HOUSE and SENATE

The House and Senate will be in recess for the next two weeks and will return the week of April 29.

The House passed H. Res. 293, which established an overall discretionary spending level of $1.295 trillion for fiscal year (FY) 2020. House Appropriations Chair Nita Lowey (D-NY) announced that $631 billion will be allocated for non-defense spending, a 6 percent increase over FY2019, and $733 billion will be allocated for defense spending, a 2 percent increase over FY2019. Individual subcommittee allocations have not yet been publicly announced.

The deadline to submit written testimony to the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (LHHS) Appropriations Subcommittee on the FY2020 budget is June 3.

ADMINISTRATION

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) is planning to reorganize the Federal Student Aid (FSA) office by reducing the number of senior officials who serve on the FSA executive committee from 18 to 8.

The Texas Tech University Medical School announced that it will stop considering race in deciding whether to admit applicants as part of an agreement with ED’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR).

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will now require Federal agencies to submit summary information on proposed regulations, including regulatory guidance, to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) that previously was not subject to review by the office. The summary information will be reviewed by OIRA to determine whether the proposed regulations qualify as “major,” which is the requirement for notifying Congress under the Congressional Review Act.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen stepped down this week as head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Kevin McAleenan has been named acting Secretary of Homeland Security.

ED submitted its final regulatory action on Gainful Employment (GE) to OIRA for review.

GRANT OPPORTUNITIES 

Penn Hill Group provides a list of grant opportunities and summaries for select grants. Please visit our website for more information.