Federal Relations Blog

Month: December 2016

Peters-Gardner American Innovation and Competitiveness Act to be Signed into Law

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House Passes Bipartisan Bill to Strengthen R&D, Boost Manufacturing

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 16, 2016

Allison Green

202-834-2281

Zade Alsawah

313-505-4810

Media@peters.senate.gov

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. House of Representatives today approved theAmerican Innovation and Competitiveness Act, a bicameral, bipartisan legislative compromise originally introduced by U.S Senators Gary Peters (D-MI) and Cory Gardner (R-CO), along with John Thune (R-SD), and Bill Nelson (D-FL), thatmaximizes basic research opportunities, reduces administrative burdens for researchers, encourages scientific entrepreneurship, and promotes oversight of taxpayer-funded research. The legislation also promotes diversity in STEM fields, incentivizes private-sector innovation, and aims to improve advanced manufacturing and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), a public-private partnership to support small and medium-sized manufacturers. The U.S. Senate unanimously approved the legislation last week.

This legislation marks the first major update to federal research and technology policy to originate in the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee in more than a decade.

“Cutting-edge innovation and scientific research drive our economy forward by supporting new advances in manufacturing, creating new jobs and promoting our nation’s competitiveness,” said Senator Peters, Ranking Member of the Space, Science and Competitiveness Subcommittee. “I am pleased that the House passed this bipartisan legislation that maximizes federal investments in basic science research, strengthens STEM education programs to build a skilled workforce and supports services that make small and medium-sized manufacturers globally competitive. I was honored to work with Senator Gardner to craft this legislation to help America stay ahead of the curve in our increasingly competitive world.”

“The House’s passage of the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act is a major step forward for the science and research community, and I thank Chairman Smith and Ranking Member Johnson for working in good faith with the Senate to achieve this success,” said Senator Gardner. “We’ve worked for more than 18 months with the scientific community, industry, universities, and other interested stakeholders to craft a bill that reflects the needs of America’s science and technology enterprise and I will continue to work to ensure their needs are addressed in Congress. The American Innovation and Competitiveness Act has made science bipartisan again, and I look forward to the President signing this legislation into law and helping to keep America competitive across the globe.”

Highlights of the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act

Maximizing Basic Research

  • Highlights Peer Review: Reaffirms the appropriateness of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF’s) intellectual merit and broader impacts criteria used to evaluate grant proposals.
  • Keeps Government Accountable to Taxpayers: Promotes transparency by requiring public notices of grants to justify the project’s expenditures and confirm that they align with NSF’s priorities.
  • Broadens Research Opportunities: Updates NSF’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) to continue promoting groundbreaking research in states that receive relatively little federal research money.
  • Modernizes Existing Programs: Includes updates to the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) programs, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST’s) laboratory and education outreach programs.

Administrative and Regulatory Burden Reduction

  • Reduces Paperwork Burdens: Establishes an inter-agency working group to provide recommendations on eliminating unnecessary paperwork for researchers and institutions.
  • Streamlines Government: Repeals obsolete agency reports and unfunded government programs.

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

  • Enhances Scientific Community Input: Establishes a STEM Advisory Panel composed of academic and industry representatives to provide recommendations on federal STEM programs.
  • Promotes Diversity in STEM Fields: Creates a working group to study how to improve inclusion of women and underrepresented individuals in STEM fields and reaffirms the necessity of broadening participation in STEM fields through NSF programs.

Leveraging the Private Sector

  • Incentivizes Private-Sector Innovation: Updates prize competition authority to encourage greater participation in federal prize competitions.
  • Expands Opportunities for Public Involvement: Permits federal science agencies to use crowdsourcing as a tool to conduct agency projects.

Manufacturing

  • Encourages Improved Manufacturing: Adjusts the federal cost-share ratio and implements new accountability and oversight provisions within NIST’s Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program.

Innovation and Technology Transfer

  • Bolsters Scientific Entrepreneurship: Authorizes the successful I-Corps program to help scientists move their research from the laboratory to the marketplace.
  • Reaffirms Importance of Commercialization: Directs NSF to continue awarding translational research grants and strengthen public-private cooperation.
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Washington Update: Continuing Resolution Funds Government Through April 28; Details on the 21st Century Cures Act; and More

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DECEMBER 14, 2016

Continuing Resolution Funds Government Through April 28
Congress passed a continuing resolution (CR) to extend funding for most of the federal government at current (FY2016) levels until April 28, 2017. President Obama signed the CR into law on Saturday, December 10.

The CR includes a 0.19 percent across-the-board cut for all accounts and maintains the Fiscal Year 2017 Budget Control Act sequester cap of $1.07 trillion. The stopgap measure will allow appropriators to complete work on the FY2017 spending bills in the 115th Congress, after President-elect Trump takes office.

There are some exceptions to flat funding (known as “anomalies”) included in the CR, such as  $872 million for accounts funded by the recently passed 21st Century Cures Act, including $352 million for the NIH Innovation Projects account. The funding measure also extends the Department of Education’s authority to make account maintenance fee payments to guarantee agencies under the Federal Family Education Loan Program for an additional year.

Other anomalies include $170 million to address water infrastructure and health needs in Flint, Michigan, $4.1 billion in disaster relief funds to respond to recent major flood and hurricane damage, and $45 million to extend health care coverage for retired coal miners into the next year.

Details on the 21st Century Cures Act 
Yesterday, President Obama signed the 21st Century Cures Act into law. The law provides $4.8 billion in discretionary funding for a special “Innovation Projects” account to support specific initiatives at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) over the next ten years, including $1.8 billion for the Cancer Moonshot; $1.564 billion for the BRAIN Initiative, and approximately $1.5 billion for the Precision Medicine Initiative. The legislation provides funding offsets for the Innovation Projects account including rescissions from the Affordable Care Act (ACA) public health and prevention fund, unused funds from territories for ACA exchanges, reductions in overpayments in Medicare/Medicaid, and sales from the strategic petroleum oil reserve.

Additionally, the law creates a “Next Generation of Researchers Initiative” to promote and improve opportunities for new researchers. It also includes language to reduce regulatory burdens for researchers and would establish the Research Policy Board at the Office of Management and Budget in the White House.

The Cures Act reauthorizes NIH for FY2018-FY2020, providing an NIH authorization of $36.47 billion by FY2020, an increase of $4.4 billion over current funding levels.

Senators Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Extend DACA Benefits

Also last Friday, Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) introduced S. 3542, the Bar Removal of Individuals who Dream and Grow our Economy (BRIDGE) Act. The bill would extend temporary relief from deportation and employment authorization to current beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Under the bill, “DREAMers” (young undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States by others) who are not current DACA recipients but are eligible for the program may also apply and receive “provisional protected presence” and employment authorization for three years. Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) are original co-sponsors of the bill. APLU’s statement of support for the BRIDGE Act is available here.

Senate Passes FY2017 NDAA Conference Report 
Last week, the Senate passed the FY2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) conference report. For FY2017, the NDAA conference agreement would authorize Department of Defense (DoD) Basic Research (6.1) at $2.142 billion (FY2016 is $2.309 billion), Science and Technology (6.1-6.3) at $12.489 billion (FY2016 is $13.251 billion), and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) at $2.957 billion (FY2016 is $2.891 billion).

The NDAA also extends the Small Business Innovation Research program (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program until FY2022 (Sec. 1834). The bill does not include any changes to the SBIR/STTR set-aside.

The NDAA conference agreement also establishes the Manufacturing Engineering Education program (Sec.215), which would award grants to industry, non-profits, university or consortiums of such groups, to enhance or establish new programs in manufacturing engineering education. The Manufacturing Engineering Education program language is a slightly modified version of the Manufacturing Universities language originally included in the Senate-passed FY2017 NDAA bill.

President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law.

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Content Courtesy of APLU

http://www.aplu.org/news-and-media/blog/washington-update-president-obama-signs-21st-century-cures-act-into-law-continuing-resolution-funds-government-through-april-28-and-more

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DC Alumni Chapter Tours Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

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Smithsonian-Verity-Flower-280x280 12-6-16
Verity Flower ’15 Geology PhD, NASA volcanologist, explaining volcanoes to the group

December 6, 2016

Alumni spanning five decades of graduates gathered in Washington DC’s Smithsonian Museum of Natural History for a special guided tour the Earth Sciences exhibit with Michigan Tech’s Dean of Engineering, and world-renowned geophysicist Wayne Pennington.

In addition to visiting some of the Keweenaw’s own precious metals within the Smithsonian collection, the group went behind the scenes to view the Ontonogan Boulder, an exhibit with a storied past to the Upper Peninsula, acquired by Washington before the Smithsonian existed. http://anthropology.si.edu/repatriation/reports/regional/northeast/ontonagon.htm.

They also received a special impromptu lesson in the science of volcanoes from Verity Flower ’15 Geology PhD, NASA volcanologist. (pictured)

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Behind the scenes at the Smithsonian with the Ontonagon Boulder
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