1/30/26: Senate Democrats and White House Reach Deal to Avoid Shutdown (New York Times) Senate Democrats have struck a deal with Republicans and the White House to pass five spending bills to fund a large portion of the government for the remainder of the fiscal year, as well as a stopgap measure to fund the Department of Homeland Security for two weeks while they continue negotiating guardrails to rein in immigration agents. It is unclear how quickly the House can and will process those funding bills after the Senate passes them. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01/29/us/trump-news
1/29/26: Florida Moves Toward Banning H-1B Visa Hires (Inside Higher Ed) University system leaders say they need to pause hiring on the visas for a year to collect information about how universities utilize the program. Only the student and faculty board representatives objected. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/research/2026/01/29/florida-now-accepting-public-comment-h-1b-visa-hiring-ban
1/29/26: Science Community Weighs in on Federal Plans to Accelerate US Innovation (AIP, COGR Mention) OSTP has not made the responses to its RFI publicly available, but some respondents have published their responses through their own channels. Of these, some responses reviewed by FYI chose to focus on just a few questions, while others, including those from the National Academies, COGR, and Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology, took a broad approach. Common themes across these responses included a desire to reduce regulatory barriers, harmonize research security standards, and encourage stronger collaboration between universities and industry partners… Of the responses that tackled the use of AI in scientific research, many were broadly supportive of the technology’s potential, but some also urged caution. COGR, for example, encouraged research funding agencies to work together to set standards for how AI may or may not be used in preparing grant proposals and conducting research. https://www.aip.org/fyi/science-community-weighs-in-on-federal-plans-to-accelerate-us-innovation
1/29/26: Trump has sued universities for billions. Here’s what the strategy tells us (NPR) Some universities paid the government millions of dollars; others paid nothing but agreed to policy or personnel changes. But a common theme has emerged over the past year: The administration is seeking to alter the culture at these powerful institutions, barring them, for instance, from supporting programs aimed at diversity, equity and inclusion. https://www.npr.org/2026/01/29/nx-s1-5559293/trump-settlements-colleges-universities
1/29/26: National Institutes of Health: Assessing Efforts to Improve Animal Research Could Lead to Greater Human Health Benefits [Reissued with revisions on Jan. 29, 2026] GAO-25-107140: https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-25-107140
1/29/26: How NIH ending funding for human fetal tissue research could affect studies (ABC News) Last week, the Trump administration announced it was banning the use of human fetal tissue from some abortions in federally funded medical research. …Scientists told ABC News that research using human fetal tissue has contributed to understanding diseases better, such as HIV and Ebola, and helped in the development of some vaccines and drugs. https://abcnews.go.com/Health/nih-ending-funding-human-fetal-tissue-research-affect/story?id=129649136
1/29/26: Basic Experimental Studies in Humans (BESH) Will No Longer Be Considered Clinical Trials by the NIH (NOT-OD-26-032) https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-26-032.html
1/28/26: Guidance on Salary Limitation for Grants and Cooperative Agreements FY 2026 (NOT-OD-26-034) https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-26-034.html
1/22/26: Research Security: Agencies Should Assess Safeguards Against Discrimination (GAO-26-107544) We identified five safeguards to help agencies avoid discrimination, but agencies varied in their use. Further, no agency had assessed the potential for discrimination in their research security processes. Our recommendations would make research security more transparent and have agencies assess their safeguards. https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-26-107544
