COGR Updates:
9/24/25: GOP hopes to make potential shutdown as painful for Dems as possible (The Hill) President Trump and GOP lawmakers are itching to make a potential government shutdown as painful as possible for Democrats as negotiations show few signs of progress with less than a week to go . https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5518449-government-shutdown-cr-aca-subsidies-trump-thune-johnson-schumer-jeffries/
See also: Trump scraps meeting with Democrats, raising government shutdown risk (Reuters) https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-scraps-meeting-with-democrats-funding-us-shutdown-looms-2025-09-23/
See also: As shutdown looms, federal agencies have no public plans for one (Government Executive) https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2025/09/shutdown-looms-federal-agencies-have-no-public-plans-one/408282/
9/24/25: Judge Restores Another Batch of Frozen Grants to UCLA (Inside Higher Ed) A federal court order issued late Monday evening provides significant financial relief to the University of California, Los Angeles, restoring about $500 million in federal research grants amid an ongoing lawsuit with the Trump administration over alleged instances of antisemitism on campus. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/09/24/judge-restores-another-batch-frozen-grants-ucla
See also: $500 Million in Grant Funding Should Be Restored to UC System, Judge Rules (The Chronicle) https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/the-trump-agenda/500-million-in-grant-funding-should-be-restored-to-uc-system-judge-rules
9/23/25: Ethicists flirt with AI to review human research (Science) Philip Nickel remembers his time serving on an academic institutional review board (IRB) as both important work—and a slog. IRBs, which review all proposed human studies to protect participants from harm, have to wade through proposals that can contain hundreds of pages of technical content. Poorly prepared applications only add to the bottleneck facing volunteer reviewers, says Nickel, a biomedical ethicist at the Eindhoven University of Technology. “You get tired of seeing the same mistakes over and over again. You think, there must be a way to avoid this.” https://www.science.org/content/article/ethicists-flirt-ai-review-human-research
9/23/25: Trump visa policy requires universities to pay huge fee to hire foreign scholars (Science) U.S. President Donald Trump hopes to boost opportunities for domestic scientists by making it prohibitively expensive for universities to hire international faculty and staff. On 19 September, the president issued a proclamation requiring employers to pay the government $100,000 for every foreign scholar they want to hire. The cost would be added to fees of a few thousand dollars now assessed to sponsor someone from outside the United States under the H-1B visa program. https://www.science.org/content/article/trump-visa-policy-requires-universities-pay-huge-fee-hire-foreign-scholars
9/23/25: Small Business Research Programs:Clearer Guidance Could Improve Award Data to More Effectively Measure Outcomes (GAO-25-107942) Federal agencies can help fund small businesses’ technology research and development. This report—the 3rd in a series—looks at agency funding under “open topics.” Awarding funds this way lets businesses define problems and pitch solutions within broad topic areas rather than only solving predefined problems…The Small Business Administration uses agency data to oversee the awards. But agencies categorize things differently—partially because there’s no formal definition of “open topics.” This makes the data less useful. We recommended defining “open topics” for agencies. https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-25-107942
9/23/25: Stakeholder Letter Supporting Joint Associations Group FAIR Model: https://www.aamc.org/media/86166/download?attachment
See also: JAG LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/JAGTownHall
9/22/25: Lutnick Wants a Tax That Would Kill Innovation (Wall Street Journal, Opinion, Joseph Allen) …put aside how the Bayh-Dole Act restored American innovation and saved the lives of millions. Mr. Lutnick’s idea would cost the government more revenue than it would generate. https://www.wsj.com/opinion/lutnick-wants-a-tax-that-would-kill-innovation-51f79d33?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=ASWzDAgB_jwffOgcjMu-TrTvvNt-jN_CA04weSgnQLqUL_4P124TjGETEPpI_45Cu94%3D&gaa_ts=68d3f2e9&gaa_sig=7x7emcX2cbnlz5vt3F2nwThmpx5IJdWDGBv4uM45AODzU8ndYYik6PVyjkcviCiyvHBEB1BrNsDVBxlUEbLIKg%3D%3D
9/22/25: PF 2025-68 Class Deviation to Adopt Revolutionary FAR Overhaul (RFO) Part 44 – Subcontracting Policies and Procedures (DOE Policy Flash) https://www.energy.gov/management/pf-2025-68-class-deviation-adopt-revolutionary-far-overhaul-rfo-part-44-subcontracting
