Following up on March’s FY18 “skinny budget,” the Administration released the full FY18 presidential budget request today (full budget available here), titled “A New Foundation for American Greatness.”  The full budget provides the details missing from the March outline (first reported here), but the overall themes are consistent: deep, fundamental cuts to many government agencies and programs, including research and education, and large increases for national and border security accounts.  On the top line, the budget proposal claims it would reduce the deficit $5.6 trillion over a decade, assuming significant economic growth.  The plan would cut $1.6 trillion over the next 10 years in non-Defense discretionary spending and would save a total of $3.6 trillion, in large part from cuts to mandatory funding of social safety nets like Medicaid, SNAP, Children’s Health Insurance, and Social Security Disability Insurance, hitting these low-income assistance programs particularly hard.  The budget also proposes lifting the sequester cap in 2018 for Defense spending by $54 billion and lowering the non-Defense cap by a similar amount – an adjustment that would require a change in current law. Read more about Federal Update: President Trump Releases Full FY18 Budget Request

After months of delay, Congress will move forward this week on a final Fiscal Year 2017 funding measure. Congressional leadership and appropriators announced a deal late last night that sidesteps major partisan differences and provides strong funding, including a $2 billion increase for NIH.  It is expected the House will take up the measure toward the middle of the week with Senate action following and White House approval before the May 5 expiration of current stopgap funding. Read more about Federal Update: Fiscal Year 2017 Funding

Following last week’s abrupt withdrawal of the GOP healthcare bill, Congressional Republicans huddled this week to regroup and refocus on the agenda ahead. In the near term, the Senate will turn its focus next week to the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch (JD’91) to the Supreme Court hoping to secure a visible win for the Trump administration and the Republican Congress. Congress will also be focused on finalizing FY17 appropriations before current funding expires on April 28. Read more about Federal Update: Congress Tees Up Busy April

While the higher education community has harbored concerns about how the new Administration’s expressed priorities of aggressive budget reductions coupled with significant increases to Defense department spending might impact programs essential to research universities, there had thus far been few specifics.  However, today, the Trump Administration released the outline, or ”skinny budget,” of its FY18 spending plan (available here). In this high level outline, the Administration validates many of these concerns by including unprecedented cuts to research, steep reductions in student aid, and the elimination of the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities. The values expressed in the “skinny budget” sent a strong message that the higher education community and those who rely on this essential federal partnership will need to work diligently to build upon the strong existing bipartisan support on the Hill and continue to work with the Administration in the hopes that, as the process unfolds, there will ultimately be significant alterations in the policies outlined this morning. Read more about Federal Update: Trump Administration FY18 "America First" Spending Outline Proposes Deep Cuts, Fundamental Changes

President Donald Trump capped his first 40 days in office with a primetime address before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, where he outlined a broad vision for addressing his priorities. Read more about Federal Update: President Trump Outlines Priorities

The lame-duck session of the 114^th Congress resumed its work this week after the Thanksgiving holiday, notably on two main issues of University interest—the House’s passage of the 21^st Century Cures bill to authorize future supplemental funding for NIH, and the funding of the government beyond the current December 9 expiration.  Read more about Federal Update: Lame Duck Heads toward Second CR; House Passes Cures Bill