Fed Update: COGR News Digest

8/22/25Bloomberg Law

Calm Before the Congressional Shutdown Storm: Starting Line

Sorry if this feels like a bucket of cold water being dumped on the August recess. Congress has just one more week left in its break, after which there’ll be big decisions to make about how government money is spent — the constitutional responsibility of the legislative branch. Just a little progress was made on the appropriations bills in July, so a stopgap funding measure is the best bet for keeping the lights on, Ken Tran reports

8/21/25Inside Higher Ed

Supreme Court Says NIH Doesn’t Have to Restore Canceled Grants

Instead, those who have lost funding can take their claim to a different court. The plaintiffs’ lawyers condemned the decision as a “significant setback for public health.”

Bloomberg LawSee also

RFK Jr. Sued Over Cuts to Health-Care Research, Quality Grants

US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is facing a lawsuit over the HHS’ halting of the federal grantmaking process for research into health care, a move that medical groups say illegally blocks the distribution of millions of congressionally approved funds.

8/21/25Science, Editorial

Rewiring science diplomacy

Over the past two decades, science diplomacy has been cast in a glow of hopeful optimism, especially by academics. It was framed as the art of bridge building, opening channels between adversaries, a common language across cultures, and a refuge for dialogue in times of political rupture….For science diplomacy to remain relevant in this era, it must develop a new mode of engagement—transactional science diplomacy.

8/21/25Nature

Peer reviewers more likely to approve articles that cite their own work

Reviewers are more likely to approve a manuscript if their own work is cited in subsequent versions than are reviewers who are not cited, according to an analysis of 18,400 articles from four open-access publications. The study, which is yet to be peer reviewed, was posted online as a preprint earlier this month 1

8/21/25Propublica

How Deeply Trump Has Cut Federal Health Agencies

When the Trump administration announced massive cuts to federal health agencies earlier this year, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he was getting rid of excess administrators who were larding the government with bureaucratic bloat ….Done in the name of government efficiency , these reductions have left departments stretching to perform their basic functions, ProPublica found, according to interviews with more than three dozen former and current federal employees

8/20/25National Law Review

Trump Administration Increases Oversight of Federal Grants

A core feature of the EO is requiring all discretionary grants, current and future, to include termination for convenience clauses. Discretionary grants are those where an agency exercises its own judgment to select both the funding amount and the grantee, such as by basing award on the merits of grant applications via a competitive process. Historically, discretionary grants have not included termination for convenience clauses. For example, the Uniform Guidance, 2 C.F.R. § 200 , does not include a provision that permits the federal government to terminate a discretionary grant at its leisure. This is in contrast to typical federal contracts, which invariably include termination for convenience provisions, such as FAR 52.249-2 .

JD SupraSee also

Can a humble, Harley-riding professor and former Trump adviser fend off science cuts?

Congress and the White House Office of Management and Budget have yet to weigh in definitively on the new funding model that Droegemeier’s team proposed last month. But they’re clearly paying attention. The Senate appropriations committee referenced the team’s work in its recent endorsement of legislative language blocking the federal government from changing indirect cost policy. And Droegemeier says an OMB official told him earlier this year, “We are not oceans apart.”

8/14/25DEAR

PF 2025-48 Department of Energy Acquisition Regulation

Solicitation Provision and Contract Clause Matrix (DOE Policy Flash) This Policy Flash transmits an updated DEAR Clause/Provision Matrix. This updated matrix is also being posted to the STRIPES library. The matrix is a tool designed to assist the acquisition workforce in identifying provisions and clauses that may be applicable to solicitations and contracts, and is not intended to replace consulting the specific prescriptions within the DEAR and any applicable reviews. The matrix will be updated as necessary when changes are made to the DEAR.