Federal News Network: NDAA compromise gives NARA $60M to address veteran records backlog. “The compromise House and Senate lawmakers reached Tuesday night on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) would give NARA $60 million to address the backlog of veterans’ requests for military service records at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis.”
Gizmodo: New Pentagon Budget Could Force the Military to Disclose When it Buys Americans’ Location Data. “The House of Representatives approved changes to next year’s military budget requiring the Department of Defense to start disclosing any purchases of smartphone or web browsing data for which a warrant would ordinarily be required last month.”
University of New Hampshire: New Mobile App from Carsey School Allows for Easy Exploration of Federal Government Spending. “Curious how much U.S. government spending goes toward the military, health care, or education? Want more information on how the federal budget breaks down and the programs funded by it? The newly released FedGovSpendTM Explorer App, available from the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire, offers a user-friendly interface that does exactly that – allows you to easily navigate U.S. federal spending by purpose and spending type. The app is available for free from the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.”
Washington Post: Shutdown deadline nears as White House, Congress tangle over VA funding. “The Trump administration is injecting new demands into congressional negotiations over a government spending bill that threaten to sink the must-pass package, people familiar with the discussions said. The disagreement concerns how to classify $12.5 billion in cost increases in veterans’ health care, expenses that are part of veterans’ care changes signed into law by President Trump in 2018 with much fanfare.”
Institute of Museum and Library Services: IMLS Statement on the President’s FY 2021 Budget Proposal. “Today, the Trump Administration released details from its budget request to Congress for FY 2021. The White House has requested $23 million in funding for the orderly closure of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, effective October 1, 2020.”
TechCrunch: Trump Administration slashes basic science research while boosting space, AI and quantum tech funding. “The new fiscal year 2021 budget proposal from the Trump Administration would increase funding for research and development by $142 billion over the Administration’s previous year’s budget, but will still reduce overall spending for science and technology from alternative proposals coming from the U.S. House of Representatives. Basic science funding would be hard hit under the Trump Administration priorities.”
Bloomberg Government: Federal Spending Site Still Lacks Data After Revamp, Report Says. “A new version of the Treasury Department-run USAspending.gov, officially launched March 2, was designed to remedy missing or faulty information on federal contract awards and executive compensation. The site was re-launched under the DATA Act, the law passed in 2014 to make federal expenditures more transparent. Yet eight of the 97 agencies the website tracks are late in reporting DATA Act spending information—including the Defense Department, which is almost a year behind in its submissions, according to a June 28 letter from the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington-based nonpartisan, independent government watchdog. Other government programs have submitted very few spending records or none, according to the group.”
FedScoop: Inspectors general unveil new website for reports from across government. “The investigative work of inspectors general from across the federal government can now be found in a single digital location. … The website, launched officially Monday, features audits, investigations, evaluations and special reviews from the IGs of 67 agencies and includes more than 5,800 previously released reports.”
Task & Purpose: This Massive Veteran Health Project Just Became The Largest DNA Database In The World. Now Its Future Is Uncertain. “The Million Veteran Program was designated the largest genomic database in the world when it reached 500,000 participants last August. Project leaders plan to use the information to research conditions such as diabetes, cancer, Gulf War illness, heart disease, kidney disease, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. But the project could face an uncertain future based on President Donald Trump’s proposed 2018 VA budget, veterans with the American Legion said.”
The New York Times: Steve Ballmer Serves Up a Fascinating Data Trove. “On Tuesday, Mr. Ballmer plans to make public a database and a report that he and a small army of economists, professors and other professionals have been assembling as part of a stealth start-up over the last three years called USAFacts. The database is perhaps the first nonpartisan effort to create a fully integrated look at revenue and spending across federal, state and local governments.”
Techdirt: Another Major Scandal At The Copyright Office: $25 Million ‘Fake Budget’ Line Item. “In the recent markup for a bill in the House Judiciary Committee that would make change the Copyright Register position to be a Presidential appointment, rather than by the Librarian of Congress, Rep. Zoe Lofgren revealed that Pallante had apparently put in place a fake $25 million budget line item, asking the Librarian of Congress to testify under oath what it was for, despite it being made up.”
The ResearchBuzz Firehose is regular RB content presented as individual posts.
For digest-type posts a couple of times a day, please visit ResearchBuzz.
Want to know how to best use the Firehose for content discovery?
Check out this handy article.