Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools (HEALS) Act Research Funding and Policy
On July 27, 2020, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) introduced the Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools (HEALS) Act, the Senate Republican Phase IV COVID-19 package. The HEALS Act provides $15.5 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), $4.5 billion for NASA, and $306 million for the Department of Energy Office of Science.
Specifically, for NIH, the funding includes $12.9B to prevent, prepare for, and respond to COVID-19 domestically or internationally. The bill allocates $240 million in cost-extensions to support for existing research awards. This includes resources targeting young researchers who need additional research time as postdoctoral candidates because of lost research/training due to COVID-19. This measure is currently being negotiated with the U.S. House of Representatives and the White House as Congress considers the fourth COVID-19 emergency relief package.
In April, UK Federal Relations began advocating for additional support for the federal research enterprise. We requested additional funding for research agencies to provide cost-extensions and for more fellowship and traineeship slots be supported with additional funding to assist graduate students and postdocs. As Congress continues to negotiate this package, UK will continue our advocacy efforts on behalf of the UK research enterprise.
| DIVISION A (bill text, summary) | |
| TITLE II | |
| National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Summary Text | The bill provides funding support to NASA to cover current funding claims, and submitted contractor claims yet to be finalized, based upon Section 3610 of the CARES Act. |
| NASA, Science (pg. 13) | The bill would provide an additional amount of $224,000,000 to remain available until September 30, 2021, to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally. |
| NASA Aeronautics (pg. 13) | The bill would provide an additional $28,700,000, to remain available until September 30, 2021, to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally. |
| NASA Space Technology (pg. 14) | The bill would provide an additional $29,750,000 to remain available until September 30, 2021, to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally. |
| NASA Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Engagement (pg. 16) | The bill would provide an additional $4,900,000 to remain available until September 30, 2021, to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally. |
| TITLE III | |
| Department of Defense, Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RTD&E), Summary Text | The proposal provides funding to support additional technological investments across the services including the evaluation of certain technologies to support digital training capabilities, solutions for classified services, and collection capture and transmission capabilities, among others. |
| Department of Defense, RDT&E Air Force (pg. 23) | The bill would provide an additional $20,931,000 to remain available until September 30, 2021, to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally. |
| Department of Defense, RTD&E Defense-Wide (pg. 23) | The bill would provide an additional $1,494,000 to remain available until September 30, 2021, to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally. |
| Defense Health Program, Summary Text | The proposal funds the Defense Health Program to complete expansion efforts of manufacturing capability in order to maximize the number of doses of a variety of prophylactics and therapeutics in the minimum amount of time to protect the Warfighter population and for the Department to acquire medical PPE for the Defense Health Agency for medical personnel and patients in response to COVID-19. |
| Defense Health Program (pg. 24) | The bill would provide an additional $705,000,000, of which $175,000,000 shall be for operation and maintenance, to remain available until September 30, 2021, and $530,000,000 shall be for research, development, test and evaluation, to remain available until September 30, 2021, to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally. |
| TITLE IV | |
| Department of Energy, Office of Science, Summary Text | The proposal provides funding to further support COVID-19- related research and development activities, including equipment, enabling technologies, and personnel at national laboratory scientific user facilities; and for related cybersecurity and information technology needs. |
| Department of Energy, Office of Science (pg. 42) |
The bill would provide an additional $306,000,000 to remain available until September 30, 2021, to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally which shall be for necessary expenses related to research and development and related activities, including equipment, enabling technologies, and personnel associated with the operations of Department of Energy scientific user facilities.
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| Department of Energy, Departmental Administration, Summary Text | The proposal provides funding to replenish Personal Protective Equipment provided to other federal agencies at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and to ensure sufficient supplies are available at Department of Energy facilities and national laboratories. |
| Department of Energy, Departmental Administration (pg. 42) |
The bill would provide an additional $1,300,000 to remain available until September 30, 2021, to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally including for necessary expenses related to personal protective equipment.
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| TITLE VIII | |
| National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (pg. 67) | $290,000,000 to remain available until September 30, 2024, to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally. |
| NIH, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease (pg. 68) | $200,000,000, to remain available until September 30, 2024, to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally |
| NIH, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (pg. 68) |
$480,555,000, to remain available until September 30, 2024, to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally
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| NIH, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (pg. 69) | $172,680,000 to remain available until September 30, 2024, to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally |
| NIH, National Institute of Mental Health (pg. 69) | $200,000,000 to remain available until September 30, 2024, to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally. |
| NIH, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (pg. 69) | $64,334,000 to remain available until September 30, 2024, to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally. |
| NIH, National Center for Advancing Translational Science (pg. 70) | $1,224,750,000 to remain available until September 30, 2024, to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally. |
| NIH, Office of the Director (pg. 70) |
$12,905,337,000 to remain available until September 30, 2024, to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally.
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| TITLE XIII | |
| Institute of Education Sciences (pg. 128) | The bill would provide an additional $65 million for IES to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus and for carrying out the NAEP assessments in elementary and secondary schools. |
Source: Association of Public & Land-Grant Universities (APLU)
For more information see the full APLU analysis: https://www.aplu.org/members/councils/governmental-affairs/CGA-library/aplu-analysis-of-the-senate-heals-act/file