Fed Update: COGR News Digest

Council on Governmental Relations (COGR)

11/17/25Inside Higher Ed

  Judge: Trump Administration Can’t ‘Blanket’ Deny UC New Grants or Demand Payout

A judge ordered federal agencies Friday to end their “blanket policy of denying any future grants” to the University of California, Los Angeles, and further ruled that the Trump administration can’t seek payouts from any UC campus “in connection with any civil rights investigation” under Titles VI or IX of federal law.

11/14/25NIH NOT-OD-26-005

  Interim Guidance on Reopening of NIH Extramural Activities

NIH is working to reestablish dates for grant and contract submissions, determine how to communicate details related to missed review meetings, reschedule dates for training, and other activities that were scheduled to occur during and immediately following the period of the government shutdown.

11/14/25

  Is NIH cutting corners as it rushes to fill leadership positions? (Science)  

Unlike in the past, agency searches appear to exclude help from outside academic researchers.

11/14/25Federal News Network

  When the FAR gets a revolutionary overhaul and the government shuts down, who’s reading the fine print?

The FAR Council eliminated a third of commercial contracting clauses, streamlined registration, and rewrote major acquisition rules in a summer; all released just before the shutdown. Now agencies are adopting the revolutionary FAR overhaul at different speeds, leaving contractors navigating a patchwork of new procedures while dealing with expiring contracts and furloughed contracting officers.

11/13/25Science

  Deal to end U.S. shutdown includes good news for farm science funding

Thousands of scientists employed by the U.S. government began to get back to work today after the House of Representatives last night passed legislation that ended the record 43-day government shutdown. Disruptions caused by the closure are expected to linger at some major science agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH). But the package of bills also included some good news for agricultural scientists, as lawmakers largely rejected  deep cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) research programs requested by President Donald Trump .

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