Congressional Mail

Letter from UC President James B. Milliken 

Re: Slow Spend Rate of Federal Scientific Agencies 

UC Office of the President, July 29, 2026

California Congressional Delegation

Dear Members of Congress:

On behalf of the University of California (UC) — a system of over 300,000 students, 266,000 faculty and staff, and 2.5 million alumni across ten campuses and six academic health centers — I write to express my deep concern regarding the significant slow spend rate of the federal science agencies.

The federal government’s partnership with UC has always been essential to America’s unmatched leadership in science and innovation, and today the significance of our work together is more important than ever. Reliable federal investment is essential to sustain American innovation in science and technology, train the students who will become the country’s future workforce, retain and attract researchers who are working on our country’s complex challenges and support the patients whose lives depend on this partnership. Federal investments in research have helped make UC America’s leading public research university while generating discoveries, technologies, medical advances, and economic growth that benefit the entire nation.

Unfortunately, UC’s status as the national leader in research, and America’s position as a global research powerhouse, are increasingly at risk. Across multiple agencies — and most notably at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) — funding decisions, award processing, competitive renewals, and the release of new funding opportunities appear to be proceeding at a substantially slower pace than historical norms. At NIH, as of July 13, the agency’s new award rate is 22% below pace relative to typical rates in past years. At NSF, as of July 13, the agency’s new award rate is 39% below pace relative to typical rates in past years. While NIH’s rate is improving, the pace continues to have a detrimental impact on UC and the biomedical research community’s efforts to develop new cures and vaccines to address diseases.

As a top recipient of both NIH and NSF funding, UC’s researchers and graduate students are disproportionately affected by these delays. But the consequences extend well beyond universities. Delays in federal research funding affect the economy, biomedical advances, technology commercialization, national security research, and partnerships between academia and industry. Our campuses are already experiencing the consequences of the slow spend rate. Some examples of impacts reported by some UC campuses include:

Significant delays in new awards, funding for recompetes and new research opportunities from NSF and NIH. These delays are forcing a systemwide reduction in facilities and administration costs, which support the broader research ecosystem. 

Effectively freezing the hiring of new postdoctoral and graduate students, limiting job and economic growth and reducing our ability to train the next generation of scientists. Federal grant funding supports both advanced education and the development of the skillsets needed as part of the future STEM workforce. 

Delays in onboarding faculty, staff, postdoctoral scholars and graduate students, which are disrupting workforce continuity and making it more difficult to recruit and retain top talent. 

Weakening university and industry research partnerships, which are critical to developing new technologies and supporting the future STEM workforce pipeline. 

Strain on critical scientific infrastructure, which depends on stable and predictable funding to maintain research capacity and operational readiness.

If not addressed in the immediate future, the slow spend rate will detrimentally impact our ability to lead the nation and the world in scientific research. I respectfully ask that you use every mechanism available to ensure that the science agencies are implementing enacted appropriations consistent with congressional intent and processing awards, renewals, and funding opportunities in a timely manner.

Please let me know if you have any questions, or if there is anything the University can do to assist with your efforts. We appreciate your long-standing support.

Sincerely,

James B. Milliken

President

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Source: https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/letter-uc-president-james-b-milliken-re-slow-spend-rate-federal-scientific-agencies.

Today Behind Closed Doors, The Regents Will Discuss The Problem

TO THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA:

Because the membership of the Advisory Group on Research and Programs Funding Legal Issues (“Advisory Group”) includes five members of the Regents’ Governance Committee, Compliance and Audit Committee, Finance and Capital Strategies Committee, Health Services Committee, Investments Committee, National Laboratories Committee, and the Public Engagement and Development Committee there exists the potential for having present a quorum of a Regents’ Committee when the advisory committee meets.

This notice of meeting is served in order to comply fully with pertinent open meeting laws.

On Tuesday, August 11, 2026, there will be a Closed Session, Special Meeting of the Regents’ Committees concurrent with the Advisory Group to discuss Research and Programs Funding Legal Issues (Closed Session Statute Citation: Litigation [Education Code section 92032(b)(5)].)

The meeting will convene at 4:00 p.m. at 1111 Franklin Street, Oakland and adjourn at approximately 5:00 p.m.

(Advisory Group members: Regents Anguiano, Chu, Cohen, Hernandez, Makarechian, Matosantos, Milliken, Reilly, Robinson, Sarris, and Sures)

Source: https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/aug26/meeting-notice_federal-august-11-2026.pdf.

Yale Deal - Part 10

From the Yale Daily News: University President Maurie McInnis failed to assure student leaders that Yale wouldn’t use students’ rights as bargaining chips in its talks with the Trump administration, said four undergraduate and graduate leaders who met with McInnis... The leaders criticized McInnis’ lack of transparency about the talks and the Yale administration’s refusal to make explicit commitments about international students, diversity programs and transgender students. McInnis also dismissed that Yale’s negotiations would mirror the deals peer institutions have made with the Trump administration in areas outside of admissions, one attendee said.

...An information page about the Department of Justice negotiations that was recently posted on the University president’s website notes that a deal would not compromise Yale’s independence, academic freedom or its responsibilities to students, faculty and staff...

Full story at https://yaledailynews.com/articles/student-leaders-say-mcinnis-meeting-left-them-unassured-on-trump-talks.

Straws in the Wind - Part 430 (athletics)

From the US Government Accountability Office (GAO): Intercollegiate athletics at four-year colleges in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) are organized into divisions, subdivisions, and conferences. Division I (DI) colleges compete at the highest level and can offer students full athletics scholarships. Division II (DII) colleges typically offer partial athletics scholarships. In both divisions, expenses for most athletic programs were greater than the revenue they generated, according to GAO’s analysis of NCAA data for the 2014–15 and 2023–24 academic years.

In the 2023–24 academic year, the 352 DI colleges reported spending a total of $20.8 billion on athletics, which largely went to team and game expenses (including travel, equipment, and medical expenses), coach and support staff compensation, and athletics scholarships. The 69 “Power” colleges in the most competitive DI conferences accounted for more than half of this spending. To help cover athletics expenses, DI college athletics programs generated $13.1 billion in revenue during the 2023–24 academic year. Power colleges generated $10 billion of this total amount, primarily through the sale of media rights to broadcast games, game day revenue (including ticket sales), and donations.

Across DI colleges, 94 percent of athletics programs, including 49 of the 69 Power colleges, spent more than they generated in revenue in the 2023–24 academic year. The median college reported a gap of $20.6 million. This gap was larger than the median a decade earlier ($12.3 million). Over this period, spending increased more than generated revenue in all DI subdivisions. As generated revenue generally did not cover program expenses, most DI colleges reported contributing substantial funding to support athletics programs. Colleges contributed a total of $7.2 billion in the 2023–24 academic year. These college contributions are funded by tuition and fees paid by students, as well as other unrestricted funds from the college, such as income from investments. College contributions indirectly include federal funds students receive in federal student aid to pay their tuition and fees...

All DII athletics programs spent more than the revenue they generated in the 2023–24 academic year. Combined, they spent $2.7 billion that year. To help cover this spending, they generated $0.4 billion and received $2.3 billion in college contributions...

Full report at https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-26-108640.

Chinese Gifts

From the Daily Californian: UC Berkeley is disputing a claim from the U.S. Department of Education that it had received $224.5 million in gifts and contracts from Chinese sources over the past 25 years. The Education Department published a dashboard earlier this year tracking Section 117 reports of foreign funding from “countries of concern,” including China.

UC Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof said in an email that campus believes the data in the Education Department’s dashboard “(does) not provide an accurate reflection of our current international academic partnerships.” Mogulof added that campus is currently evaluating the department’s data against its internal records. UC Berkeley submitted its biannual Section 117-compliant report of foreign funding last week, reporting no contracts and $4.5 million in gifts from Chinese sources, according to Mogulof...

U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon released a letter Monday asking every postsecondary institution in the country to address a series of questions, including how universities will protect their academic programs from foreign influence...

Full story at https://www.dailycal.org/news/campus/uc-berkeley-disputes-224m-chinese-funding-claim-by-department-of-education/article_6fede9b5-68e0-417f-9da1-3485b31049da.html.

If it's from the Big Ten, UCLA went along - Part 2

On August 3, we noted that the Big Ten, the athletic conference to which UCLA belongs, had signed off on a bill in the US Senate that would regulate NIL payments and other compensation elements for college athletes. Since the Big Ten made the endorsement, presumably UCLA went along.

The "NIL Bill" is now apparently hung up in the Senate. From The Hill:

Senate Republicans say getting consent to move forward on the Protect College Sports Act, a bipartisan bill to set rules for compensating and recruiting college athletes, is holding up a broader deal on funding the government, confirming Todd Blanche as attorney general and starting the five-week Senate recess. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) told GOP colleagues at a lunch meeting [last] Friday that he views the college sports bill — which has been dubbed the “NIL bill” because it would set standards for using athletes’ name, image and likeness — as the “chokepoint” for getting a deal done to fund the government and start the August recess, according to a source familiar with the internal meeting.

A senior Senate GOP aide confirmed there’s agreement on voting on everything on Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s (R-S.D.) to-do list, but there are about 10 holds on the college sports bill. Senate GOP leaders circulated a “hotline” alert on Friday afternoon proposing votes to amend the continuing resolution funding government to strip out a controversial hemp-related provision, to pass the continuing resolution itself and to confirm Blanche as attorney general, as well as votes on a motion to proceed to the college sports bill. Under the proposed hotline, the Senate would then vote on the college sports bill itself if the motion to proceed to it is successful...

Full story at https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/6017663-senate-nil-bill-funding-blanche-recess/.

UC & Other Universities Support Harvard

From The Dartmouth: [Dartmouth] signed onto an amicus brief filed July 22 with the First Circuit Court of Appeals in support of Harvard University’s April lawsuit against the Trump Administration. Thirty-five other colleges and universities also signed the brief, including all Ivy League universities except Harvard. In the ongoing case, the Trump administration is appealing a September 2025 ruling in favor of Harvard after the administration froze $2.2 billion in federal grants because the university refused to comply with federal demands to make institutional changes such as reforming admissions and hiring practices, shutting down diversity, equity and inclusion practices and addressing antisemitism “or other bias” in campus programs. 

The brief argues that “even temporary cuts” to federal research funding could have “permanent effects” which “endangers” the “life-changing and history-altering innovations” that arise from “basic research” conducted at colleges and universities... Amici institutions listed advancements in “scientific progress” made possible by federal funding — such as the computer, DNA sequencing, the pacemaker and the “decades-long collaboration among academia, government and industry” which produced the internet — as “enormous long-term benefits” of university research...

Full story at https://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2026/08/flavin-dartmouth-signs-brief-in-support-of-harvard-in-research-funding-lawsuit-against-trump-administration. 

List in image above and brief at:

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ca1.53667/gov.uscourts.ca1.53667.00108480602.0.pdf.