Washington Update

Fiscal Year 2024 Appropriations Update
Ahead of a looming September 30 funding deadline, the House and Senate continued their consideration of appropriations bills prior to the August recess. The House Appropriations Committee has advanced 10 funding bills out of committee, with the Commerce-Justice-Science and Labor-HHS-Education bills remaining, while the Senate Appropriations Committee has advanced all 12 funding bills out of committee. However, the Senate has not considered any appropriations bills on the floor yet, while the House passed the Military Construction-VA bill before recess. A chart reflecting the most recent House and Senate funding levels can be found here. Additionally, APLU developed a chart comparing House and Senate 302(b) allocations by subcommittee. 302(b) allocations are the overall level of funding each appropriations subcommittee has to work with in crafting their individual bills.

APLU staff also developed one-pagers on each of the seven appropriations bills containing APLU priority accounts that include funding levels, policy riders, and other information of potential interest to public research universities:

• Agriculture
• Commerce-Justice-Science
• Defense
• Energy-Water Development
• Interior-Environment
• Labor-HHS-Education
• State-Foreign Operations

Biden Administration Releases Post SCOTUS Admissions Resources
The Departments of Education (ED) and Justice today released resources, a Dear Colleague Letter and Q&A document, intended to help colleges and universities understand the implications of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. (SFFA) v. Harvard College and SFFA v. University of North Carolina. Per ED, the Departments’ Questions & Answers resource “distills the Court’s core holding and offers examples of steps colleges and universities can lawfully take to achieve a student body that is diverse across a range of factors, including race and ethnicity, such as: targeted outreach, recruitment, and pathway programs; evaluation of admission policies; and retention strategies and programs.” A press release summarizing available resources can be found here.

APLU, Higher Education Community Submit Letter on IRA Tax Credits
APLU and eight other higher education associations submitted comments to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regarding proposed regulations concerning elective payments of applicable credits from the Inflation Reduction Act. The proposed regulations clarify that states and their instrumentalities, including some public universities, are eligible for elective payments of applicable tax credits under Section 6417 of the Internal Revenue Code. The letter expresses gratitude that the Secretary implemented these changes, which followed a November 2022 APLU comment letter. APLU played a leading role in pushing for these regulatory clarifications so public universities are fully eligible for recently enacted clean energy tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act regardless of how they are organized under the tax code.

White House Publishes Executive Order on Federal Research and Development in Support of Domestic Manufacturing
On July 28, the White House released an Executive Order on Federal Research and Development in Support of Domestic Manufacturing and U.S. Jobs. The order will encourage federal agencies to better track and encourage domestic manufacturing of technologies developed with federal funding and covered by the Bayh-Dole Act. The order includes four core objectives: to improve transparency, cut red tape, and streamline reporting requirements in the federal R&D process to better track progress towards manufacturing goals; boost the incentive to manufacture new inventions in the U.S. when those inventions are developed using federal funds; encourage the expansion of domestic production for critical industries while maintaining flexibility to build strong international R&D partnerships; and make the domestic manufacturing waiver process clearer, timelier, and more consistent. A Science article summarizing the order can be found here.