6/22/21: Reps Call for Review Into Alleged FBI ‘Misconduct’ Against Chinese Scientist Accused of Spying (Nextgov) Three Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee requested a comprehensive look into the FBI’s actions against a former University of Tennessee at Knoxville professor charged with concealing his ties to China after the litigation resulted in a mistrial. Reps. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., Mondaire Jones, D-N.Y., and Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., called for a fresh investigation via a letter to Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz. In it, the lawmakers also questioned whether the China Initiative—a Trump-era effort to counter economic espionage attempts executed by the People’s Republic of China—pushes federal agents to engage in racial profiling. https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2021/06/reps-call-review-alleged-fbi-misconduct-against-chinese-scientist-accused-spying/174875/
6/22/21: Do Colleges Need a Foreign Policy? (The Chronicle) The Cornell debate mirrors the tensions playing out on campuses across the country around international collaboration. Much as with the current culture wars, colleges are feeling these geopolitical pressures from all sides: Students and professors question academic ties to places without the same protections for speech and expression, and government officials are wary of universities’ willingness to engage with regimes that can be seen as hostile to American national interests. https://www.chronicle.com/article/do-colleges-need-a-foreign-policy?cid2=gen_login_refresh&cid=gen_sign_in
6/22/21: Biden’s $6.5 Billion Biomedical Agency Backed in Bipartisan Bill (2) (Bloomberg Law) Lawmakers are hewing closely to President Joe Biden’s proposal for a new $6.5 billion science agency as part of a sweeping measure to deliver medical breakthroughs….Cures 2.0 would authorize ARPA-H and also touch on almost every part of the health-care system—from the authorization of medical research, to the Food and Drug Administration’s regulation of medical products and Medicare’s payments for cutting-edge treatments. The bipartisan duo have said they want to pass their bill by the end of the year. https://news.bloomberglaw.com/pharma-and-life-sciences/bidens-6-5-billion-biomedical-agency-backed-in-bipartisan-bill?context=search&index=4 See also: Lander, Collins set forth a vision for ARPA-H (NIH News Release) https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/lander-collins-set-forth-vision-arpa-h and ARPA-H: Accelerating biomedical breakthroughs (Science) https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2021/06/22/science.abj8547
6/21/21: Supreme Court Says Over 200 Patent Judges Were Improperly Appointed (New York Times) The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that more than 200 administrative judges who hear patent disputes, some of them over billions of dollars, had been appointed in violation of the Constitution. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/21/us/politics/supreme-court-patent-judges.html?referringSource=articleShare
6/21/21: Occupational Exposure to COVID-19; Emergency Temporary Standard (Federal Register Notice, Comments Due July 21) The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is issuing an emergency temporary standard (ETS) to protect healthcare and healthcare support service workers from occupational exposure to COVID-19 in settings where people with COVID-19 are reasonably expected to be present….The rule is effective June 21, 2021. The incorporation by reference of certain publications listed in the rule is approved by the Director of the Federal Register as of June 21, 2021…. Written comments, including comments on any aspect of this ETS and whether this ETS should become a final rule, must be submitted by July 21, 2021 in Docket No. OSHA-2020-0004. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/06/21/2021-12428/occupational-exposure-to-covid-19-emergency-temporary-standard
6/21/21: ‘Speed and scale.’ One year into the job, NSF’s director prepares for massive budget growth (Science) Sethuraman Panchanathan has a lot to celebrate this week as he marks his first anniversary as director of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). President Joe Biden has asked Congress to boost its current $8.5 billion budget by 20% in 2022, and a bipartisan majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives has embraced the idea of making NSF the lead agency in a massive increase in federal research spending aimed at helping the United States outinnovate the rest of the world. Lawmakers also want to give NSF a new multibillion-dollar directorate tasked with developing new technologies. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/06/speed-and-scale-one-year-job-nsf-s-director-prepares-massive-budget-growth
6/21/21: Trump Election Pressure Caused Senior Justice Official to Weigh Resigning (Wall Street Journal) John Demers led the Justice Department’s national security division as it focused on threats of Chinese espionage and influence…Mr. Demers oversaw the department’s “China Initiative” begun in 2018 to thwart a range of what he and other officials often described as the Chinese government’s malign activities, including spying, cyberattacks and stealing intellectual property. As part of it, investigators looked at researchers from China with military connections and scientists in the U.S. receiving Chinese government support, to try to prevent the transfer of proprietary information….Mr. Demers gives an A- grade to the initiative….Some cases targeted tenured professors in the U.S. who are accused of concealing their China work when applying for taxpayer-funded grants for research in America. Lawyers for some of those professors and activists accuse prosecutors of turning paperwork errors into criminal offenses. https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-election-pressure-caused-senior-justice-official-to-weigh-resigning-11624305817