While summer is traditionally a slow season for higher education, the last few months were anything but that for Rice's Government Relations department.
In Washington, a massive budget reconciliation bill prioritizing the administration's domestic policy agenda included issues critical to our sector--chiefly modifications to the private university endowment tax and numerous student financial aid programs. On these and other critical issues, much of the summer was spent in our nation's capital, fighting for policies that support Rice's ability to provide increased access and affordability to more students while conducting world-leading research.
In Austin, the 89th Legislative Session ended June 2 with several Rice priorities passing. Chief among them, Proposition 14 will be on Texas' Nov. 4 ballot and, if approved, it will allocate $3 billion over 10 years for dementia and brain research, making Texas the largest state funder of such research. In addition, Gov. Abbott has called two special legislative sessions addressing several issues, including flash flood response, relief and mitigation, on which Rice expertise was requested. Other special session issues we are monitoring include congressional redistricting and THC product regulation.