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Last week, Vice President Joe Biden visited the Urbana campus to highlight student leadership surrounding the "It's on Us" campaign. In the nation's capital, the House moved forward on legislation to reauthorize the America COMPETES Act.
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House Science Committee Approves Contentious COMPETES Reauthorization Bill
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The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee released and marked up a two-year reauthorization of the America COMPETES Act. The bill—H.R. 1806—authorizes programs within many important scientific agencies, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Department of Energy's Office of Science (DOE-Science), the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). In its current form, the higher ed community has significant concerns with proposed authorization levels and policy provisions. For instance, the legislation includes a 45 percent cut to the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE) Directorate and an 8 percent cut to the Geosciences (GEO) Directorate. It also reduces funding for ARPA-E and DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
A number of amendments were considered during the mark-up process. Although it was ultimately withdrawn for being outside of the purview of the Committee, Illinois Rep. Randy Hultgren authored a favorable amendment that called for increasing the authorization levels for NSF, DOE and NIST in the event that budget spending caps are repealed or modified. Democrats offered an alternative that would have restored program funding levels, but it was rejected by Republicans.
The bill passed with a straight party-line vote of 19-16. When the language was first filed, our higher ed associations released statements (APLU; AAU) expressing concerns, and many associations, professional societies, and universities (including the University of Illinois) signed onto a letter organized by the Coalition for National Science Funding.
House floor consideration of H.R. 1086 is unclear, and a Senate version has not been unveiled at this point.
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VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN VISITS URBANA
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| Photo: courtesy of Garrett Pauley |
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The Urbana campus hosted a very special visitor from the White House last Thursday. Vice President Joe Bidentraveled to Urbana-Champaign to hold an event recognizing the strong leadership of Urbana's students in promoting the "It's On Us" public awareness campaign to stop campus sexual assault.
Since the White House first launched the "It's On Us" campaign last September, the Illinois Student Senate at Urbana has been actively promoting the campaign, encouraging students to sign the online pledge, hosting events, and producing several videos featuring campus leaders, student athletes, and members of the Greek system.
The Campus Recreation Center-East (CRCE), which is where the event was held, was completely packed with more than 1,500 attendants, including staff from the offices of Rep. Rodney Davis and Senators Mark Kirk andDick Durbin.
Leading up to Vice President Biden's address, the program featured several student speakers, as well as IllinoisAttorney General Lisa Madigan, and Rep. Rodney Davis.
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Following the event, Vice President Biden paid a visit to Alma Mater, which was decorated with an Urbana-customized "It's On Us" logo.
Congratulations to Illinois Student Senate President Mitch Dickey, Vice President Matt Hill, and Vice President Sarah Hochman, who have spearheaded student involvement in this effort and worked closely with the White House and the Urbana Public Affairs office to create a successful event. Since the event with Vice President Biden was first announced, nearly 2,000 additional students have taken the online pledge, bringing the total number of student signatures to more than 3,100!
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UIC HOSTS AMERICA'S COMPETITIVENESS EXCHANGE
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In collaboration with the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) and International Trade Administration (ITA), the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) hosted a luncheon as part of the third Americas Competitiveness Exchange (ACE) on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The event was part of a six-day tour with commerce and economic development officials from 28 countries in the Americas.
UIC Chancellor Michael Amiridis and UI President Robert Easter delivered remarks to kick off the event. UI Vice President for Research Larry Schook and Merle Giles from Urbana's National Center for Supercomputing Applications also presented.
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Fouad Abd-El-Khalick, Associate Dean for Research at Urbana's College of Education, participated in the spring advocacy days for the Learning and Education Academic Research Network (LEARN). The LEARN Coalition met with the Commissioner of the National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) in addition to staff from the Senate Appropriations Committee and Senate Education Committee. The meetings provided the group with a chance to highlight the importance of federal funding for NCSER and the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), as well as a chance to discuss reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education (ESEA). Associate Dean Abd-El-Khalick also met with the office of Rep. Rodney Davis to talk about teacher preparation requirements and provide an update on the campus-wide initiative led by the College of Education on the Illinois Learning Sciences Design Laboratory.
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Thank you,
Melissa Haas | Acting Director | OGR Federal Relations
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