February 19, 2014
To: Council on Federal Relations
From: AAU Staff
Subject: CFR UPDATE (14-No. 7, 02-19-14)
ASSOCIATIONS REQUEST FUNDING PRIORITY FOR LABOR-HHS-EDUCATION BILL IN FY15
A group of 17 higher education associations, including AAU, sent a letter to House and Senate appropriators on February 18 asking them to allocate sufficient funding for the FY15 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bills to “enable the subcommittees to address the serious challenges in funding that exist for higher education programs.” The letter focuses on previous years’ funding reductions for federal student aid programs, graduate education, and the National Institutes of Health.
Last week, AAU, the American Council on Education, and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities sent appropriators a similar letter asking them to give priority to research and higher education programs in their FY15 appropriations plans. The goal, they said, was to help close the innovative deficit, the gap between what is needed to sustain U.S. technological leadership in the face of increased international competition and the amount the federal government has actually been investing in recent years. The associations are able to make such requests now because Congress set the FY15 appropriations total earlier this year as part of the FY14 omnibus appropriations package.
AAU HAS UPDATED TALKING POINTS SECTION, MATERIALS ON THE WEBSITE
AAU has reworked the Talking Points section of the AAU website to include links to the latest talking points on the various issues AAU follows. The section includes newly updated messages on: college affordability, accountability and accreditation, and closing the innovation deficit that reflect the discussion during the messaging session at last month’s CFR Annual Strategic Planning Conference.
The talking points section resides in the password-protected part of the AAU website, under AAU Advocacy.
NOMINATIONS STILL OPEN FOR 2014 GOLDEN GOOSE AWARD
Members of the CFR are reminded there is still time to nominate individuals or research teams for the 2014 Golden Goose Award. The deadline for nominations is Friday, April 18, 2014.
The Golden Goose Award was created three years ago at the suggestion of Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN) by a coalition of groups, including AAU. The award honors researchers whose federally funded work may not have seemed to have practical applications when it was conducted but resulted in major benefits to society.
CFR members may wish to use Twitter and other social media to spread the word on their campuses about the award and next month’s nomination deadline. Nominations received after the deadline will be eligible for the 2015 awards; it is not necessary to submit a nomination more than once, as unsuccessful nominations roll over to the following year.
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