Biophysical Society Newsletter - November 2015

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BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER

2015

NOVEMBER

Public Affairs 2016 Federal Fiscal Year Underway, but Budget Still Uncertain

The current continuing resolution expires on De- cember 11. It is unclear how the President and the Republican-controlled Congress will find a way forward, and without an agreement, a shutdown could occur at that time. Stay tuned! Michael Lauer to Serve as NIH Deputy Director for Extramural Research NIH Director Francis Collins announced the appointment of Michael S. Lauer to be the NIH Deputy Director for Extramural Research. Lauer has worked at NIH since 2007 and has served as the Director of the Division of Cardiovascular Science at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute since 2009. Lauer is also serving as Co- chair of the President’s Precision Medicine Initia- tive. Lauer received his MD from Albany Medical College in 1985. Lauer was expected to assume his new role in October. He replaces Sally Rockey who left the post in September to become the Director of the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research. National Academy Panel Calls for Simplification of Research Regulations In late September, the National Academy of Sci- ences released the first part of a two-part report focused on regulation of federally funded aca- demic research. In the report, entitled Optimizing the Nation’s Investment in Academic Research: A New Regulatory Framework for the 21st Century: Part I, the Academy’s Committee on Federal Re- search Regulations and Reporting Requirements calls on the federal government to streamline its regulation of federally funded academic research. The purpose of the study and the report, were to examine to what extent regulations, taken together, cut into productivity and/or slow down the return on the federal investment in research. Indeed, the panel found that while regulations are important for maintaining the integrity of the

With a last minute agreement, Congress passed a bill, known as a continuing resolution, to keep the government operating at the beginning of the 2016 fiscal year that started October 1. The bill funds government agencies at 2015 levels through December 11, 2015. The deal was made after Speaker of the House John Boehner (OH- R) announced that he was going to give up his Speakership and his seat in Congress at the end of October. While avoiding a shutdown is considered a posi- tive outcome, the delay puts federal agencies in a bind; agency leaders do not know how much money they will ultimately have in their budget for the coming year, and therefore, must be very conservative in how they spend money during this time period. Sequestration was to go back into effect on October 1 in order to meet decreased spending caps set by Congress in 2011and so there is a real chance that each agency could see significant decreases in a final 2016 spending bill compared to 2015. Each agency, and within the National Institutes of Health (NIH), each Institute, has its own policicies on how to operate during a continuing resolution. NIH-wide, non- competing research grant awards will be funded at no more than 90% of the previously committed level. This makes it difficult for principal inves- tigators to run their labs, especially if they are up for renewal or seeking initial funding.