January 8, 2014
To: Council on Federal Relations
Cc: AAU Associates
From: AAU Staff
Subject: CFR UPDATE (14-No. 1, 01-08-14)
APPROPRIATORS WORKING TO WRAP UP FY14 OMNIBUS FUNDING
House and Senate appropriators continue making progress on the FY14 omnibus funding package, reports CQ.com, but their goal of submitting the measure to their respective leadership for final approval today has slipped to the end of the week or over the weekend. Congressional leaders will need time to move the package through the two chambers, so a short stopgap spending bill will likely be needed to prevent a government shutdown after the current continuing resolution expires on January 15.
The negotiators have reached agreement on six of the 12 appropriations bills within the package, says the publication. These are: Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science, Defense, Legislative Branch, Military Construction-Veterans, and Transportation-Housing and Urban Development. CQ.com reports that the Energy-Water and Homeland Security bills are near completion, but issues remain in the Labor-HHS-Education, Financial Services, and Interior-Environment bills. The issues include funding for the Affordable Care Act and for the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory overhaul.
The appropriations committee leaders who are assembling the spending package have said little publicly about how they are allocating funding among the 12 appropriations bills, but Politico says that “new investments in science and medical research will be possible.”
The FY14 spending package puts flesh on the bones of the budget agreement that the House and Senate passed in December. That budget deal set the discretionary spending level for FY14 at about halfway between the relatively high number originally approved by the Senate and the much lower number originally approved by the House. (The December agreement also set the funding level for FY15.) Within the FY14 total, defense and nuclear weapons programs will receive about $520 billion, which is $22.4 billion more than the Pentagon was slated to receive under the sequester and $2.4 billion above the final FY13 funding level. Non-defense programs—where most university research and education activities are funded—will receive $492 billion, which is $22.4 billion above both the FY14 sequester level and the final FY13 funding level.
ASSOCIATIONS ASK SENATOR LEAHY TO HOLD A SECOND HEARING ON PATENT LEGISLATION
The higher education associations that are working together on patent reform sent a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) on January 3 asking him to hold a second hearing on legislation to reform patent litigation. The purpose of the hearing would be to allow universities and other stakeholders to testify about the complexities surrounding this issue.
The Committee held a hearing December 17 on abusive patent litigation, where witnesses discussed the bill introduced by Senator Leahy, the Patent Transparency and Improvements Act of 2013 (S. 1720), as well as provisions in patent litigation bills introduced by Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) (S. 1612), John Cornyn (R-TX) (S. 1013), and Charles Schumer (D-NY) (S. 866). Senators also reviewed the House-passed Innovation Act (H.R. 3309).
At the hearing, several Judiciary Committee members urged that the panel be deliberative in developing legislation on this complex issue and called for holding another hearing to hear from stakeholders not represented at the hearing, such as universities.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is understood to be developing a series of briefings for Senate staff to provide them with the opportunity to hear a range of perspectives on key issues from patent stakeholders, and is considering an additional hearing following those briefings. The higher education associations are encouraging both activities.
GOLDEN GOOSE AWARD YEAR-IN-REVIEW NOW AVAILABLE
The organizations that created the Golden Goose Award, including AAU, have published a 2013 year-in-review document. The four-page summary features pictures of the awardees at the September awards ceremony and information on media, White House, and congressional attention to the award, as well as a look ahead to activities in 2014. The review has been sent to the congressional offices that participated in the award program and ceremony and to event guests, sponsors, and supporters.
The Golden Goose Award, which is entering its third year, recognizes scientists and engineers whose federally funded research may have seemed obscure when it was conducted but led to major breakthroughs and resulted in significant societal benefits.
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