Washington Update

Permanent Injunction Issued in NIH Litigation 
On April 5, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued a permanent injunction in the lawsuit jointly brought by APLU, AAU, ACE, et. al. and effectively consolidated with the lawsuits brought by AAMC and state attorneys general on F&A at NIH. In response, the plaintiffs released a joint statement. The United States government filed a motion of appeal. 

APLU continues to maintain a webpage with updates and resources on the case. 

Reconciliation Update 
On April 10, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an amended budget resolution. Speaker Mike Johnson expressed his desire to pass the resolution prior to the chamber’s two-week recess, during which the initial drafting of a reconciliation bill would begin, although committees have been working for many months on possibilities.  

The resolution includes different savings and spending thresholds for House and Senate committees (some of which are of serious concern to public research universities) and does not include the cost of extending expiring tax cuts in the total cost of the package. The resolution also includes an increase to the debt limit beyond the 2026 midterm elections. 

What to Watch: Remaining hurdles to a final reconciliation agreement include: potential cuts to mandatory programs, committee spending or savings levels, whether and to what extent to offset the expense of tax expenditures within a final package, and the scope and length of tax extensions. APLU created a list of the proposed reconciliation provisions from the House Budget Committee with the most direct impact to higher education. APLU is deeply engaged in advocacy on priorities and concerns. 

U.S. Department of Education Confirms it Will Fund Campus-Based Aid Programs at FY24 Levels for FY25 
On April 3, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) confirmed it will allocate campus-based aid programs at the Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) levels again for FY25. This includes $1.23 billion for Federal Work-Study and $910 million for Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (SEOG). As background, when the FY25 appropriations package Congress passed to continue funding the federal government, did not include tables specifying funding levels for Federal Work-Study, SEOG, and many other specific higher education programs. Thus, ED has more discretion this year than usual to adjust funding levels for individual programs within broad account categories specified in the law. 

Go Deeper: On April 1, the Student Aid Alliance steering committee – including APLU – met with senior political appointees at ED to request confirmation on FY25 campus-based aid levels. The Alliance shared last year’s FY25 House Republican letter supporting robust funding for campus-based aid and Pell Grants. 

On April 7, APLU joined a higher education association community letter acknowledging that while ED clarified it is funding campus-based aid programs at FY24 levels for the upcoming fiscal year, it should “formally confirm that all higher education programs will be funded at FY 2024 levels,” such as TRIO, GEAR UP, HBCUs, MSIs, and other programs.  

Award Cancellations, Staff Reduction at National Endowment for the Humanities 
Last week, The New York Times reported the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) recommended staff reductions and grant elimination at the National Endowment for the Humanities. Since that initial report, numerous APLU member institutions and the National Humanities Alliance, of which APLU is a member, have confirmed termination of grants. Terminations include fellowships, recission of previously awarded funds, and cancellation of open grant applications. Additionally, NPR reports up to 80 percent of NEH staff have been placed on administrative leave. 

APLU is in contact with partner organizations and advocacy coalitions regarding NEH operations.   

NASA and NOAA Passback Documents Propose Significant Cuts to Research in FY26 
Last week, drafts of the White House’s FY26 budget proposals for NASA and NOAA were made available to the public. Both “passbacks” propose significant cuts to the agencies’ research budgets in FY26.  

The NASA passback proposes $3.9 billion for science at the agency, compared to its current budget of $7.3 billion, a near 50 percent cut. It would cancel several missions, including the Roman Space Telescope, Mars Sample Return and the DAVINCI Venus spacecraft, and put the future of the Goddard Space Flight Center at risk. The budget runs counter to comments made by Jared Isaacman, nominee for NASA administrator, at his confirmation hearing last week when he vowed there would be “more telescopes, more probes, more rovers” at NASA under his watch. 

The NOAA passback eliminates the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) as a line office and moves remaining funded programs to the Weather Service or Ocean Service. Funding for the Cooperative Institutes, Sea Grant, the National Oceanographic Partnership Program, Regional Climate Data and Information, and Climate Competitive Research are specifically called for elimination. The budget proposal also overhauls NOAA’s planning for its next generation weather satellite, GeoXO, by removing instruments perceived to focus on climate rather than weather data. NOAA has been told to use the passback as a guide for their FY25 spend plan. 

Additional DOD Spending Cuts Announced 
Last week, Defense Secretary Hegseth announced cuts of $5.1 billion in “wasteful Defense Department contracts.” The announcement includes a pause of over $500 million in funding to two universities that per DOD “tolerate antisemitism and support divisive DEI programs.” This comes on top of the March 20th announcement that the department would cut $580 million in programs, contracts, and grants. 

Cancellation of Funding for the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program 
This month, the Trump administration withheld funds for 10 of the 51 NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) centers, effectively signaling the potential end of the programs. The remaining MEP centers have renewal deadlines over the next year, and it is anticipated that the administration plans to end their funding as well. A full list of the MEP Centers and their hosts can be found here.  

APLU is engaging member institutions in an advocacy effort to express support for the program via letters sent directly to U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Lutnik. 
 
Senators Tillis and Cassidy Introduce the DETERRENT Act 
On April 4, Senate HELP Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) introduced a new version of the DETERRENT Act, which differs from the House-passed version. A one-pager to accompany the bill text was published by Senator Tillis’s office.  
 
What’s New: The new bill removes the House’s Section 117c, which requires expanded reporting on private university endowments with investments in entities or countries of concern. It also slightly modifies Section 117b to protect faculty privacy when reporting foreign gifts or contracts, but there are still questions over whether names of individuals could be protected under state transparency laws.  
 
HELP Committee staff have not yet indicated a timeline for a markup. APLU prepared talking points on the legislation. Questions or feedback can be directed to Debbie Altenburg, APLU’s Vice President for Research Policy and Advocacy. APLU continues its advocacy for improvements in the legislation. 

White House Solicits Ideas for Deregulation, Setting 10-to-1 
On Friday, April 13, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published a request for information (RFI) in the Federal Register, soliciting ideas for agency rules to rescind. The new RFI builds upon an Executive Order issued within President Trump’s first two weeks in office titled “Unleashing Prosperity through Deregulation,” requiring that for each new agency rule, guidance, or regulation issued, the agency must identify at least 10 existing ones to repeal.  
 
Go Deeper: The White House also issued a fact sheet to accompany the Executive Order’s text. The deadline to submit written comments is May 12, 2025. Supplementary information offered by OMB Director Russell Vought asks commenters to take “particular attention to regulations that are inconsistent with statutory text or the Constitution, where costs exceed benefits, where the regulation is outdated or unnecessary, or where regulation is burdening American businesses in unforeseen ways.” 

APLU, Higher Education Community Seek Briefing on Student Visa Revocations 
APLU joined 15 higher education associations in requesting a briefing from the Departments of Homeland Security and State regarding reports of student visa revocations and Student Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) record terminations. These reports include messages being sent to students and scholars regarding visas being revoked with no additional information sent to institutions and include requests of the visa holders to self deport without information on right or process of appeal.  

APLU and the other groups support the need for the federal government to safeguard national security through visa vetting and determining who should be allowed to enter and remain in the country, though the action without engagement of institutions has created substantial concern and confusion. 

APLU is in direct contact with the State Department on public university concerns. 

APLU Joins Coalition for Aerospace and Science’s FY26 Request of $27.18 Billion for NASA  
This week, the Coalition for Aerospace and Science released its FY26 funding statement, which APLU joined. The statement requests at least $27.18 billion for NASA, arguing it is, “a vital increase to maintain development of ongoing missions while initiating work on new groundbreaking endeavors”. The statement specifically calls out APLU priority accounts, including $9 billion for the Science Mission Directorate, $1.5 billion for the Space Technology Mission Directorate, $1 billion for the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, and $65 million for the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program.