Federal Government Reopens
The House passed a bill on November 12 to fund the government through January 30, and President Trump signed it, reopening the federal government and ending the longest shutdown in U.S. history. While some operations will resume quickly, others could take some time to get back to normal. Visit the UNC Research federal shutdown page for the latest information relating to research operations.
President Trump Selects New Leader of ARPA-H
On October 20, President Trump selected Alicia Jackson to lead the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). The agency falls under the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and partners with the private sector to address complex health problems.
Jackson was the founder and chief executive of Evernow, which is a health care company that provides virtual medical care to people experiencing menopause and perimenopause. She also worked for five years at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency serving as a program manager and founding deputy director of the Biotechnology Office during the Obama Administration.
Despite appointing new leadership, the Trump administration has made efforts to decrease ARPA-H’s budget and programs. The President’s Budget Request in June included $945 million for the agency, which is half a million less than its fiscal year 2024 allocation. Additionally, ARPA-H cancelled numerous programs surrounding cybersecurity, AI, enabled cancer detection, and preventative care under directives from President Trump.
Senate HELP Committee Holds Hearing on the Future of Biotech
On October 29, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee hosted a hearing entitled, “Future of Biotech: Maintaining U.S. Competitiveness and Delivering Lifesaving Cures to Patients.” The hearing included five witnesses to provide insight and expertise on the topic.
The focus of the hearing centered on how lawmakers can assist in bettering the delivery of lifesaving cures to patients while maintaining American dominance in medical innovation. Committee members discussed various reforms to the biotech ecosystem to strengthen the industry. Other discussion topics included recent cuts to the NIH and Food and Drug Administration, hindering American competitiveness in biomedical research and development and the affordability of health care and medications.
See here to watch the full hearing.
RISE Committee Meets on H.R. 1 Implementation
The first week of November, the Reimagining and Improving Student Education (RISE) Committee met for the second time. The committee has been tasked with ironing out the implementation of the loan changes made in H.R. 1, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” that was signed into law over the summer.
The measure institutes loan caps for all professional programs to $200,000 and graduate programs to $100,000. When the committee met for the first time in late September, there was debate surrounding the definition of professional programs. This topic remained at the forefront of discussion in November.
The committee also discussed a recent proposal from the Department of Education (ED) on defining “program of student” in relation to the legacy eligibility for current Parent PLUS loan limits. However, on November 6, ED stated that the committee arrived at a consensus on many of the regulatory provisions related to student loans. The committee members agreed to a list of what degrees are considered professional including the original ten proposed by ED and some additional programs. The list includes medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary, law, clinical psychology, and others.
From here, the department will draft a notice of proposed rulemaking based on the committee’s decisions, and the rule will be open to public comment before it is finalized and implemented.