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Congressional Budget Office (CBO) – August 2022
The Congressional Budget Office tracks authorizations of appropriations that have specified expiration dates and identifies, annually, appropriations that are provided for authorizations that have expired. For this report, CBO identified 1,118 authorizations of appropriations that expired before the beginning of fiscal year 2022 and 111 authorizations that are set to expire before the end of the fiscal year. CBO also found that $461 billion in appropriations for 2022 was associated with 422 expired authorizations of appropriations.

Roll Call – September 6, 2022
Lawmakers return to Washington this month to wrestle with a White House request for $47.1 billion in emergency supplemental funds and the need to pass a stopgap spending bill to avoid a partial government shutdown starting Oct. 1.

The White House Press Relseases – August 25, 2022
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) updated U.S. policy guidance to make the results of taxpayer-supported research immediately available to the American public at no cost. In a  to federal departments and agencies, Dr. Alondra Nelson, the head of OSTP, delivered guidance for agencies to update their public access policies as soon as possible to make publications and research funded by taxpayers publicly accessible, without an embargo or cost. All agencies will fully implement updated policies, including ending the optional 12-month embargo, no later than December 31, 2025.

Federal Register – August 30, 2022
The Department of Homeland Security published a in the Federal Register codified the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and rescinding the 2012 memorandum issued by then-DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano that has governed the program until now. The rule adopts, with limited changes, existing DACA policy and application processes without expanding the criteria for eligibility outlined in the 2012 memorandum. The rule will go into effect on October 31, 2022. Due to an injunction issued by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas in State of Texas, et al. v. United States of America, DHS is not currently granting initial DACA requests or accompanying requests for employment authorization; DHS, however, continues to grant renewal requests from existing DACA recipients. The litigation remains pending in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, with a decision expected this fall.

U.S. Department of Commerce – September 6, 2022
The U.S. Department of Commerce released its strategy outlining how the Department will implement $50 billion from the bipartisan CHIPS Act of 2022, signed by President Biden last month. The CHIPS for America program, housed within the Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), will revitalize the domestic semiconductor industry and spur innovation while creating good-paying jobs in communities across the country.

Roll Call – September 7, 2022
Doctors are again ramping up what has become a perennial lobbying campaign to urge Congress to increase Medicare payments in order to offset cuts scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1. The cuts, the result of a 2020 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services decision to increase payments for underpaid services like primary care and maternal health, are meant to offset the costs of increasing payments for those services.

Federal Student Aid
On Aug. 24, 2022, the Biden-Harris Administration a Student Debt Relief Plan that includes one-time student loan debt relief targeted to low- and middle-income families. The U.S. Department of Education (ED) will provide up to $20,000 in debt relief to Federal Pell Grant recipients and up to $10,000 in debt relief to non-Pell Grant recipients. Borrowers with loans held by ED are eligible for this relief if their individual income is less than $125,000 (or $250,000 for households).

Association of American Universities – September 7, 2022
AAU submitted comments on a Department of Education  on Title IX regulations. The letter applauds the proposed new definitions and explicit Title IX protections in the NPRM “against discrimination based on gender identity, presentation, expression, and stereotypes as well as against discrimination based on pregnancy and marital status.” The letter also emphasizes the need for “a significant on-ramp period” to allow campuses time to effectively implement the final policy. AAU strongly recommends that “the effective date of the updated Title IX regulations be no less than the start of the academic year following one full calendar year after the publication of the final rule.”