Fed Update: COGR News Digest

Council on Governmental Relations (COGR)

3/3/25Reuters

  US Congress nowhere close to deal to avert shutdown ahead of March 14 deadline

With less than two weeks to go before a March 14 deadline, Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Congress appear to be nowhere close to a deal to avert a  government shutdown  that would throw Washington into deeper turmoil.  The talks have been complicated by President  Donald Trump , who has ignored spending laws passed by Congress, suspended foreign aid and fired tens of thousands of federal workers

3/3/25Forbes

  More Universities Slow Spending, Admissions Over Federal Funding Chaos

The toll from the chaos surrounding the Trump administration’s reduction or suspension of financial support for university research, particularly through the National Institutes of Health, continues to mount. An increasing number of research universities have recently announced they would be trimming their budgets, freezing new hiring, or pulling back on PhD admissions because of concerns over federal funding constraints.

3/3/25Inside Higher Ed

ED Shares More Details About DEI Guidance

The Education Department offered more insight  Friday  into  its sweeping guidance  that essentially declared all race-based programming illegal,  releasing  a nine-page document answering frequently asked questions.

3/3/35Inside Higher Ed

Researchers in ‘Limbo’ as Trump Battles Courts

Despite court orders blocking Trump’s federal funding freeze, bans on DEI and other executive mandates, academic researchers are still in the dark on what all of it could mean for their careers and the pace of scientific discovery.

3/2/25The Hill

  The US is losing its next generation of health scientists

The U.S. has held a global leadership position in public health and health science research for decades. In the past 75 years, this research has brought many diseases under control through basic research leading to vaccines, drugs, healthy lifestyles and public health initiatives.  

3/2/25

  Pentagon guts national security program that harnessed social science (Science) ” https://www.science.org/content/article/pentagon-guts-national-security-program-harnessed-social-science

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is gutting a landmark project designed to fund social science research with important implications for national security. Dozens of researchers with grants under the Minerva Research Initiative (MRI)—studying violent extremism, disinformation, and threats from climate change, for example—have had their grants terminated in recent days. Participants in the most recent round of applications received an email that the department was “no longer offering the Minerva University Research Competition.

2/28/25Retraction Watch

  Exclusive: U.S. federal research integrity teams take hits with departures 

Amid efforts by the Trump administration to “ put an end to fraudulent and wasteful spending ” and “ enhance ” accountability, two key offices charged with investigating fraud and holding scientists and institutions accountable for federal spending have seen top leadership depart.

2/28/25CBS, COGR President Matt Owens quoted

RFK Jr. rolls back transparency policy on Medicaid and NIH changes

"For decades HHS policies affecting public health and research institutions have benefitted from public stakeholder participation in the policy process. Public input is an essential element of the policy process that reflects our nation's democratic principles," he said.

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