Fed Update: COGR News Digest

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10/1/25:  What the Government Shutdown Could Mean for Higher Ed (Inside Higher Ed) Colleges and universities likely won’t face immediate issues, but research may be disrupted as grants pause. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/student-aid-policy/2025/10/01/what-know-about-government-shutdown-and-higher-ed & What Would a Shutdown Mean for Rulemaking?: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/student-aid-policy/2025/09/29/government-shutdown-could-delay-ed-rule-making

 

See also:  The Federal Government Has Shut Down. Here’s What It Means for Higher Ed. (Chronicle) https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-federal-government-has-shut-down-heres-what-it-means-for-higher-ed

 

See also:  U.S. scientists gird for yet another government shutdown (Science) https://www.science.org/content/article/u-s-scientists-gird-yet-another-government-shutdown

 

 

9/30/25:  Trump May Tie Grant Awards to Compliance With Executive Priorities (Inside Higher Ed) The Trump administration may be moving away from using individual investigations to try to force colleges into compliance with the president’s agenda and instead encourage compliance by giving institutions that demonstrate adherence to his policies a competitive advantage in obtaining research funding,  according to The Washington Post . https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/09/30/trump-may-attempt-tie-grant-allocation-capitulation

 

 

9/30/25:  How a Smaller NIH Could Have Hindered Medical Research (Inside Higher Ed) Trump wants to cut the NIH budget by 40 percent. But a new paper found that more than half of drugs approved since 2000 are linked to research that likely wouldn’t have been funded if such a budget had been in place from 1980 to 2007. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/science-research-policy/2025/09/30/researchers-map-out-possible-impacts-smaller-nih

 

 

9/30/25:  Trump Administration Defunds Federal Watchdog Office (New York Times) The White House last week informed a federal office charged with conducting oversight of the Trump administration that it was blocking congressionally approved money for its operations for the coming fiscal year, effectively shuttering it after midnight on Tuesday. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/us/politics/trump-federal-watchdog-funding.html

 

 

9/30/25:  The Federal Government Moves to Prevent Harvard From Receiving Future Research Funding (The Chronicle) The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)  announced  on Monday that it referred Harvard University for suspension and debarment proceedings, the latest creative research-funding threat the government has employed to pressure the university into policy changes. https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/the-trump-agenda/the-federal-government-moves-to-prevent-harvard-from-receiving-future-research-funding

 

See also:  Trump says Harvard deal is close, university will pay $500 million (Reuters) https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-says-us-government-reached-deal-with-harvard-university-2025-09-30/

 

 

9/30/25:  Sexual Harassment : Actions Needed to Ensure Consistent Agency Policies for Research Institutions (GAO-25-107750) Federal agencies fund STEM research at institutions such as universities but don’t have consistent policies to handle harassment complaints about researchers they fund. To address this, Congress told the Office of Science and Technology Policy to develop stronger policies and told the National Science Foundation to expand research. Both the Office and NSF have made progress, but more is needed. We  recommend  steps the Office should take to strengthen oversight and coordination. https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-25-107750

 

 

9/29/25:  With New Cal State Investigations, Trump Widens Scrutiny of Higher Ed in California (Chronicle) The California State University system told its 22 institutions Friday that the Trump administration had opened investigations into alleged antisemitism and racial discrimination — an escalation of  the government’s scrutiny of the state’s vast higher-ed enterprise . https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/the-trump-agenda/with-new-cal-state-investigations-trump-administration-widens-its-scrutiny-of-higher-ed-in-california