With the continuing shutdown and yesterday’s election, there are only a few updates from the world of science and higher education.
The government shutdown is now the longest ever in US history.
The Senate unsuccessfully voted on the Republican led funding stopgap bill for the 14th time on Tuesday.
On Monday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he was “optimistic” about ending the shutdown this week.
Communication does seem to be occurring between some lawmakers, but the messaging out of DC has remained mostly unchanged. After yesterday’s election results, Senate democrats have again requested a bipartisan meeting with the President to discuss ending the shutdown.
In addition to the ongoing uncertainty around SNAP funding, the next source of pressure for congress to reach a deal appears to be air travel.
George Tidmarsh, who led the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, stepped down over the weekend amid an investigation into his conduct and a lawsuit from a former business partner. Newsweek has a nice rundown of this whole situation.
Though the policy has been blocked by injunction, litigation continues over the NIH’s decision in February to cap indirect cost rates at 15%. Today judges in federal appeals court appeared skeptical of the Administration’s case.
The Department of Energy has consolidated its six advisory committees into a single Office of Science Advisory Committee. According to reporting in Science, this new committee will more directly advise DOE leadership.
USC has laid off 900 employees since July of this year.
Jared Isaacman, whose nomination to be the head of NASA was withdrawn earlier this year, has now been renominated. A memo outlining his potential plans for the agency has been circulating over the last few weeks.
Today’s subtitle is brought to you by this post on Bluesky. I had to look it up, but corvee is basically unpaid labour.