Tag Archive: Policy and Government Affairs
Articles relevant to Government Affairs.
By CRA Government Affairs As part of CRA’s mission to help the computing research community become more aware and engaged in the policymaking that affects our field, Computing Research News’ Q&A series, Policy Spotlight: Conversations with Computing Researchers, highlights the work that community members are doing in governmental roles or who have taken part in […]
By CRA Government Affairs As part of CRA’s mission to help the computing research community become more aware and engaged in the policymaking that affects our field, Computing Research News’ Q&A series, Policy Spotlight: Conversations with Computing Researchers, highlights the work that community members are doing in governmental roles or who have taken part in […]
By Brian Mosley, Associate Director of Government Affairs In May, a bipartisan group of Senators, led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD), Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and Sen. Todd Young (R-IN), released a report outlining suggested funding priorities, legislative actions, and relevant topics that the chamber should take to begin […]
By Brian Mosley, Associate Director, Government Affairs With Labor Day behind us, Congress has returned from its August Recess, and the legislative body has been met with some major, yet typical, items on its September to-do list. The most significant being passing a continuing resolution to keep the federal government running after the start of […]
By Brian Mosley, Associate Director, Government Affairs In mid-August, the Biden Administration released a memo to the Federal research agencies outlining their research and development priorities for the Fiscal Year 2025 budget. The memo provides guidance to the agencies on how to prepare their budget request submissions for the Office of Management & Budget (OMB), […]
Over the Memorial Day Weekend, President Biden and House Speaker McCarthy (R-CA) agreed to a deal to suspend the nation’s debt limit and make changes to control federal spending. Congress worked quickly over the following week and, through much partisan grumbling and political showmanship, passed the legislation into law.
The Task Force on American Innovation (TFAI), a coalition of American universities, scientific societies, and high-tech companies, released a letter on May 26th calling on the leaders of both Congressional Appropriation Committees to provide, “strong investments in science research, innovation, and workforce development,” in the coming Fiscal Year 2024 budget.
The Biden Administration released a set of principles aimed at creating a Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights to, “help guide the design, development, and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) and other automated systems so that they protect the rights of the American public.”
On September 13th, 25 computing researchers from across the country took part in a virtual training session to prepare them to make the case to Congress for federally funded computing research. Holding the training virtually is a change from past Congressional Visit Days that CRA Government Affairs staff have run. Due to ongoing restrictions stemming from the COVID-19 Pandemic and post-January 6th security, the Congressional office buildings located in Washington D.C. are not open to the general public. Despite these obstacles, CRA organized a virtual event for computing researchers to meet with their Congressional representatives in web meetings in order to keep making the case for Federal support for computing research.
Recently, the National Science Board (NSB) elected former CRA Board Chair Daniel Reed, from the University of Utah, as its next chair. Dr. Reed was appointed to the NSB in 2018. He served on the CRA Board of Directors from 1999 to 2009 and was chair from 2005 to 2009; he currently serves on the CRA Government Affairs Committee. At this critical juncture for NSF — with the focus on emerging technologies, the creation of the new Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP), and the pending NSF legislation in Congress which will likely reshape the mission of the agency — it’s crucial to have someone from the computing and IT research community helping to steer the NSB in its oversight of the agency and in crafting Federal science policy. We wish to congratulate Dr. Reed on this great honor, and we look forward to working with him as he continues to serve the Nation in this new role!
On February 4th, the House of Representatives passed the America COMPETES Act of 2022, a legislative package containing a bold reauthorization of the National Science Foundation and calling for significant new investments in the country’s research enterprise, among other provisions. While the bill passed the House on a partisan vote, it does set up a better legislative counterpart to the Senate’s NSF reauthorization bill, the US Innovation and Competitiveness Act (USICA), which passed last summer. The hope within the S&T policy community is that a final piece of legislation can be agreed to quickly by both chambers of Congress and then be sent to the President’s desk for signing into law. However, final passage is not guaranteed at the moment.
