Between the cherry blossoms and cicadas, this spring has seen a flurry of activity from the administration and Congress. The White House has released several major proposals including the American Jobs Plan, American Families Plan and most recently, the FY22 President’s budget request. At the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, Congress has begun its work in response to the President’s budget and major legislation from infrastructure to matters related to technological competitiveness with China. Below are some of the highlights this spring with direct impacts for Duke University, its faculty, staff and students.

FY22 Budget Request

The White House released its much-delayed full FY 2022 budget blueprint on May 28th. The $6 trillion proposal includes the two previously released infrastructure proposals –  $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan and the $1.8 trillion American Families Plan – as well as $1.5 trillion in discretionary spending.

Overall, the President’s budget request proposes $171.26 billion in research and development and  $3.3 billion in discretionary funding for higher education programs. As illustrated by the chart below, the administration recommends strong to substantial increases for most of the research and education programs of interest to Duke.

On the research side, many of the proposed increases can be attributed to the creation of new entities, such as $6.5 billion request for a new Advanced Research Projects Agency – Health (ARPA-H) at NIH and a new Technology, Innovation and Partnerships Directorate at NSF, as well as the broad infusion of funding for climate science across multiple agencies, including the creation of an Advanced Research Projects Agency-Climate (ARPA-C).

At the Department of Education, the budget would increase the maximum Pell grant to $8,370 for the 2022-2023 school year, through a combination of discretionary increases in the budget and mandatory increases through the American Families Plan. The White House is also proposing making Pell available to “DREAMers,” or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients. Federal Work Study was allocated $1.190 million, which is the same funding level as FY21.                 

Congress has already begun holding hearings on the FY 22 request, and the House Appropriations Committee is expected to begin markups later this month.

Biden-Harris Administration: Appointments and Executive Orders

Over the past several months, the Biden administration has completed its nominations for all cabinet-level positions and all have been confirmed by the Senate, with the exception of OMB Director, which is currently held by Shalanda Young in an acting role due to nominee Neera Tanden’s withdrawal from that post.

Several current and recent Duke faculty members and staff have been tapped to serve in the administration including,

  • Robert Bonnie as Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation at the Department of Agriculture
  • Ronnie Chatterji as Chief Economist in the U.S. Department of Commerce
  • Arti Rai as Senior Advisor in the Office of General Counsel in the U.S. Department of Commerce
  • Chris Schroeder as Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice
  • Marta Wosinska as Director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Economics.

President Biden issued an executive order forming the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States, comprised of a bipartisan group of experts including several Duke faculty members: Guy Uriel-Charles, Walter Dellinger, Margaret Lemos and David Levi.

For a comprehensive list of administration positions and the status of nominations and confirmations, you can visit our website here.

Research

A major focus of congressional debate over the spring has been on the nation’s innovation capacity and global competitiveness. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Todd Young (R-IN) reintroduced their Endless Frontiers Act, which would create a new $100 billion Technology and Innovation Directorate at NSF and create regional innovation hubs through the Department of Commerce. Framed as an effort to boost technological competition with China, it became a centerpiece of a broader competitiveness measure – the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA). Several Senate committees were tasked with creating proposals to address challenges from China, which were ultimately incorporated into the bigger package, and several include provisions addressing concerns with foreign influence and research security issues. The package also contains authorizations for the Department of Energy, NASA, and DARPA. The Senate is expected to continue consideration of USICA next week, with a potential vote on final passage.

The House is taking a different approach so far with the House Science, Space and Technology (SST) Committee developing more traditional reauthorization measures for NSF and DOE Office of Science. Although the Endless Frontiers Act has been reintroduced in the House, it is anticipated that the House SST Committee’s NSF for the Future Act will be the centerpiece of any sort of competitiveness package in that chamber.

Foreign Influence and Research Security

As noted above, the Senate’s US Innovation and Competition Act contains multiple provisions addressing issues related to foreign influence and research security. Some of these are incorporated in the base bill and others have been offered as amendments. This includes a ban on federal research awards to participants of foreign talent recruitment programs sponsored by China, Russia, North Korea and Iran, lowering of the Higher Education Act Section 117 reporting threshold, which requires universities to report foreign gifts and contracts they receive that is valued over the threshold amount, from $250,000 to $50,000, and requires universities to ensure all faculty and staff report any gifts or contracts from a foreign source and maintain a searchable database of that data.

Over 500 amendments were filed and several amendments of serious concern were either voted down or are unlikely to make it to the floor for a vote. It is expected that some of these proposals could arise during the upcoming consideration of the annual defense authorization bill.

Higher Education

In May, the Biden administration announced its plans to overhaul a wide range of federal higher education policies including gainful employment, public service loan forgiveness and a variety of other student aid policies. The Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education will hold three public hearings to receive feedback from stakeholders on potential issues related to rulemaking. The conversations will address the Pell grant, which Duke and a wide range of higher education institutions and associations have advocated for doubling.

The department’s Office of Civil Rights will also hold a series of public hearings to gather information on how to improve Title IX enforcement, beginning on June 7th.

Immigration

In April, Immigration and Citizenship Enforcement (ICE) announced that the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) will extend its March 2020 guidance regarding distance learning for the 2021-2022 academic year.

After closing during the pandemic, a selection of embassies, including China and India, have announced they are beginning to reopen for visa appointments. More information on the phased resumption of visa processing is still emerging, and our office continues to monitor its progress.

Duke’s President Vincent E Price participated in a roundtable conversation on March 25th alongside North Carolina’s Governor Roy Cooper to urge Congress to take up important immigration-related legislation. The event was hosted by the American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC).

Additional Updates from Washington, DC

This spring, several Duke faculty participated in virtual Capitol Hill advocacy events, including those in support of the National Endowment for the Humanities and National Quantum Initiative.  President Price also engaged in several virtual meetings with new and returning members of the North Carolina congressional delegation.

On May, 19th, Duke’s Chris Monroe testified at the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology Subcommittee on Energy hearing, Accelerating Discovery: The Future of Scientific Computing at the Department of Energy. Monroe, an architect of the National Quantum Initiative (NQI) and current member of the National Quantum Information Advisory Committee, provided perspective on progress made so far under the NQI. Duke Government Relations posted a full blog recap of Monroe’s testimony here.

Duke in DC also hosted a 3-part virtual series, Beyond Talking Points: Environmental Justice, which convened a group of Duke and Aspen Institute experts to discuss food and agriculture policy, trade and diplomacy, and water and infrastructure and how policies in each area related to environmental justice.

If you’re interested in more information and resources from Washington, D.C. – Duke’s Office of Government Relations has created new and updated pages on its website that keep track of all executive orders, regulations and cabinet-level appointments relevant to Duke, as well as letters and statements from Duke and Duke-affiliated associations and updated info on the North Carolina delegation and the 117th Congress. The Chronicle of Higher Education also provides regular updates on new developments in higher education in the early days of the Biden-Harris administration.

By Lizzie Devitt, 6/4/21