blog navigation

Federal Relations News
A list that showcases University resources and interactions with federal agencies

blog posts

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 09.14.2018

    Congress sent a final Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 spending bill to the President this week which funds the departments of Energy and Veterans Affairs, the Army Corps of Engineers and the operations of Congress. The three-bill minibus ensures that at least some agencies will receive full FY2019 funding before the beginning of the fiscal year on October 1.

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 9.23.2016

    Over the past week, the University of Illinois (U of I) System hosted three successful events involving high-ranking officials from the National Science Foundation (NSF), each with a different backdrop—the Urbana-Champaign campus, the Chicago campus, and Washington, DC...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 9.28.2015

    Following Pope Francis' historic visit to DC and address to Congress, breaking news erupted Friday morning that has since set the city spinning...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 09.28.2018

    Congress successfully beat the clock this week in wrapping up two more fiscal year 2019 appropriations bills and avoiding a partial government shutdown. Early Friday, President Trump signed into law legislation providing full-year funding for...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 10.2.2015

    Earlier this week, Congress acted just in time to prevent a government shutdown. The University of Illinois had significant representation on Capitol Hill from two of its campuses: UIC Chancellor Amiridis visited the Illinois Congressional delegation and one of Urbana's deans testified before a House subcommittee...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 10.6.2017

    The University of Illinois System co-hosted a breakfast meeting with Sen. Dick Durbin this week with the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Dr. Francis Collins, and the Illinois Congressional delegation...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 10.7.2016

    Following a compressed September session, Congress is back in recess again until after the November 8 election. Before leaving Washington, Congress approved a Continuing Resolution to avert a shutdown and fund government operations through early December...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 10.11.2013

    Earlier in the week, House Republicans continued its pattern of passing discrete and politically popular funding bills designed to take the “sting” out of the shutdown...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 10.15.2018

    Congress has now approved, and the president has signed into law, five fiscal year (FY) 2019 appropriations bills, including funding for the Departments of Defense, Energy, and Education, as well as the National Institutes of Health. When Congress returns in mid-November for a lame-duck session, it will consider the remaining seven bills, which would replace funding now set to expire on December 7. While the FY2019 appropriations process has gone smoothly so far, a fight over border wall funding could derail the process.

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 10.16.2015

    With so much still up in the air for House Republican leadership races, negotiations surrounding the federal budget situation seem to be on the backburner...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 10.18.2013

    After being closed for 16 days, the federal government has finally reopened, allowing hundreds of thousands of furloughed federal employees to return to work...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 10.24.2014

    Only ten days remain until the election, and the Senate majority hangs in the balance. A strong anti-incumbent mood permeates the country...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 10.25.2013

    With the Senate in recess and the House only in session on Tuesday and Wednesday, it was a shorter and quieter week on Capitol Hill...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 10.28.2016

    With 10 days left before the election, significant changes are right around the corner. Our next edition will have a recap of the election results...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 10.30.2015

    This was a momentous week on Capitol Hill. The House of Representatives elected Wisconsin Congressman and House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan to serve as its new speaker and Congress passed a two-year budget agreement...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 11.3.2017

    Yesterday, House Republicans unveiled their long-anticipated tax reform bill. Below are the most noteworthy provisions that relate to higher education...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 11.8.2013

    The Senate was in session this week, and the House was in recess. But substantial groundwork continues to be laid for the reauthorization of bills important to UI...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 11.16.2018

    Beginning in January, there will be three new faces in the Illinois delegation.

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 11.18.2016

    Members of Congress returned to Washington this week to kick off the post-election lame-duck session. This edition provides some updates and key takeaways surrounding the 115th Congress, while providing a glimpse at the new Illinois Congressional delegation...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 12.20.2013

    On Wednesday, the Senate passed the two-year budget deal by a vote of 64-36...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 12.22.2017

    As Congress worked to enact tax reform legislation, OGR and the entire U of I System worked to ensure that the voices...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 1.24.2014

    Following last week's passage of an omnibus appropriations bill, both chambers recessed for a week...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter- 2.27.2015

    Fallout from President Obama's immigration action casts a long shadow over DC this week. As the final seconds tick away on both the work week and Homeland Security funding, the House and Senate have so far not been unable to identify a compromise to keep the agency funded. The Senate passed a clean bill that would keep funding secure through September, while the House has proposed, but so far not passed, a continuing resolution for a few more weeks...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 3.13.2015

    With several Member submission deadlines for appropriations right around the corner, Congressional offices are now in the process of reviewing external programmatic requests. Meanwhile, House and Senate Republicans are putting final touches on their fiscal year 2016 budget resolutions, which are expected to be unveiled and marked up by budget committees next week. Majority leadership in both chambers intend to bring the budget blueprints to their respective floors the last week of March before adjourning for a two-week Easter and Passover recess...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 3.27.2015

    Before heading into a two-week Easter and Passover recess, Congress tackled two significant items: Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 budget resolutions and a Medicare "Doc Fix"...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter- 4.10.2015

    With Congress in recess these past two weeks, the University of Illinois seized several significant opportunities to interact with members of the Illinois Congressional delegation...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 4.11.2014

    The House narrowly approved Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan's FY 2015 budget resolution along highly partisan lines...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 5.9.2014

    Next week, the Senate will be in and will consider wind energy tax credits. The House will be in recess...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 5.16.2014

    Next week, the Senate is expected to continue its consideration of a tax extenders bill, which contains the deduction for tuition and fees, IRA charitable rollover, and the research and development tax credit...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter- 5.22.2015

    After wrestling with appropriations, authorization bills, and other measures over the past couple of weeks, Congress has adjourned for its Memorial Day recess. Both the House and the Senate will reconvene on June 1...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 5.23.2014

    Next week, the Senate is out for a district work period. The House is in and will consider an NSF spending bill, as well as other matters...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter- 6.5.2015

    The House and Senate returned to DC this week. There was movement on two items of interest to universities: appropriations and patent reform...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter- 6.19.2015

    Although no appropriations bill made it to the House or Senate floor this week, there was ample movement at the committee level. University of Illinois President Tim Killeen was in DC to meet with other institution presidents and chancellors, as well as the leader of the the world’s largest general scientific society.

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 7.2.2015

    After being in session last week, Congress spent this week in a district work-period. Both the House and Senate will return in full force on Tuesday to consider appropriations and other matters...

  • Senate Passes Student Loan Interest Rate Deal

    Yesterday, the Senate took up an amended version of the House-passed "Smarter Solutions for Students Act," which reflects the compromise brokered by a bipartisan group of Senators.

  • This Week in IL: Sen. Durbin Visits UIUC

    Earlier today, Senator Durbin visited the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. To kick off his visit, he held a press event to publicize the long-term deal that was reached on student loan interest rates...

  • DC Visitors: Week of July 29

    College of Medicine Dean Dimitri Azar and Dr. Gene Robinson, Professor in Entomology and Neuroscience were in DC this week.

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 8.21.2015

    With Congress in recess and Members back in their districts, University of Illinois campuses are seizing opportunities to meet with federal officials and host events...

  • Farm Bill Update - 10.7.2013

    Although the 9-month extension of the 2008 farm bill expired on the 1st, Congress is close to negotiating the final reauthorization language...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 12.6.2013

    Upon returning from the Thanksgiving recess, the chairs of the House and Senate Budget committees, Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Patty Murray, resumed discussions over spending levels and sequestration...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 12.12.2014

    It's been a climactic final week of session, and we have not quite reached the finish line...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 12.13.2013

    On Tuesday evening, the chairs of the House and Senate Budget Committees, Representative Paul Ryan and Senator Patty Murray, announced that they had reached a two-year budget agreement after weeks of deliberation...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 1.9.2015

    The 114th Congress has officially kicked off! The week was dominated by swearing-in events, but there is already a lot of legislative activity underway, with the House authorizing the Keystone Pipeline and tweaking the Affordable Care Act...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter- 2.6.2015

    The President released his much anticipated budget this week, while UIC's next Chancellor made his Washington debut.House Republicans voted again to repeal Obamacare, while Senate Republicans struggled to undo President Obama's executive actions on immigration ahead of a key deadline...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 2.7.2014

    Following last week's passage in the House, the farm bill conference report was taken up early this week by the Senate...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 2.14.2014

    Congress lifted the debt ceiling this week with a very close vote in the House but no strings attached, signaling a potential cease fire in the budgetary wars that have gripped Washington the past three years...

  • UIS Students Meet Rep. Schock

    UIS students had the opportunity to meet Rep. Aaron Schock during a February visit to Washington.

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter- 3.6.2015

    After months of Republican infighting, funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is finally on solid ground. Before adjourning early to beat a snowstorm, the House approved a nine-month DHS appropriations bill without attaching any conditions to block the President's executive actions on immigration. Now that this stalemate is over, Congress can turn to other items, such as budget resolutions, appropriations, and addressing the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR)...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter- 3.20.2015

    Although all the action was at the committee level, the focus this week in Congress revolved around the Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 budgets introduced by House and Senate Republican...

  • Federal Relations E-Newsletter - 3.28.2014

    The House passed a one-year delay to the “sustainable growth rate” (SGR)—the rate at which Medicare reimburses physicians, averting a 24 percent cut to doctors...