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University of Michigan

	Washington Update
A Quarterly Report from the University of Michigan Washington, DC Office
Volume III		Summer 2004

Washington Update

A Quarterly Report from the University of Michigan
Washington, DC Office

Volume III , Summer 2004 BUSY FALL AHEAD FOR CONGRESS
HIGHER DUCATION ACT DEAD FOR THIS CONGRESS
VISA ISSUES UPDATE
CONGRESS SHOULD BAN STEROIDS, MARTIN TELLS SENATORS
OPEN ACCESS - A NEW COPYRIGHT ISSUE
HILL STAFFERS HEAR ISR REPORTS ON AGING
NASA RE-ORGANIZATION UPDATE

BUSY FALL AHEAD FOR CONGRESS

Congress is presently in recess until after Labor Day. By that time, both parties will have nominated their candidates for President at their respective conventions. Meanwhile, the workload remaining to be completed by the House and Senate is very large. Although the House has passed 10 of the 13 annual appropriations bills, only the Defense bill has actually been completed and signed by the President. Thus, the bulk of the appropriations process remains to be completed.
With the Senate unable to pass a budget, it now appears that Senate appropriators will try to bundle all their remaining appropriations bills in September, hoping to wrap up the process before the election. This hope may be only a dream if the Appropriations Committee cannot convince the congressional leadership to provide the appropriators with more funding. At the present time, there does not appear to be sufficient votes to complete the bills before November.
Of particular note, supporters of the National Science Foundation (NSF) were disappointed that the House committee approved over $100 million less for FY ‘05 than this year’s budget. Efforts will continue to encourage the Senate to push the funding higher for NSF in its version of the bill.
For other research accounts, Defense will see increases, although much of that increase in basic research appears to be the results of congressional earmarks. The National Institutes of Health would get about 2% more under the bill that passed the House Appropriations Committee in July. (See separate article re: NASA funding) As for higher education, most programs receive level funding with minor increases for SEOG and international education programs. The maximum Pell grant is frozen at $4050.
The Washington Office will continue working with our association and coalition partners to lobby for additional support for federally funded basic research, as well as additional funding for Pell grants and other financial aid programs. However, the tight federal budget is having an impact on all of these programs and others throughout government. top

HIGHER EDUCATION ACT DEAD FOR THIS CONGRESS

It was no surprise earlier this summer when House Education and Workforce Committee leaders said that there would be no re-authorization of the Higher Education Act this Congress. The leaders later retracted that statement, however no one expects Congress will pass the legislation this year. The committee did recently hold hearings on issues relating to graduation rates, accreditation and textbook pricing. Higher education associations continue to raise concerns about some of the provisions that are under consideration.
Meanwhile, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee leadership has not produced a bill, although the Democrats introduced a ‘place holder’ bill earlier this session.
It is expected that both houses will reintroduce legislation in the new Congress next year. In the meantime, the higher education programs at the federal level will continue unchanged.   top

VISA ISSUES UPDATE

As the fall semester approaches, the Washington office continues to monitor the visa process for our international visitors, scholars & students. We have had a small number of delays and denials of visas and we are working with campus and the U.S. State Department to hopefully rectify these problems.
Last month, the Department of Homeland Security released its ruling for the collection of the Student and Exchange Visitors Information Service (SEVIS) fee. Beginning September 1, 2004, all international students and scholars will have to pay the $100 SEVIS fee before obtaining their visas.   top

CONGRESS SHOULD BAN STEROIDS, MARTIN TELLS SENATORS

U-M Athletic Director Bill Martin told the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control that steroids and steroid precursors are serious issues on college campuses.
At a hearing in July, Martin said U-M works hard to educate student-athletes about the dangers of steroids and other dietary supplements. Martin also said harsh penalties can be handed out to athletes caught using these substances. He also urged Congress to pass legislation that would make many of these drugs “controlled substances” only available by prescription.
Martin said amateur and professional sports organizations need to work together to come up with a unified list of banned substances and similar testing and penalty regimes to discourage usage.   top

OPEN ACCESS – A NEW COPYRIGHT ISSUE

Thanks to language added to a House appropriations bill, some controversy is brewing in Washington over how the results of federally funded NIH research should be made available to the public.
Under the legislation, researchers would need to make available any findings of their research on a public web site within six months of having their research published in a scholarly journal. Moreover, the language states that some findings might need to be made public even sooner if NIH funds were provided for publication.
Concerns have been raised about the impact such a ruling may have on scholarly journals, which have traditionally counted on subscription support to remain in circulation. NIH recently met with various stakeholders to discuss how to provide some public access to this research without putting journals out of business.
The Washington Office is working with the Association of American Universities on this issue.   top

HILL STAFFERS HEAR ISR REPORTS ON AGING

Three U-M researchers recently spoke at a Capitol Hill seminar to discuss important research done at the Institute for Social Research on the elderly.
Professors Kenneth Langa, David Weir and Robert Willis participated in a session entitled “Growing Old in an Aging America.” The session was sponsored by ISR, the American Sociological Association and the Consortium of Social Science Associations.
At the session, Weir discussed ISR’s Health and Retirement Study, which provides longitudinal data about older Americans on a number of issues. Willis specifically looked at data relating to retirement rates, while Langa focused on the burden of dementia for seniors.
Numerous congressional staff and science society representatives attended the event.   top

NASA RE-ORGANIZATION UPDATE

Several weeks ago, NASA announced a significant reorganization of all aspects of the NASA structure. These included consolidating the Earth Science office and the Space Science office into one Science Directorate. Meanwhile, the Office of Biological and Physical sciences was transferred to the exploration initiative and refocused on life science issues. Thus far, it appears that the new structure itself should not substantively impact most key programs. However, there are concerns about what will become of the physical research, as well as concerns about whether the various sub-disciplines will have the same degree of emphasis as they deserve. Perhaps the greatest concern stems from the potential for significant funding shortfalls. The President’s exploration initiative ­ while providing a needed set of goals for the human space flight program ­ removes the bifurcation that had existed between the science programs and the human programs. This was done to better integrate the two areas of NASA activity. However, the proposed budgets for the initiative make assumptions that to some seem unlikely, such as retiring the shuttle before a new launch vehicle is operational. In that budget scenario, many are concerned that cost overruns in the exploration initiative would translate into funding cuts to various unrelated science programs. The House Appropriations Committee recently voted to cut funding to NASA by about 2% from the current year funding level. This effectively halted the funding for the exploration initiative. The reasons for the cut were threefold. First, the committee was working with considerably less money than it needed, resulting in at least a 2% cut across nearly every agency under the committee’s jurisdiction. Second, there was considerable election year pressure to increase funding for veterans’ medical care. Finally, Congress still desires a detailed explanation of the exploration initiative itself. It remains unclear whether the Senate Appropriations Committee will agree with the funding levels provided by the House.  top

Mike Waring, Executive Director of Federal Relations
and Director of the Washington Office
mwaring@umich.edu
Mark Burnham, Director of Federal Relations for Research
mburnham@umich.edu
Cindy Bank, Assistant Director
bankc@umich.edu
Marlene Andersen, Office Manager
marlenej@umich.edu

University of Michigan Washington Office
499 S. Capitol Street, SW, Suite 501
Washington, DC 20003
202-554-0578 (phone)
202-554-0582 (fax)
Tel: 202/554-0578
Fax: 202/554-0582
http://www.umich.edu/~govrel/umdc.html