Dems Take GOP’s Short-term Debt Fix Offer, Kicking Deadline to December
Democrats are planning to accept an offer from Mitch McConnell to let them raise the debt ceiling into December without a GOP filibuster, multiple senators said after a closed-door caucus meeting on Wednesday. Senate leaders were working to finalize the deal on Wednesday night, effectively deciding to kick the can on the stalemate over the nation‘s borrowing limit for the next two months. But even as Democrats accepted part of the Senate minority leader’s entreaties, they pledged to reject his demands that the majority party use the laborious process of budget reconciliation to pass a longer debt ceiling increase. Democrats' decision tees up a vote as soon as Thursday on the short-term debt patch. It also sets the stage for a year-end convergence of Congress' major fiscal agenda items, with government funding currently set to expire on Dec. 3. ( Politico - Oct. 6, 2021)
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House Science Committee Holds Hearing on Research Security
The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight and Subcommittee on Research and Technology held a hearing yesterday on Balancing Open Science and Security in the U.S. Research Enterprise. Witnesses included Maria Zuber, vice president for research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Candice Wright, director of the Science, Technology Assessment, and Analytics team at the U.S. Government Accountability Office; Allison Lerner, inspector general of the National Science Foundation; and Xiaoxing Xi, Laura H. Carnell Professor of Physics at Temple University. Congress members asked panelists to share their perspectives on matters such as the level of risk awareness that exists within the research community; the quality of the current relationship between universities and the FBI; and how the federal government can better work with universities to protect research from foreign threats. A significant portion of the hearing focused on finding the right balance between research security and scientific openness while remaining welcoming to international students and scholars and maintaining important international collaborations. ( Association of American Universities - Oct. 6, 2021)
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AAU, Associations Provide Resource Kit for Hosting Afghan Students and Scholars
AAU, ACE, APLU, and IIE have released a resource kit for colleges and universities interested in hosting displaced Afghan students and scholars. The kit includes resources to help institutions assess whether they have the necessary structures and support networks to welcome students and scholars and to help them understand the financial, logistical, and legal challenges involved in hosting. The kit also provides suggestions for how institutions that are unable to host can support displaced students and scholars. ( Association of American Universities - Oct. 6, 2021)
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Students Gather in Washington to Protest Sexual Assault
Students, sexual assault survivors and their advocates gathered outside the U.S. Department of Education Wednesday and delivered a petition with more than 50,000 signatures calling for an immediate rollback of Trump administration policies governing how colleges handle sexual misconduct on campus. The ED Act Now petition calls on Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and Acting Assistant Secretary of the Office for Civil Rights, Suzanne Goldberg to take three actions: to announce proposed changes to the Title IX rule by the end of October, to issue a nonenforcement directive on portions of former education secretary Betsy DeVos’s Title IX rule that narrow the scope of those protected by the law and to allow students to file complaints within 180 days from the most recent instance of discrimination instead of from the first instance. ( Inside Higher Ed - Oct. 7, 2021)
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FTC Puts 70 For-profit Institutions on Notice
The Federal Trade Commission is planning to crack down on for-profit institutions that make false promises about their graduates’ outcomes, including job and earnings prospects, according to a Wednesday announcement. The commission has sent Notices of Penalty Offenses to 70 institutions, warning them that they could incur significant sanctions for engaging in unlawful practices. The notice allows the commission to seek civil penalties against an institution that engages in conduct previously determined by the FTC to be unlawful. An institution’s inclusion on the list of those receiving notices doesn’t reflect any assessment as to whether it has engaged in deceptive or unfair conduct, the agency said. ( Inside Higher Ed - Oct. 7, 2021)
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FY 23 APPROPRIATIONS NEWS
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CNSR Urges Defense Secretary to Reverse Cuts in Defense Basic Research
The Coalition for National Security Research[, of which AAU and Vanderbilt University are members,] sent a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III urging him to “reverse recent trends of requesting cuts for defense basic research.” The letter requests Austin to craft a FY23 budget that funds the defense science and technology program at 3% of the defense budget and defense basic research at 20% of the S&T budget. The increases would be consistent with the Biden administration’s commitment to supporting cutting-edge technologies and capabilities that will help advance our military and national security. Lower funding levels for defense S&T could threaten the dominance of the U.S. military, the letter states. ( Association of American Universities - Oct. 6, 2021)
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