The government is open, but there are also lots of updates out of Texas A&M, UVa, and Harvard.
The news is heavy so, fun fact, today is Claude Monet’s birthday. The preview image is “Impression, Sunrise” (1972). Maybe take this as an excuse to stop doomscrolling and look at some art…
The government is now open and funded through at least January 30th.
Because this is a continuing resolution, most federal agencies are funded at a level set in March 2024.
Congress will now work to on longer term funding bills, which will likely be a very contentious process.
Overall, 12 appropriations bills need to be addressed. Federal research funding comes from a variety of sources, but I’ve addressed the two major ones for biomedical research below.
AAAS maintains a nice dashboard for all this. In general the trend is that the President has proposed deep cuts, the Senate has proposed keeping spending levels about even, and the House has proposed cuts that - while still substantial - are less than the President’s.
Prior to the shutdown, both the House and Senate appropriations subcommittees passed their versions the LHHS bill, which funds the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services (except the FDA, which is funded separately), Education, and about a dozen smaller agencies.. The two versions of the bill still need to be reconciled.
Both versions largely reject the deep NIH cuts and structural changes proposed by the President’s budget request, but the House version does include a 30% cap on indirect cost rates, substantial cuts to the CDC and APRA-H, and the elimination of AHRQ. The Senate version would give NIH a small ($400 million) boost and funding.
Similarly, the House and Senate appropriations committees previously passed the CJS bill, which funds the Departments of Commerce and Justice as well as some science-related agencies (OSTP, NSF, NASA) and some smaller related agencies.
Neither version of the CHS cuts NSF funding as deeply as the Presidential budget request, though the House version still cuts funding to the agency by over 20%.
The NIH has released some interim guidance about their reopening.
All October and November grant application submission deadlines will be extended (dates TBD).
All council and peer review meetings that were cancelled during the shutdown will be rescheduled. I have seen some informal discussion about how a higher number of grants will be triaged, but there is no confirmation anywhere.
More information will be published soon in a Notice on NIH operations during a continuing resolution.
In other news:
James Ryan, the former president of the University of Virginia, has penned a letter describing the events that led up to his resignation. The state’s new governor-elect, Abigail Spanberger [PDF], has written to the University’s governing board urging them to pause their search for the next president.
Science has a piece on proposed legislation that would restrict researchers in the US from collaborating with anyone “affiliated with a hostile foreign entity” (i.e. China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea).
Regents at Texas A&M have approved a policy stating no courses at the institution “will advocate race or gender ideology, or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity” without a campus president’s approval.
Dr. Jenna Norton, one of the organizers of The Bethesda Declaration, the open letter in which NIH employees and staff expressed criticism of the agency’s cancellation of grants and other actions, has been placed on administrative leave. Stat also has coverage.
NIH has posted job listings for another batch of leadership positions, including the director of NIMHD, NINR, NCCIH, the Fogarty International Center, and the Center for Scientific Review. As with the previous listings, these are open for two weeks. Science has a report on all this.
Harvard’s student newspaper has some good reporting on the whole, absolutely vile, Larry Summers business.