CGA NEWS
(1-17-14)
To: CGA
From: A۰P۰L۰U Congressional and Governmental Affairs Staff
APLU Offices will be closed on Monday, January 20 for the MLK holiday.
On Wednesday, the House passed HR. 3547, the FY2014 omnibus appropriations bill, by a vote of 359-67. The Senate, on Thursday evening, voted 72-26 to approve the bill as well. The President is expected to sign the bill before the current continuing resolution expires on Saturday.
APLU staff has a few updates from the preliminary analysis that had been included in CGA News (1-14-14):
US Agency for International Development (USAID)
The Feed the Future Collaborative Innovation Labs, formerly the CRSPs, receive a $500K increase as compared to FY13 levels, from $31.5 million to $32 million. The omnibus also contains $25 million for African higher education, with the joint explanatory statement detailing that $15 million is for partnerships between U.S. and African institutions of higher education. Furthermore, we were successful in securing language to indicate Congressional support specifically for the Africa-U.S. Higher Education Initiative Partnerships as the explanatory statement indicates that USAID “should continue to partner with land-grant institutions of higher learning with specialized capabilities, including through the competitively awarded Africa-United States Higher Education Initiative Partnerships.”
Public Access to Research
Within the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education division of the omnibus bill, is a requirement that federal agencies with research budgets of $100 million or more that fall under the Labor, HHS, and Education section will provide the public with online access to articles reporting on federally funded research no later than 12 months after publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled Senate staff briefings on the range of legislative proposals for curbing abusive patent litigation practices and other actions carried out by patent trolls. The briefings are open to Senate staff only. Senate offices received the briefing schedule and invitations yesterday.
CGA are encouraged to contact the appropriate staff for your Senators and urge them to attend these briefings. It will be especially valuable for Senate staff to attend the first briefing, which will include a university panelist discussing our community’s views on these patent litigation proposals. The first briefing will be held next Tuesday, January 21. The remaining three briefings will be held on the following successive Fridays.
As always, we encourage CGA to reach out to your tech transfer office to discuss the issue in more depth. Please contact Jim Woodell of APLU staff with any questions.
Yesterday, as part of the White House Expanding College Opportunity Summit, the Administration announced over 100 new commitments by campuses and other groups to expand college opportunity. Also released yesterday was a related White House report, Increasing College Opportunity for Low-Income Students and fact sheet, on promising models and action steps. Videos of speeches made by President Obama and the First Lady at the Summit are now available on the White House website (POTUS video, FLOTUS video). Gene Sperling, Director of the National Economic Council and Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, stated at the Summit that there would be follow on meetings and other activities to come.
Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU)
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