March 26, 2018

A Federal Relations Update

On Friday, President Trump signed the fiscal year (FY) 2018 omnibus appropriations bill into law. The 2,232 page bill will fund the federal government for the rest of FY 2018 (September 30, 2018). The FY 2018 omnibus funding package contains good news for University of Wisconsin–Madison students and researchers.

Below are highlights of the FY 2018 funding agreement of interest to the campus community.

The FY 2018 funding bill increases the maximum Pell grant award to $6,095, $175 or 3 percent, more than FY 2017, to help students keep up with rising costs, limit the need for student loans, and ultimately graduate with less debt. The bill also continues support for Year-Round Pell. The FY 2018 omnibus modifies Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program eligibility to make student borrowers eligible for PSLF if they were enrolled in an ineligible repayment plan but they otherwise would have been eligible for PSLF. The bill also gives the Office of Student Financial Aid additional resources to distribute financial assistance to low-income students through campus-based aid programs like Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants and Federal Work Study. TRIO programs that provide services to students from disadvantaged backgrounds and first-generation college students will also see an increase in funding.

The FY 2018 omnibus also rejects the administration’s proposed cuts to federally funded research and provides unprecedented funding increases for a number of science and research agencies and programs. For example, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will receive a $3 billion increase in funding to $37.1 billion. The Department of Energy’s Office of Science will receive a 16 percent increase to $6.3 billion. Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), which President Trump’s budget proposed to eliminate, will receive $353 million, a 15 percent funding increase from FY 2017. The National Science Foundation (NSF) will receive a four percent increase from FY 2017 to $7.8 billion. Find a more detailed summary on the Federal Relations website, as well as links to the full text of the omnibus legislation and a section-by-section summary of the appropriations bills.

Now that FY 2018 funding is complete, Congress will turn its full attention to FY 2019 funding. The House and Senate Appropriations Committees have already started hearings on the administration’s FY 2019 budget proposal. However, it’s unlikely that Congress will finish the FY 2019 appropriations process before the new fiscal year begins on October 1, 2018 and there will likely be a continuing resolution that lasts until sometime following the midterm elections.

UW Alumni Lobby Day in Washington

Earlier this month, University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni participated in the Wisconsin Alumni Association’s second annual lobby day in Washington, DC. The day started off with a breakfast where alumni heard from Wisconsin's two senators and a number of representatives on current legislative issues. After breakfast, alumni met with members of Congress and their staff to share concerns about provisions in the House of Representatives higher education reauthorization bill that is currently under consideration, and to advocate for increased funding for basic scientific research. A lunch event for congressional staff highlighted the work of three federally funded UW–Madison researchers and featured remarks by Congressman Bill Foster (D-Ill.), the only physicist in Congress and a UW–Madison alumnus. The successful day concluded with a reception that brought together our alumni and members of Congress and their staff from the Wisconsin delegation.

Photo: UW–Madison's Barbara Bendlin, PhD, discusses her groundbreaking Alzheimer’s disease research during a Capitol Hill lunch briefing.

Wisconsin in Washington Alumni Spotlight

Wisconsin in Washington alumnus Justin Livesey ’17 turned his D.C. internship into a staff position in Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R-Wis.) office. Read more about Justin’s Washington experience, his advice for future interns and how he built connections with fellow D.C. Badgers.

 

 

 

Sea Grant Presents Honors

Jim Hurley, professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and currently the national president of the Sea Grant Association, honored Reps. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) and Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) for their work to protect ocean and Great Lakes communities.

Photo: Jim Hurley (left) and William Wise (center) of Sea Grant with Congressman Lee Zeldin (right).

 

 

The UW–Madison Office of Federal Relations joined representatives from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Marquette University, and Edgewood College to tell Congressman Mike Gallagher (R-Green Bay) about our concerns with the PROSPER Act. Please see this document to learn more about UW–Madison’s concerns with the PROSPER Act.

As always, if you have any questions or if you would like additional information, please feel free to contact either the director of Federal Relations, Mike Lenn, or the associate director, Carina Marquez.

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