Upcoming Webinar from GSA on March 6: FSRS.gov to Retire This Week: How-To Videos Available, Register Now for Weds Training. The General Services Administration will retire FSRS.gov the evening of March 6, 2025. This means that the system will be unavailable and no new data can be entered into FSRS.gov. Subaward reporting will then become available in SAM.gov on March 8, 2025. https://buy.gsa.gov/interact/community/47/activity-feed/post/aefe8c5f-3eb0-4bbc-8e0e-437652f5cd7b/FSRS_gov_to_Retire_This_Week_How-To_Videos_Available_Register_Now_for_Weds_Training
3/5/25: NIH reels with fear, uncertainty about future of scientific research (Washington Post) “One thing Memoli would say very often during leadership meetings is: ‘I will check into that. I will get back to you,’” said one official familiar with those meetings. “We never heard that from previous NIH directors. They would not ‘get back’ to us. They would tell us.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025/03/05/nih-trump-turmoil-grants/
3/5/25: NIH director nominee Jay Bhattacharya faces Senate confirmation hearing (Washington Post) Jay Bhattacharya, the controversial Stanford University doctor and economist who emerged as an early critic of covid-19 stay-at-home orders, is expected to appear before a Senate panel for a confirmation hearing Wednesday morning as President Donald Trump’s nominee to direct the National Institutes of Health. https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025/03/05/jay-bhattacharya-nih-director-confirmation-hearing/
See also: Trump’s NIH pick Bhattacharya’s challenges to include research funding cuts (Reuters) https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/trumps-nih-pick-bhattacharyas-challenges-include-research-funding-cuts-2025-03-05/
3/5/25: Democrats digging in against full-year CR as shutdown deadline ticks closer (The Hill) The issue presents a dilemma for Democratic leaders, who are fighting to curb the significant federal spending cuts being pursued by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). …By sidestepping a push by hard-line conservatives to include DOGE cuts as part of the CR, GOP leadership is all but daring Democrats to oppose it — at risk of being blamed for a shutdown. https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5176285-house-democrats-republicans-government-funding/
See also: GOP hunts for Democratic votes to avoid government shutdown (Axios) https://www.axios.com/2025/03/05/republicans-government-shutdown-johnson-thune
3/5/25: Supreme Court Denies Bid to Freeze Nearly $2 Billion in Foreign Aid (New York Times) The Supreme Court rejected President Trump’s emergency request to freeze nearly $2 billion in foreign aid on Wednesday morning, saying a lower court judge “should clarify what obligations the government must fulfill.” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the three liberal justices in a 5-4 vote. The case focuses on the U.S. Agency for International Development and aid the administration halted on Mr. Trump’s first day in office. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/03/05/us/trump-news?unlocked_article_code=1.1k4.wEJ0.Mm5w0MrtUmR4&smid=url-share
3/5/25: OpenAI Invests $50M in Higher Ed Research (Inside Higher Ed) OpenAI announced Tuesday that it’s investing $50 million to start up NextGenAI, a new research consortium of 15 institutions that will be “dedicated to using AI to accelerate research breakthroughs and transform education.” The consortium, which includes 13 universities, is designed to “catalyze progress at a rate faster than any one institution would alone,” the company said in a news release . https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/03/05/openai-invests-50m-higher-ed-research
3/4/25: Trump Threatens to Pull Funding From Universities Over Protests (Wall Street Journal) President Trump threatened to take away federal funds from universities that allow what he called “illegal protests,” a move legal experts say would violate the First Amendment. Trump didn’t explain which demonstrations he considered illegal in his social-media post Tuesday morning. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on on the crime, arrested,” he wrote. https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/donald-trump-college-funding-protests-f4b5a679
See also: Trump Administration Says Columbia U.’s Federal Funding at Risk Over Protest Response (The Chronicle) https://www.chronicle.com/article/trump-administration-says-columbia-u-s-federal-funding-at-risk-over-protest-response
3/4/25: ‘Omg, did PubMed go dark?’ Blackout stokes fears about database’s future (Nature) A temporary outage of the US government-funded PubMed database of biomedical literature over the weekend sent many researchers globally into a panic. Although the disruption does not seem to have been deliberate, and the service has since been restored, the episode highlights scientists’ reliance on the website and left many anguished about its future. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00674-3
3/4/25: What Trump is trying to do to the Education Department, explained (Vox) Between DOGE and new Secretary Linda McMahon, the department is allegedly on its “final mission.” https://www.vox.com/policy/402336/department-of-education-trump-musk-doge-schools
See also: Education Department Shutdown May Be Imminent As McMahon Sends ‘Final Mission’ Memo (Forbes) https://www.forbes.com/sites/shaharziv/2025/03/04/education-department-shut-down-may-be-imminent-as-mcmahon-sends-final-mission-memo/
3/3/25: The NIH’s 15% Cost Cap Isn’t Strict Enough (Wall Street Journal, Letters to the Editor, Opinion) https://www.wsj.com/opinion/the-nihs-15-cost-cap-isnt-strict-enough-science-indirect-overhead-rate-1dd743a6
3/3/25: Trump’s NIH Plan B (Politico) A federal court has temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s proposed across-the-board cut to the National Institutes of Health funding for universities’ “indirect costs,” such as facilities and administration. But even if the courts reject the plan, Trump could turn to Plan B — renegotiating the payments one university at a time , Erin reports. … the agreements universities have already reached with the government don’t require the NIH to reimburse for costs that aren’t “allowable.” The Trump administration could find an example of poor documentation or a cost that shouldn’t have been included in a university’s proposal and argue it needs to review all NIH rate agreements to determine the scope of the problem…. he fears a “cat-and-mouse game where the government tries to justify the result it has achieved, which is we’re not going to pay more than 15 percent, by saying that it is taking some individualized grant-by-grant approach.” https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-pulse/2025/03/03/trumps-nih-plan-b-00206927
3/3/25: Former NIH Director Francis Collins retires suddenly, makes plea to protect agency staff (Science) In the latest sign of upheaval at the National Institutes of Health, renowned geneticist and former agency Director Francis Collins announced his retirement on Saturday in a resignation statement that made a plea for defending NIH and its staff. https://www.science.org/content/article/former-nih-director-francis-collins-retires-suddenly-makes-plea-protect-agency-staff
3/3/25: National Science Foundation Rehires 84 People Fired Last Month (Bloomberg Law) The National Science Foundation is rehiring about half of the 170 people it fired two weeks as part of an effort to shrink federal agencies. The 84 reinstatements came after the Office of Personnel Management ruled agencies could keep employees who have an identified disability, are veterans or are military spouses, the foundation said. Probationary workers also will return with back pay and no break in their service, according to an order from Sethuraman Panchanathan, the foundation’s director. https://news.bloomberglaw.com/pharma-and-life-sciences/national-science-foundation-rehires-84-people-fired-last-month?context=search&index=38
