Open Access and “Zero Embargo” Rumors

January 15, 2020

In early December, the science community started hearing rumors about an Executive Order (EO) that would require all federally-funded research to be available to the public at the time of publishing in place of the 12-month post-publication embargo period outlined by the 2013 “Holdren memo”. These rumors suggested that the EO would be effective immediately and was coming from somewhere other than the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). It has since been

FY 2020 Budget Signed Before Holiday, FY 2021 Budget May Face Hurdles

January 15, 2020

On December 20th, shortly before the continuing resolution that kept the government open expired, the President signed two FY 2020 spending packages. As in past years, despite significant cuts to science budgets in the President’s budget proposal, the final budget included increases for science.

National Institutes of Health (NIH) – $41.7 billion, a $2.6 billion (6.65%) increase, $500 million for the BRAIN Initiative and increases for every NIH institute.National

Senate Poised to Vote and the President Expected to Sign a Budget Deal for FY2020

December 18, 2019

On December 17th, the House of Representatives voted to approve two minibus spending packages (HR 1158 National Security and HR 1865 Domestic) that together contain all 12 Fiscal Year 2020 spending bills. The Senate is expected to vote on both minibus packages on Thursday, with only one day until the December 20th deadline. In order to avoid a government shutdown, the President is expected to sign. If passed, these bills will fund the federal government until September

Congress Passes Another Continuing Resolution until December 20

November 21, 2019

This afternoon, the Senate passed a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government open past today, November 21, the deadline of the previous CR. This second CR, passed by the House on Wednesday, will keep the government open until December 20. Ideally, this will give appropriators time to agree on how to allot $1.37 trillion in discretionary spending among the 12 annual spending bills – referred to as 302 (b) allocations.