DC Digest - October 7, 2011


In Today's Issue:
  • Duke Kicks Off Congressional Briefing Program with Entrepreneurship Panel
  • Study Examines Impact of Stafford Limits on Borrowing
  • Duke's Wadwha Testifies Before House Subcommittee on STEM 'Brain Drain'
  • TARP Official Visits Duke
  • Innovation Task Force Urges Deficit Committee to Sustain Nation's Innovation Path
  • PCAST Group on Advanced Manufacturing to Hold First Public Regional Meeting Oct 14
  • Congress Approves Six-Week Continuing Resolution
  • Senate Leader Hopes to Consider Three FY12 Funding Bills this Month


DUKE KICKS OFF CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFING PROGRAM WITH ENTREPRENEURSHIP PANEL
Duke University officials, congressional staff members and entrepreneurs gathered in Washington, DC, Wednesday to participate in a congressional briefing, "The Research Triangle of North Carolina: The Innovation Ecosystem and Economic Development."

Wednesday's event, held in the Capitol Visitors Center, included a panel discussion on the relationship between universities, the federal government and the private sector and how to promote economic development by developing an environment supportive of innovation.

Read More:
Duke Kicks Off Congressional Briefing Program with Entrepreneurship Panel (Duke.edu)
Event photo album (OFR facebook)


STUDY EXAMINES IMPACT OF STAFFORD LIMITS ON BORROWING
When the maximum Stafford loan went up, the percentage of undergraduates who borrowed through the program decreased at first, but as time passed, that percentage grew. That is one of the findings of a new research brief from the National Center for Education Statistics. The analysis focuses on issues related to the setting of maximum levels for borrowing under the Stafford program. Another parts of the study looked at the relationship between working full time and Stafford borrowing. A smaller percentage (26 percent) of those who worked full time when enrolled borrowed the maximum than did those who borrowed less than the maximum (33 percent) and those who did not borrow (37 percent).

Read More:
Borrowing at the Maximum: Undergraduate Stafford Loan Borrowers (NCES.gov)


DUKE'S WADWHA TESTIFIES BEFORE HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE ON STEM 'BRAIN DRAIN'
A House Judiciary subcommittee held a hearing on Wednesday, "STEM the Tide: Should America Try to Prevent an Exodus of Foreign Graduates of U.S. Universities with Advanced Science Degrees?"  Vivek Wadwha, Duke adjunct professor and executive in residence at the Pratt School of Engineering, testified before the House panel on his recommendations for how to keep foreign graduate students from departing the U.S. after earning their advanced degrees.

Read More:
Reverse Brain Drain (Inside Higher Ed)
Wadwha's Testimony (Judiciary.house.gov)
Event photo album (OFR Facebook)


TARP OFFICIAL VISITS DUKE
Timothy Massad, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s assistant secretary for financial stability, addressed students at the Fuqua School of Business on Monday night and touted the Troubled Asset Relief Program, more commonly called by its acronym TARP, or simply, the bailout. After giving a short history of TARP, enacted exactly three years ago, he said it played a large role in saving the financial sector.

Read More:
Treasury Official Defends TARP at Duke (Triangle Business Journal)
Leadership Lessons from U.S. Treasury Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability Timothy Massad (fuqua.duke.edu)


INNOVATION TASK FORCE URGES DEFICIT COMMITTEE TO SUSTAIN NATION'S INNOVATION PATH
The Task Force on American Innovation, a university-industry group in which AAU participates, wrote to members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction on October 6, urging members to consider the important role of research and education in driving innovation and productivity.

The Task Force letter says that all parts of the federal budget should be placed on the table for deficit reduction. It notes that nearly all deficit reduction measures so far have focused on discretionary spending, where research funding is based. The letter concludes: “We urge you to make recommendations that, over the long run, will enable this generation to leave future generations a legacy not of excessive debt and limited prospects but of renewed technological leadership and economic opportunity.”

Read More:
Innovation Task Force Urges Deficit Committee to Keep Nation on an Innovation Path (pdf)


PCAST GROUP ON ADVANCED MANUFACTURING TO HOLD FIRST PUBLIC REGIONAL MEETING OCT 14
The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) Working Group on Advanced Manufacturing is holding its first regional meeting at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta from 8am to 2pm on October 14, 2011. See registration information in link below.

To ensure that the United States attracts manufacturing activity and remains a leader in knowledge production, PCAST recommended in its June 2011 “Report to the President on Ensuring American Leadership in Advanced Manufacturing” that the Federal government create a fertile environment for innovation and make investments to ensure that new technologies and design methodologies are developed in the United States, and that technology-based enterprises have the infrastructure to flourish here.

On the basis of that report, President Obama established PCAST’s Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP) Steering Committee to provide additional advice to the government on how to catalyze investment in and deployment of emerging technologies with the potential to transform U.S. manufacturing.

Read More:
Advanced Manufacturing Regional Partnership Meeting October 14 (gatech.edu)
Georgia Tech President G.P. Peterson Letter of Invitation (pdf)


CONGRESS APPROVES SIX-WEEK CONTINUING RESOLUTION
The House on October 4 approved and sent to the President for signature the six-week continuing resolution (CR) that will keep the government running through November 18. The House voted 352 to 66 to pass the measure, which the Senate had approved last week. Fifty-three Republicans and 13 Democrats voted against the CR.

The CR includes $2.65 billion for FY12 emergency disaster assistance, without offsets from other spending. Additional emergency disaster assistance could be added later in the year, also without offsets, because the Budget Control Act that was agreed to in August provides for up to $11.3 billion in additional emergency disaster relief aid in FY12.

The measure also extends through November 18 the authorization for the Small Business Innovation Research Program, the Small Business Technology Transfer Program, and the Commercialization Pilot Program.


SENATE LEADER HOPES TO CONSIDER THREE FY12 FUNDING BILLS THIS MONTH
CQToday reports that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) hopes to take three FY12 appropriations bills to the Senate floor this month in an effort to give Senate Democrats “some extra leverage in the omnibus appropriations negotiations with the GOP House.” The three bills are Agriculture, Transportation-HUD, and Commerce-Justice-Science, the latter of which includes funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and NASA. The publication reports that the three bills were chosen because they were reported from the Senate Appropriations Committee with strong bipartisan support.

Staff-level discussions on an FY12 omnibus appropriations package have begun, according to the publication, “but there remains only an outside chance that the measure will get to the president’s desk before the [continuing resolution] taking effect tomorrow runs out.” The CR, as noted above, lasts through November 18.

So far, the House has approved six of its 12 FY12 appropriations bills and the Senate has approved just one.