The Trump administration’s plan to impose ideological control over more than $1.1 trillion dollars in federal discretionary spending, including money for research funding, transportation infrastructure, education and environmental initiatives and much more, may be stopped, at least temporarily, by Congress. A provision in the Senate’s bipartisan continuing resolution (CR) to fund the federal government beyond the end of the fiscal year on September 30th would stop the proposed regulatory change.
The plan, put forward by Russell Vought, head of the Office of Management and Budget, would require political appointees to approve all discretionary awards from the federal government so they could deny grants and awards that do not fit the president’s agenda. Existing awards could also be canceled at any time.
PSC members in the union’s Defending Research Funding Working Group joined Stand Up for Science, our national affiliates AFT and AAUP, and many other groups to mount a massive public campaign opposing this vast and dangerous expansion of federal authority. More than 340,000 public comments were submitted to the OMB during a six-week period, and the vast majority of those comments objected to the change.
The House of Representatives passed a CR last month that did not include language stopping the OMB rule change. The Senate and House bills must be reconciled before the end of September or the government will shutdown.
Contact your representative in the House and urge them to pass the Senate’s version of the continuing resolution and to oppose political interference in federal discretionary funding.
