise the maximum grant by $69 to $4,800. This is the same as the Administration's request but less than the $169 increase proposed in the House that would bring the maximum grant to $4,900.
The Senate bill would also provide an extra $10 million for the TRIO program ($828.8 million in FY08), an extra $5 million for GEAR UP ($303.4 million in FY08), and $5.7 million more for the Perkins Loan Cancellations ($64.3 million in FY08). Funding would be frozen at the FY08 levels for Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (SEOG), ($757.5 million in FY08) and Federal Work Study ($908.5 million in FY08).
National Institutes of Health: Under the Senate bill, NIH would receive $30.25 billion, a $1.03 billion increase over FY08. Per the Committee report, this level would enable NIH to keep up with biomedical research inflation for the first time in six years and would fund an estimated 10,471 new competitive awards. The Senate bill retains the annual $300 million transfer from NIH to the AIDS Global Fund that has been included in recent years. In addition, the Senate bill would provide $192 million for the Children's Study (an increase of $81 million over FY08 and the same as the House bill) and it would allocate $568 million to the Office of the Director for the Common Fund, which is $24 million higher than the House-proposed level.
The Senate bill does not appear to contain the House provision that would make permanent and mandatory the FY08 provision on public access to NIH-funded research.
One issue that could directly impact research universities is a conflict-of-interest provision aimed at external NIH grantees. This conflict-of -interest language was included in an amendment at the request of Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), who has charged that certain NIH-funded university researchers have not properly disclosed their financial arrangements with pharmaceutical companies.
III. LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
HEA Reauthorization
Though progress has been made, Congress has not yet completed its comprehensive reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA). As previously reported, the Senate passed its reauthorization last year and the House passed its version in February 2008. The HEA has not been fully reauthorized since 1998.
During the past five months, lawmakers from both chambers have attempted to iron out the differences in their bills, but certain contentious issues remain. Committee members have indicated that the most problematic of these is the controversial “maintenance of effort” provision, which would penalize states for reducing their support of higher education for any academic year to less than the average over the five most recent academic years. Other lingering issues include a disputed “textbook cost” provision and the expansion of the number of graduate schools eligible for the designation of Historically Black Graduate Institution.
Overall, the House and Senate versions of the HEA reauthorization uphold the federal commitment to higher education by expanding college access and improving the financial aid process. Among the many positive reforms in the bill are provisions to:
- Increase the maximum Pell Grant award an individual student may receive and expand eligibility to year round.
- Provide new “up-front” tuition grants for college students who commit to teaching and allow students who enter the field of public service to enroll in a loan forgiveness program.
- Protect students from aggressive marketing practices by lenders, and provide students fair and full information about their borrowing options when taking out and repaying student loans.
- Provide students with advance information on textbook pricing to help them plan for expenses before each semester, and ensure that colleges and faculty have full textbook pricing information when making purchasing decisions.
- Create new scholarships for active duty military personnel and their family members, and establish support centers to help veterans succeed in and graduate from college.
- Streamline the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) process, and create an easy-to-navigate two-page FAFSA-EZ form for low-income families.
- Help colleges recruit, retain, and graduate students with disabilities and expand eligibility for Pell Grant scholarships and other need-based aid for students with learning disabilities.
As reported in the February Washington Update, the University of California has joined its peer AAU and NASULGC institutions in support of comprehensive reauthorization of HEA. However, the higher education community as a whole has expressed concerns about certain provisions in the House and Senate versions of the bill, including many new reporting requirements, new foreign gift rules, and peer-to-peer file sharing regulations.
Prior to adjourning for the July 4 recess, Congress approved another short-term extension of the HEA to provide additional time for House and Senate negotiators to complete the final bill.
IV. FEDERAL ADVOCACY
The annual “UCLA in Washington , DC ” trip, hosted by the Office of Federal Relations, took place in early May. This year we focused on U.S. innovation and competitiveness and advocated for increased federal funding for math and science research and education programs. Our delegates included students from the UCLA Undergraduate Research Center for Sciences, Engineering and Mathematics (URC) and the Center for Academic and Research Excellence (CARE). The student delegates did an exceptional job communicating with Members of Congress and their staff about the importance of federal support for basic research. We are grateful to the URC-CARE program, the College, and the Alumni Association for their support of our 2008 UCLA Day in DC. |
