117th Congress Passes FY2022 Omnibus Appropriations Bill
After a five-month delay, the 117th Congress passed a $1.5 trillion omnibus appropriations bill to fund the federal government for fiscal year 2022. This massive spending bill passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 361-69 and the Senate by a vote of 68-31. Since October 1, 2021, federal agencies have been running under a continuing resolution to fund the government at Fiscal Year 2021 levels. President Biden is expected to sign the bill into law later today. Read more.
Advocating for Competitiveness and Innovation Legislation
Last week, the Energy Sciences Coalition and the Coalition for International Education sent letters to Capitol Hill in support of a final competitiveness and innovation legislative package. As mentioned in previous Washington Insights & Highlights Newsletters, the Senate passed the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) in June 2021 and the House of Representatives passed the America COMPETES Act of 2022 (COMPETES) in February 2022. Now that these bills have been passed, the two chambers are expected to announce a conference committee and begin negotiations to reconcile the two competitiveness bills. Read more.
Applications for Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program Awards
On March 9, the Department of Education released a federal register notice opening applications for new awards for the McNair program. The McNair Program is one of the seven programs collectively known as the Federal TRIO Programs. Read more.
National Institutes of Health Loan Repayment Programs
On March 8, the National Institutes of Health issued a notice of proposed rulemaking regarding Health Loan Repayment programs. The NIH proposes to update existing regulation to consolidate into the Intramural Loan Repayment Program (for NIH researchers) and the Extramural Loan Repayment Program (for non-NIH researchers). Read more.
Department of Veterans Affairs Seeks Public Comment on GI Bill School Feedback Tool
In today’s Federal Register, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) issued a notice requesting the submission of comments from the public on the GI Bill School Feedback Tool. There are over 36,000 educational institutions that are approved for VA education benefits. Read more.
The 206th Meeting of the National Council on the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts announced that the National Council on the Arts will meet on March 24. The meeting will consist of opening remarks and voting on recommendations for grant funding and rejection, followed by updates from the NEA Chair. Read more.