House Poised to Vote on Budget Deal Before Leaving for August Recess

July 25, 2019

At press time, the U.S. House of Representatives was poised to pass the Bipartisan Budget Act (BBA) of 2019, a budget deal that was reached at the beginning of the week. After months of deliberation, the House, Senate, and Administration reached a two-year budget deal to raise the caps and avoid defaulting on the national debt. Much of the negotiation has reportedly taken place between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Congress

House Passes STEM Legislation and Hears from OSTP Director and APA Leadership; Brain Research on Capitol Hill

July 25, 2019

On Wednesday,
July 24, the House of Representatives passed two bipartisan bills to support
science, technology, engineering and math. The Combatting Sexual Harassment in
Science Act, HR 36, would require federal agencies to implement policies for
preventing and handling sexual harassment. The Building Blocks of STEM Act, HR
1665, would direct the National Science Foundation to support STEM education
research focused on early childhood. Both bills have companion legislation

Progress and Uncertainty in the Federal Budget Process

June 27, 2019

As we approach the July 4 recess, the House continues to make progress on appropriations bills while the Senate continues to contemplate top line numbers and the White House floats the idea of a one-year continuing resolution at FY 2019 budget levels.

Earlier this month, and after lengthy discussion on possible amendments, the House passed the first four-bill “minibus” spending package (H.R. 2740) that included both the National Institutes of Health and the Institute of

White House Proposes Terminating Federal Advisory Committees

June 27, 2019

On June 14, the President released an Executive Order on Evaluating and Improving the Utility of Federal Advisory Committees. The order has been met with a combination of confusion and concern from the scientific community.

The proposal to evaluate the usefulness of current advisory committees is a reasonable one. However, the Executive Order states specific numbers and cuts, and provides no justification. Namely, agencies are ordered to ‘terminate at least one-third’