Happy Monday.
This week promises to be eventful. Here’s what’s happened so far:
The President met with congressional Democrats today ahead of an impending government shutdown. No deal was reached.
The Senate will vote tomorrow on a 7 week continuing resolution that has already passed the House (but was previously voted down by Senate Democrats).
It is expected that layoffs will occur in agencies affected by the shutdown.
Federal agencies have released their contingency plans in the event of a shutdown.
NIH will continue to operate the NIH Clinical Center, but almost all of its administrative functions, awards-related activities, and intramural research would not proceed during the period of a shutdown.
Interestingly, ARPA-H would not be affected because they are funded on three year appropriation cycles.
Over the weekend, the Washington Post reported on a proposed White House plan through which universities that pledge to adhere to the Administration’s policies and values would receive a competitive advantage when applying for federal funding. According to the report, this plan would be implemented in the next few months.
A little over two weeks after it was announced, the NIH research security policy was rescinded today. The policy was set to go into effect in January.
I have not seen this formally reported anywhere, but its on social media (so take it with a large grain of salt at the moment): Scientists have started to receive letters disinviting them from their positions on advisory councils. A few months ago, Nature reported that NIH staff were told nominate individuals aligned with the Administration’s priorities.
Dr. Anthony Letai was sworn in as the new director of NCI today.
In other NCI news, the agency has released its 2027 Annual Plan and Professional Judgement Budget Proposal. There’s probably other interesting stuff in there for thewsmose who know NCI budgets, but I did note that the proposal includes a budget increase explicitly because of NIH’s shift towards a forward funding scheme.
Today HHS announced that it has referred Harvard University to the federal suspension and debarment process - a mechanism through which the government can determine if an institution is responsible enough to receive federal grants or contracts. If Harvard is disbarred, they would be ineligible for any federal grants or contracts.
Other news:
The DOJ has asked the Supreme Court to decide the constitutionality of the President’s executive order ending birthright citizenship.
Gavin Newson signed SB-53 today, which requires AI developers in California to publicly disclose their safety and security protocols. It also includes whistleblowers for AI workers and lays the groundwork for CalCompute - a state-run computing cluster.
Image from Unsplash