Washington Insights & Highlights May 16th
Senator Bill Cassidy Releases New Recommendations to Modernize NIH
Last week, U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, (R-LA), the Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, released a white paper proposing improvements to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The white paper, “NIH in the 21ST Century: Ensuring Transparency and American Biomedical Leadership,” is in response to Senator Cassidy’s request for feedback from stakeholders on policies Congress should consider to modernize the NIH. The white paper makes several recommendations, such as maximizing the effectiveness of NIH federal funding, maintaining a balanced portfolio that supports both early-stage and late-stage research, streamlining the peer review process, reestablishing the Scientific Management Review Board, and improvement in the oversight of extramural grants. For extramural research grants, the white paper encourages the sharing of negative results and encourages various approaches to peer review to promote transformative studies over incremental science. The white paper also encourages NIH to establish a “temporary program officer” position, which would be similar to NSF’s “rotators program.”
Read the full white paper here.
New ADA Rules Look to Ensure Accessibility of Online Material at Public Higher Education Institutions
In April the U.S. Department of Justice released new updates to Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requiring a comprehensive review of digital materials. The new rule requires all web content to be accessible for those with vision, hearing, cognitive, and manual dexterity disabilities. Institutions of Higher Education must also ensure the accessibility of PDFs for academic articles assigned to students by professors, along with providing closed captions on web and digital presentations.
The new rule goes into effect on June 24, 2024, with staggered compliance dates depending on the population size within a state or local jurisdiction. All public and statewide institutions have until April 24, 2026, to comply with the new rule, if their service region is above 50,000 or more persons.
To learn more about the new ADA rules, please reference the fact sheet.
Bipartisan Committee Leaders in Senate and House Raise Concerns Over Rollout of Next Year’s FAFSA
Members of Congress recently sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona about the rollout of the 2025-2026 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form. Specifically, the lawmakers expressed concerns that the Department of Education did not publish the draft FAFSA for 2025-2026 for comment, which is normally done in February or March. The lawmakers have also requested weekly progress updates, a list of current errors in the FASFA form, and a beta version of the FASFA form to be provided by September 9, 2024, before its release.
The letter comes as the Department of Education has faced serious issues in implementing the new FAFSA for this current year, 2024-2025. At the start of May, there have been 408,000 fewer FASFA applications completed compared to the previous year.
U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights Reminds Schools of Their Legal Obligation to Address Discrimination Based on Shared Ancestry and Ethnic Characteristics
Recently, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released a Dear Colleague Letter with examples of potential allegations of discrimination in schools and institutions of higher education. The examples provide guidance on when the Department of Education could open an investigation. In the letter, the Department of Education encourages college and university leaders to condemn hatred and violence and work towards equal access to educational opportunities without discrimination.
“The Administration will continue to develop and provide resources and support to ensure safe, supportive school environments,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “The Department will investigate and address any possible discrimination that causes harm to students, and we will continue to remind schools of their responsibilities to enforce Title VI.”
The OCR also released other resources to support schools in complying with their obligations under Title VI. To read more about the new resources please reference the release.