New awards recognize outstanding contributions to postsecondary access and student success across the state
Charleston, WV – The West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission is currently seeking nominations for the inaugural Higher Education Action and Impact Awards, a prestigious new recognition program honoring individuals and organizations that have made a meaningful difference in expanding college and career readiness in West Virginia.
“We are proud to launch the Higher Education Action and Impact Awards to recognize the outstanding work happening in higher education access across West Virginia,” said Dr. Sarah Armstrong Tucker, West Virginia’s Chancellor of Higher Education. “These awards will spotlight the innovative and dedicated individuals who are transforming lives and communities by helping students reach their college and career goals – and their biggest potential.”
As part of its inaugural year, the award program features six distinct award categories recognizing achievements across various education and leadership levels:
Dan Crockett Professional Leadership Award
Exemplary School Action and Impact Award – Elementary Level
Exemplary School Action and Impact Award – Middle School Level
Exemplary School Action and Impact Award – High School Level
Higher Education Action and Impact Award
Student Action and Impact Award
Educators, colleagues, administrators, students, and community members who have witnessed the nominee’s impact firsthand are encouraged to submit detailed nominations. Nominations should highlight clear examples of leadership, innovation, and impact, supported by qualitative and quantitative evidence of success. Submissions may include personal stories, program data, and testimonials showcasing how the nominee has influenced their school, community, policies, or programming.
For more information about the nomination process and award criteria, please visit https://www.wvhepc.edu/higher-education-action-and-impact-award/ or contact Emily Hammond at Emily.Hammond@wvhepc.edu.
Awards timeline:
April 30, 2025 at 11:59 pm EST: Nomination period closes
May 2025: Selection committee reviews and finalizes award recipients
July 2025: Award winners honored at the annual West Virginia Student Success Summit
Source: United States Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.)
Senators to Education Secretary: “We will not stand by as you attempt to turn back the clock on education in this country”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — As President Trump and Elon Musk attack public education in America by closing offices and laying off 1,300 workers at the Department of Education, Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.) joined 36 Democratic colleagues in expressing outrage at the Administration’s reckless and illegal firing of half of the workforce at the U.S. Department of Education, which will cripple America’s education system and impact students in California and across the country.
California’s public education system, supported by the Department of Education, is the largest in the country. There are about 10,000 public schools in California serving over 5.8 million students. If the Department is dismantled, the nearly $8 billion in federal funding that California receives annually to support low-income students, students with disabilities, and more could be at risk. California also has the most extensive higher education system in the nation, including the largest number of Pell Grant recipients who rely on Education Department staff to help them attend college. Abolishing the Department of Education would have devastating impacts on California schools, students, faculty, communities, and the economy.
“At a time of massive income and wealth inequality, when 60 percent of people live paycheck to paycheck, millions of Americans cannot afford higher education, and 40 percent of our nation’s 4th graders and 33 percent of 8th graders read below basic proficiency, it is a national disgrace that the Trump Administration is attempting to illegally abolish the Department of Education and thus, undermine a high-quality education for our students,” wrote the Senators.
The Senators noted that these layoffs and closures will have devastating effects on the nation’s students, including by limiting the Department’s ability to guarantee that federal funding reaches communities that rely on it, ensure students can access federal financial aid, and uphold students’ civil rights. Not even 24 hours after the staff reductions were announced, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) experienced a glitch that prevented students and families from accessing the application. Education Department workers responsible for fixing it had reportedly been fired.
“[The layoffs] would also mean decreased enforcement of rights for children with disabilities and fewer resources for students from low-income backgrounds and children with disabilities, like the 26 million students from low-income backgrounds and over 100,000 public schools in every community across this country that rely on Title I funding; the 7.5 million students with disabilities who benefit under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and the 7 million students who receive Pell grants to help access higher education,” continued the Senators.
“We will not stand by as you attempt to turn back the clock on education in this country through gutting the Department of Education,” concluded the Senators. “Our nation’s public schools, colleges, and universities are preparing the next generation of America’s leaders—we must take steps to strengthen education in this country, not take a wrecking ball to the agency that exists to do so.”
California, 19 other states, and Washington, D.C. have sued the Trump Administration for these reckless cuts and are pushing a federal judge to reinstate the 1,300 fired Education Department workers.
The letter to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon was led by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. In addition to Padilla, Schiff, and Sanders, the letter was also signed by Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
Last month, Senator Padilla blasted President Trump’s nomination of Linda McMahon to lead the Department of Education, underscoring the enormous threat the Trump Administration poses to the education of millions of students in California and across the country. Senator Padilla joined Senator Warren and his Senate colleagues in launching a probe into reports that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) infiltrated the Department of Education and gained access to federal student loan data, which includes millions of borrowers’ personal information. The Senators sent a follow-up letter raising concerns about the Department of Education’s “woefully inadequate,” “misleading” response to their inquiry.
Full text of the letter is available here and below:
Dear Secretary McMahon:
We write to express our outrage that you, President Trump, and unelected billionaire Elon Musk are taking steps to abolish the Department of Education (“the Department”) and eliminate educational opportunities for millions of students across the country, something that 61 percent of Americans oppose. This most recently includes a 50 percent cut to the workforce, resulting in the termination of over 1,300 workers at the Department of Education, as well as the abrupt, last minute closure of all Department of Education buildings beginning at 6:00 PM on the same day that these terminations were announced.
At a time of massive income and wealth inequality, when 60 percent of people live paycheck to paycheck, millions of Americans cannot afford higher education, and 40 percent of our nation’s 4th graders and 33 percent of 8th graders read below basic proficiency,3 it is a national disgrace that the Trump Administration is attempting to illegally abolish the Department of Education and thus, undermine a high-quality education for our students.
As Secretary of Education, you are the foremost public servant responsible for carrying out the Department of Education’s mission to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access. Despite that responsibility, your first act as Secretary was announcing it was your “final mission” to dismantle the Department of Education, fire the public servants who keep it running, and terminate opportunities for students in public schools, colleges, and universities across the country.
The false claims of financial savings by dismantling the Department of Education so that billionaires can receive huge tax breaks is bad public policy and morally reprehensible. The billionaires that are in charge of our federal government right now will not be harmed by these egregious attacks: wealthy families sending their children to elite, private schools will still be able to get a quality education even if every public school disappears in this country. But for working-class families, high-quality public education is an opportunity they rely on for their children to have a path to do well in life.
Defunding federal support for public education would result in either higher property taxes or decreased funding for public schools, including in rural areas. It would also mean decreased enforcement of rights for children with disabilities and fewer resources for students from low-income backgrounds and children with disabilities, like the 26 million students from low-income backgrounds and over 100,000 public schools in every community across this country that rely on Title I funding; the 7.5 million students with disabilities who benefit under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and the 7 million students who receive Pell grants to help access higher education.
It is undeniable that terminating 50 percent of the Department of Education’s workers will have harmful effects on public education in this country. The Department of Education already has the smallest staff of the 15 Cabinet agencies despite having the third largest discretionary budget, behind only the Departments of Defense and Health and Human Services. These reductions will have devastating impacts on our nation’s students and we are deeply concerned that without staff, the Department will be unable to fulfill critical functions, such as ensuring students can access federal financial aid, upholding students’ civil rights, and guaranteeing that federal funding reaches communities promptly and is well-spent. Not even 24 hours after the staff reductions were announced, the Free Application for Federal Financial Aid (FAFSA) experienced a glitch that prevented students and families from accessing the application, but the staff normally responsible for fixing those errors had reportedly been cut. The Department has also reportedly shuttered several regional offices responsible for investigating potential violations of students’ civil rights in local schools. We are deeply alarmed that cases will go uninvestigated and that students will be left in unsafe learning environments as a result.
The Trump Administration also says it wants to ‘return education back to the states.’ Let us be very clear—public education is already run by states and local school boards. While just 11 percent of public education is federally funded, the Department of Education has a necessary and irreplaceable responsibility to implement federal laws that ensure equal opportunity for all children in this country. These laws guarantee fundamental protections, such as ensuring that children with disabilities receive a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment, that students from low-income backgrounds and students of color will not be disproportionately taught by less experienced and qualified teachers, and that parents will receive information about their child’s academic achievement.
Without the Department of Education, there is no guarantee that states would uphold students’ civil and educational rights. Let us not forget that it was federal troops who protected the “Little Rock Nine” from a violent mob of segregationists when they integrated Central High School in the wake of the Brown v. Board U.S. Supreme Court decision. Not only was the state not going to provide this protection, but it was then-Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus who ordered the state’s National Guard to bar Black students from entering the school. Even today, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights regularly investigates and resolves complaints of student discrimination related to students’ race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability status.
We will not stand by as you attempt to turn back the clock on education in this country through gutting the Department of Education. Our nation’s public schools, colleges, and universities are preparing the next generation of America’s leaders—we must take steps to strengthen education in this country, not take a wrecking ball to the agency that exists to do so.
Sincerely,
The Commission promotes ‘learning to learn’ skills through the European Education Area.
The 2018 Council Recommendation on Key Competences[1] identifies ‘personal, social and learning to learn’ as one of the eight key areas.
To help Member States reach a common understanding, the Commission developed ‘LifeComp’[2], a framework for curriculum development and learning activities, accompanied by ‘LifeComp into action’[3], a teacher’s guide for implementing these skills.
The 2022 Pathways to School Success Council Recommendation[4] further emphasises the importance of cognitive, social, and emotional competences for academic and life success. It encourages Member States to develop comprehensive strategies focusing on school wellbeing. In 2024, the Commission released guidelines[5] for policy-makers and teachers on supporting wellbeing and mental health in schools.
The Commission is not considering proposing a free online course on metacognition for EU pupils as this falls directly under the responsibility of the Member States. However, the Commission supports teacher training and development through the European School Education Platform[6].
The Council Implementing Decision 2022/2056 (CID)[1] sets out measures to protect the EU budget from breaches of the principles of the rule of law in Hungary under the mechanism established by the Conditionality Regulation[2].
Under Article 2(2) of the CID no legal commitments shall be entered into with any public interest trust established on the basis of the Hungarian Act IX of 2021 or any entity maintained by such a public interest trust.
The CID stipulates in its Article 2 that the Commission (and the implementing bodies that it entrusts with budget implementation in indirect management such as the Erasmus+ National Agency in Hungary) cannot enter into legal commitments with these public interest trusts or entities maintained by them, as listed in the annex to this Act.
This list includes 25 higher education institutions where there is a risk of possible conflicts of interest in the boards of these trusts.
As regards the Modul University Vienna, an assessment of its ownership structure, carried out by the Erasmus+ National Agency in Austria on the basis of documentation provided by the university itself, concluded that since 12 May 2023 it is to be considered an entity maintained by Mathias Corvinus Collegium, a public interest trust listed in the annex to the Hungarian Act IX of 2021. Communication on this assessment was conducted exclusively with Modul University.
EU-funded projects, including under Erasmus+, managed by entities that are not concerned by the Hungarian Act IX of 2021, continue to be implemented.
Source: Switzerland – Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research
The Federal Government Expert Group on Business Cycles has slightly lowered its growth forecast for the Swiss economy. In 2025, GDP adjusted for sporting events is expected to grow by 1.4%, followed by 1.6% in 2026 (December forecasts: 1.5% and 1.7% respectively). [1] This would mean the Swiss economy would continue to grow below its historical average for another two years. These forecasts presuppose that there will be no escalating global trade war. In view of the considerable uncertainty, SECO has formulated two alternative scenarios to supplement the expert group’s forecast.
On March 19th, the Committee on Culture and Education will hold an exchange of views on the future of European University Alliances. The discussion will focus on plans to make the European University Alliances sustainable and strengthen them to enhance Europe’s global competitiveness and innovation and touch upon the European Degree.
The Key speakers will be Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Prof. Szeptycki for the Polish Presidency and Ms. Susanne Conze from the European Commission.
Source: Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington
A survey of early intervention services for people suffering from psychosis has found medical care is not being provided early enough, with many patients not seen until after they have been hospitalised. Researchers say these shortfalls are linked to a lack of resources.
“A key purpose of early intervention is to provide care before a person’s condition worsens and they need hospital treatment. However, we found the ‘early’ part of early psychosis care is significantly lacking in New Zealand,” said Dr Rebecca Grattan, lead author of the study and a psychology lecturer at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington.
The study surveyed all 12 early intervention psychosis services in New Zealand, assessing them against international standards for care. These services were set up to provide treatment for people suffering from psychosis symptoms, such as hallucinations and delusions, in the first two years of symptoms occurring.
“One of the accepted international standards for early psychosis care is that at least 80 percent of patients are seen before their symptoms are so severe they end up in hospital. However, just one of the 12 services we surveyed was able to meet this standard,” said Dr Grattan.
The study also found most services restricted access by setting age limits for treatment.
“Age limits for care differed across the services. The lower end of the age range varied from 13 to 18 years and the upper end from 25 to 30 years. While younger people are more at risk of psychosis, people in older age groups can also experience symptoms. Age restrictions mean there will be at-risk people who won’t be eligible to receive care.”
A lack of services in some areas, particularly rural areas, was also identified by the study.
“Some areas don’t have a dedicated early intervention psychosis service. This is more likely to affect people living in rural areas, including rural areas with a high Māori population, which are not well-served.”
When early intervention services can be accessed, the survey results suggest the care patients receive is comparable to that in Canada and California where similar studies have been done, said Dr Grattan.
“Services in New Zealand appear to be meeting many of the standards considered to be best practice, such as completing comprehensive initial assessments and providing care for up to two years. The big problem they face is having the resources to provide care early enough to everyone who needs it,” she said.
Results of the study have been published in the journal Early Intervention in Psychiatry. The study was carried out from 2022 to 2024.
After landing on the Moon with NASA science and technology demonstrations March 2, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 concluded its mission March 16. Analysis of data returned to Earth from the NASA instruments continues, benefitting future lunar missions. As part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign, Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander delivered 10 NASA science and technology instruments to the Mare Crisium basin on the near side of the Moon. During the mission, Blue Ghost captured several images and videos, including imaging a total solar eclipse and a sunset from the surface of the Moon. The mission lasted for about 14 days, or the equivalent of one lunar day, and multiple hours into the lunar night before coming to an end. “Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 marks the longest surface duration commercial mission on the Moon to date, collecting extraordinary science data that will benefit humanity for decades to come,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “With NASA’s CLPS initiative, American companies are now at the forefront of an emerging lunar economy that lights the way for the agency’s exploration goals on the Moon and beyond.” All 10 NASA payloads successfully activated, collected data, and performed operations on the Moon. Throughout the mission, Blue Ghost transmitted 119 gigabytes of data back to Earth, including 51 gigabytes of science and technology data. In addition, all payloads were afforded additional opportunities to conduct science and gather more data for analysis, including during the eclipse and lunar sunset. “Operating on the Moon is complex; carrying 10 payloads, more than has ever flown on a CLPS delivery before, makes the mission that much more impressive,” said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters. “Teams are eagerly analyzing their data, and we are extremely excited for the expected scientific findings that will be gained from this mission.” Among other achievements, many of the NASA instruments performed first-of-their-kind science and technology demonstrations, including:
The Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity is now the deepest robotic planetary subsurface thermal probe, drilling up to 3 feet and providing a first-of-its kind demonstration of robotic thermal measurements at varying depths. The Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment acquired and tracked Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) signals, from satellite networks such as GPS and Galileo, for the first time enroute to and on the Moon’s surface. The LuGRE payload’s record-breaking success indicates that GNSS signals could complement other navigation methods and be used to support future Artemis missions. It also acts as a stepping stone to future navigation systems on Mars. The Radiation Tolerant Computer successfully operated in transit through Earth’s Van Allen belts, as well as on the lunar surface into the lunar night, verifying solutions to mitigate radiation effects on computers that could make future missions safer for equipment and more cost effective. The Electrodynamic Dust Shield successfully lifted and removed lunar soil, or regolith, from surfaces using electrodynamic forces, demonstrating a promising solution for dust mitigation on future lunar and interplanetary surface operations. The Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder successfully deployed five sensors to study the Moon’s interior by measuring electric and magnetic fields. The instrument allows scientists to characterize the interior of the Moon to depths up to 700 miles, or more than half the distance to the Moon’s center. The Lunar Environment heliospheric X-ray Imager captured a series of X-ray images to study the interaction of the solar wind and Earth’s magnetic field, providing insights into how space weather and other cosmic forces surrounding Earth affect the planet. The Next Generation Lunar Retroreflector successfully reflected and returned laser light from two Lunar Laser Ranging Observatories, returning measurements allowing scientists to precisely measure the Moon’s shape and distance from Earth, expanding our understanding of the Moon’s inner structure. The Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies instrument captured about 9,000 images during the spacecraft’s lunar descent and touchdown on the Moon, providing insights into the effects engine plumes have on the surface. The payload also operated during the lunar sunset and into the lunar night. The Lunar PlanetVac was deployed on the lander’s surface access arm and successfully collected, transferred, and sorted lunar soil using pressurized nitrogen gas, demonstrating a low-cost, low-mass solution for future robotic sample collection. The Regolith Adherence Characterization instrument examined how lunar regolith sticks to a range of materials exposed to the Moon’s environment, which can help test, improve, and protect spacecraft, spacesuits, and habitats from abrasive lunar dust or regolith.
The data captured will benefit humanity in many ways, providing insights into how space weather and other cosmic forces may impact Earth. Establishing an improved awareness of the lunar environment ahead of future crewed missions will help plan for long-duration surface operations under Artemis. To date, five vendors have been awarded 11 lunar deliveries under CLPS and are sending more than 50 instruments to various locations on the Moon, including the lunar South Pole and far side. Learn more about NASA’s CLPS initiative at: https://www.nasa.gov/clps -end- Alise Fisher Headquarters, Washington202-617-4977alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov Natalia Riusech / Nilufar RamjiJohnson Space Center, Houston281-483-5111nataila.s.riusech@nasa.gov / nilufar.ramji@nasa.gov Antonia JaramilloKennedy Space Center, Florida321-501-8425antonia.jaramillobotero@nasa.gov
Media are invited to meet leaders in the space community during the 62nd annual Goddard Space Science Symposium, taking place from Wednesday, March 19, to Friday, March 21, at Martin’s Crosswinds in Greenbelt, Maryland. The symposium will also be streamed online. Hosted by the American Astronautical Society (AAS) in conjunction with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, the symposium examines the current state and future of space science and space exploration at large by convening leading minds across NASA, other government agencies, policy, academia, and industry – collectively navigating a path forward by identifying the opportunities and challenges ahead. This year’s theme, “Pathways and Partnerships for U.S. Leadership in Earth and Space Science,” highlights the evolving collaborative landscape between the public and private sectors, as well as how it is helping the United States remain and grow as a leading space power. “Earth and space science are complex by nature, with a growing list of public and private enterprises carving out their space,” said Christa Peters-Lidard, co-chair of the symposium planning committee and Goddard’s director of sciences and exploration. “It’s an exciting time as we work to determine the future trajectory of space exploration in this new era, and the Goddard Space Science Symposium is an instrumental tool for gathering the insights of leading experts across a broad spectrum.” AAS President Ron Birk and Goddard Deputy Center Director Cynthia Simmons will deliver the symposium’s opening remarks on March 19, followed by panels on enabling science and exploration from the Moon to Mars and navigating space science and exploration policy. Greg Autry, associate provost for space commercialization and strategy at the University of Central Florida, will deliver the keynote address. The first day will conclude with an industry night reception. The second day of the symposium on Thursday, March 20, will feature panels on enhancing U.S. economic leadership through science, the Habitable Worlds Observatory, and the confluence of public science and the private sector. Gillian Bussey, deputy chief science officer for the U.S. Space Force, will serve as the luncheon speaker. Panels on the third and final day, March 21, will discuss integrating multi-sector data to advance Earth and space science, the Heliophysics Decadal Survey, and the space weather enterprise. Mark Clampin, acting deputy associate administrator for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, will provide the luncheon address. Media interested in arranging interviews with NASA speakers should contact Jacob Richmond, Goddard acting news chief. For more information on the Goddard Space Science Symposium and the updated program, or to register as a media representative, visit https://astronautical.org/events/goddard. For more information on NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, visit https://www.nasa.gov/goddard. Media Contact:Jacob RichmondNASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Astrophysics observations at ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths often probe the most dynamic aspects of the universe. However, the high energy of ultraviolet photons means that their interaction with the materials that make up an observing instrument are less efficient, resulting in low overall throughput. New approaches in the development of thin film coatings are addressing this shortcoming by engineering the coatings of instrument structures at the atomic scale. Researchers at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) are employing atomic layer deposition (ALD) and atomic layer etching (ALE) to enable new coating technologies for instruments measuring ultraviolet light. Conventional optical coatings largely rely on physical vapor deposition (PVD) methods like evaporation, where the coating layer is formed by vaporizing the source material and then condensing it onto the intended substrate. In contrast, ALD and ALE rely on a cyclic series of self-limiting chemical reactions that result in the deposition (or removal) of material one atomic layer at a time. This self-limiting characteristic results in a coating or etchings that are conformal over arbitrary shapes with precisely controlled layer thickness determined by the number of ALD or ALE cycles performed. The ALD and ALE techniques are common in the semiconductor industry where they are used to fabricate high-performance transistors. Their use as an optical coating method is less common, particularly at ultraviolet wavelengths where the choice of optical coating material is largely restricted to metal fluorides instead of more common metal oxides, due to the larger optical band energy of fluoride materials, which minimizes absorption losses in the coatings. Using an approach based on co-reaction with hydrogen fluoride, the team at JPL has developed a variety of fluoride-based ALD and ALE processes.
In addition to these metal-fluoride materials, layers of aluminum are often used to construct structures like reflective mirrors and bandpass filters for instruments operating in the UV. Although aluminum has high intrinsic UV reflectance, it also readily forms a surface oxide that strongly absorbs UV light. The role of the metal fluoride coating is then to protect the aluminum surface from oxidation while maintaining enough transparency to create a mirror with high reflectance. The use of ALD in this context has initially been pursued in the development of telescope optics for two SmallSat astrophysics missions that will operate in the UV: the Supernova remnants and Proxies for ReIonization Testbed Experiment (SPRITE) CubeSat mission led by Brian Fleming at the University of Colorado Boulder, and the Aspera mission led by Carlos Vargas at the University of Arizona. The mirrors for SPRITE and Aspera have reflective coatings that utilize aluminum protected by lithium fluoride using a novel PVD processes developed at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and an additional very thin top coating of magnesium fluoride deposited via ALD.
The use of lithium fluoride enables SPRITE and Aspera to “see” further into the UV than other missions like NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, which uses only magnesium fluoride to protect its aluminum mirror surfaces. However, a drawback of lithium fluoride is its sensitivity to moisture, which in some cases can cause the performance of these mirror coatings to degrade on the ground prior to launch. To circumvent this issue, very thin layers (~1.5 nanometers) of magnesium fluoride were deposited by ALD on top of the lithium fluoride on the SPRITE and Aspera mirrors. The magnesium fluoride layers are thin enough to not strongly impact the performance of the mirror at the shortest wavelengths, but thick enough to enhance the stability against humidity during ground phases of the missions. Similar approaches are being considered for the mirror coatings of the future NASA flagship Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). Multilayer structures of aluminum and metal fluorides can also function as bandpass filters (filters that allow only signals within a selected range of wavelengths to pass through to be recorded) in the UV. Here, ALD is an attractive option due to the inherent repeatability and precise thickness control of the process. There is currently no suitable ALD process to deposit aluminum, and so additional work by the JPL team has explored the development of a custom vacuum coating chamber that combines the PVD aluminum and ALD fluoride processes described above. This system has been used to develop UV bandpass filters that can be deposited directly onto imaging sensors like silicon (Si) CCDs. These coatings can enable such sensors to operate with high UV efficiency, but low sensitivity to longer wavelength visible photons that would otherwise add background noise to the UV observations. Structures composed of multilayer aluminum and metal fluoride coatings have recently been delivered as part of a UV camera to the Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat (SPARCS) mission led by Evgenya Shkolnik at Arizona State University. The JPL-developed camera incorporates a delta-doped Si CCD with the ALD/PVD filter coating on the far ultraviolet channel, yielding a sensor with high efficiency in a band centered near 160 nm with low response to out-of-band light.
Next, the JPL team that developed these coating processes plans to focus on implementing a similar bandpass filter on an array of larger-format Si Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) sensors for the recently selected NASA Medium-Class Explorer (MIDEX) UltraViolet EXplorer (UVEX) mission led by Fiona Harrison at the California Institute of Technology, which is targeted to launch in the early 2030s. For additional details, see the entry for this project on NASA TechPort Project Lead: Dr. John Hennessy, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
Headline: Verizon Business launches industry-first GenAI Assistant for small businesses
What you need to know:
Verizon Business Assistant is an easy-to-deploy solution that small businesses can start using immediately to free up time and answer customer questions via text 24/7.
Small businesses now have the same opportunity to leverage AI as global enterprises to automate and enhance their customer interactions with a generative AI assistant
Small business owners want to make their businesses more efficient through technology, and better connect with new and existing customers, according to Verizon Business’ fifth Annual State of Small Business Report
NEW YORK — Small businesses can now harness the power of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) to supercharge their operations. The newest product built directly for small businesses, Verizon Business Assistant is a GenAI-powered text messaging solution designed to help small businesses automate customer interactions and enhance engagement. Business Assistant provides instant text responses to commonly asked questions, learns and improves over time, and enables businesses to offer faster and more efficient customer service.
How it works:
If a customer texts a bakery to ask about gluten-free options, Business Assistant can instantly respond using GenAI. If it doesn’t yet have the answer, it will then connect to a live employee for assistance. The best part is that it learns from interactions, building a knowledge base that improves over time. Ultimately, Business Assistant reduces the need for human intervention, allowing employees to focus on higher-value tasks while ensuring customers get fast, accurate responses.
“Small business owners are constantly juggling multiple responsibilities, and want to use technology to improve operations and better connect with their customers,” said Iris Meijer, Chief Product & Marketing Officer, Verizon Business. “Yet access to that technology and AI tools that work for small businesses can be a challenge, which is where we want to help champion them. Verizon Business Assistant is one example of a solution we’re rolling out to support small business owners. It also addresses an increasing customer demand – particularly from younger generations – for easy digital tools to communicate with businesses on simple matters. This allows small business owners to focus on growing their business while ensuring their customers feel valued and connected to the business.”
Business Assistant is ideal for small business owners looking to:
Save time by automating responses to common questions, freeing up time for other tasks.
Serve more customers efficiently with the ability to automatically respond to inquiries via text message 24/7.
Enhance customer engagement by providing a fast, convenient, and preferred communication channel.
Gain insights into customer needs and preferences through interaction data.
Key features include:
Automated Responses: Provides immediate answers to common customer inquiries, freeing up valuable time for business owners and employees.
Live Team Member Handoff: Transitions complex inquiries to a live team member for a personalized experience.
Continuous Learning: Expands its knowledge base over time, improving accuracy with more interactions.
Text Messaging (SMS/MMS): Uses a familiar and convenient channel for easy communication between businesses and customers.
Insights Dashboard: Gives business owners valuable data on customer trends and engagement patterns.
Easy to set up: The setup is straightforward, easily integrates with existing Verizon mobile devices, and requires no new hardware or software.
Customizable: Gives business owners the power to choose how it is trained and what answers are desired for any potential question.
For more ways Verizon Business supports small businesses, visit Small Business Solutions.
BOSTON, March 18, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — QuEra Computing, the leader in neutral-atom quantum computing, today announced its role as a founding collaborator in the newly established NVIDIA Accelerated Quantum Research Center (NVAQC), located in Boston, MA. This center will bring together industry leaders, academic institutions, and quantum innovators to harness the power of NVIDIA’s cutting-edge GPU supercomputing technologies for the next generation of quantum computing research and development.
As part of this collaboration, QuEra will participate in research using a NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 connected and scaled with NVIDIA Quantum-2 InfiniBand networking—an unprecedented resource for quantum computing teams. This system offers NVIDIA AI superchips not previously available for quantum computing work, enabling QuEra and other NVAQC partners to explore groundbreaking avenues in hybrid quantum-classical computing and accelerate crucial advances in quantum error correction, hardware development, and novel application discovery.
“We are thrilled to be among the founding collaborators of the NVAQC,” said Andy Ory, CEO, QuEra. “By combining NVIDIA’s remarkable accelerated computing capabilities with our leadership in quantum technologies, we’re able to collaboratively tackle critical scaling challenges, rapidly iterate on simulations for our hardware and push the boundaries of quantum circuit design.”
Collaborating at the NVAQC will accelerate QuEra’s roadmap through:
1. State-of-the-Art AI Supercomputing
The NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 Grace Blackwell supercomputer provides a high-performance computing environment not typically accessible to quantum researchers. This system will drive a new era of quantum research by enabling high-fidelity simulations, accelerating algorithm development, and supporting faster prototyping cycles.
2. Advancing Quantum Error Correction
As a critical milestone for large-scale quantum computing, quantum error correction requires extensive computational support. The NVAQC will serve as a robust testbed for tackling the complex scaling and performance challenges involved in error correction protocols.
3. Rapid Iteration for Quantum Computing Simulations
With unparalleled hardware resources and NVIDIA’s advanced CUDA-Q development platform, the NVAQC allows for quick and thorough dynamical simulations for hardware development and circuit-level testing. This accelerated workflow significantly reduces the time from conceptual design to proof-of-concept.
4. Building on DGX Quantum for Accelerated Quantum Supercomputers
Through the NVAQC, partners can build on NVIDIA’s DGX Quantum reference architecture to develop, test, and optimize the integrations between classical and quantum hardware needed for the next generation of accelerated quantum supercomputers.
5. Harnessing AI for Quantum Breakthroughs
Partners will benefit from NVIDIA’s deep AI expertise and advanced AI hardware to propel quantum computing forward. By leveraging state-of-the-art AI models, researchers can more effectively investigate complex quantum phenomena, optimize algorithms, and devise novel solutions.
“Progress towards useful quantum computing will come by integration.”, said Tim Costa, senior director of CAE, Quantum and CUDA-X at NVIDIA. “The NVAQC will advance quantum computing by working with expertise from collaborators such as QuEra.”
About QuEra
QuEra Computing is the leader in developing and productizing quantum computers using neutral atoms, widely recognized as a highly promising quantum computing modality. Based in Boston and built on pioneering research from Harvard University and MIT, QuEra operates the world’s largest publicly accessible quantum computer, available over a major public cloud and for on-premises delivery. QuEra is developing useful, scalable and fault-tolerant quantum computers to tackle classically intractable problems, becoming the partner of choice in the quantum field. Simply put, QuEra is the best way to quantum. For more information, visit us at quera.com and follow us on X or LinkedIn.
FREMONT, Calif., March 18, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — ACM Research, Inc. (“ACM”) (NASDAQ: ACMR), a leading supplier of wafer processing solutions for semiconductor and advanced packaging applications, today announced the appointment of Charlie Pappis to its Board of Directors, effective March 15, 2025. With the addition of Mr. Pappis, ACM’s Board of Directors now comprises five members, further strengthening its leadership and expertise as the company executes its long-term growth strategy.
“We are thrilled to welcome Mr. Pappis to our Board of Directors,” said Dr. David Wang, President and Chief Executive Officer of ACM. “His deep industry knowledge, proven leadership in scaling global operations, and commitment to customer-driven innovation align perfectly with ACM’s mission to become a key supplier of capital equipment to major global semiconductor companies. His insights will be invaluable as we increase our investments and business expansion in the U.S. to support our growth initiatives to new markets beyond mainland China.”
Charlie Pappis is a semiconductor industry veteran with more than 40 years of leadership experience in global operations, customer engagement, and business growth. He currently serves as President of Pappis Consulting, advising semiconductor equipment and supply chain companies. Previously, he spent more than 30 years at a major global U.S.-based semiconductor equipment company, where he held key executive level leadership roles. Mr. Pappis holds a Bachelor of Science in Materials Science from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and an Executive MBA from Stanford University.
About ACM Research, Inc.
ACM develops, manufactures and sells semiconductor process equipment spanning cleaning, electroplating, stress-free polishing, vertical furnace processes, track, PECVD, and wafer- and panel-level packaging tools, enabling advanced and semi-critical semiconductor device manufacturing. ACM is committed to delivering customized, high-performance, cost-effective process solutions that semiconductor manufacturers can use in numerous manufacturing steps to improve productivity and product yield. For more information, visit www.acmr.com.
CENTRALLY ADMINISTERED AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES
Posted On: 18 MAR 2025 5:58PM by PIB Delhi
The State-wise list of centrally controlled/ administered Agricultural Universities/ colleges is placed at Annexure.
The agriculture including agricultural education is a state subject, therefore, state governments establish agriculture universities/colleges as per their requirement.
Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has developed ‘ICAR Model Act (Revised 2023)’ for Higher Agricultural Educational Institutions in India and ‘Minimum Requirements for Establishing the Agricultural Colleges’.
There is no such proposal to open an agricultural school in the aspirational district of Sirohi. However, Sirohi district has 01 Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) which provides skill development trainings to farmers including local youth.
Agricultural education, being the State subject, the State Governments have their own policies and guidelines to promote private universities and colleges. ICAR only provides accreditation to agricultural colleges and universities based on their demand. During last five years, number of private accredited agriculture colleges increased from 05 (2020-21) to 22 (2024-25) in the country.
This information was given by Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Bhagirath Choudhary in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.
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MG/KSR
Annexure
State
Name of Universities
Constituent Colleges
Central Agricultural Universities:
Bihar
Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar
Tirhut College of Agriculture, Dholi, Muzaffarpur, Bihar
College of Fisheries, Dholi, Muzaffarpur, Bihar
Pandit Dindayal Upadhayay College of Horticulture and Forestry, Piprakothi, Motihari, Bihar
College of Community Science, Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar
College of Agriculture Engineering, Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar
College of Basic Science and Humanities, Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar
Post-Graduate College of Agriculture, Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar
School of Agri-business and Rural Management (SAB&RM), Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar
Manipur
Central Agricultural University, Imphal, Manipur
College of Agriculture, Imphal, Manipur
College of Food Technology, Imphal, Manipur
College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Jalukie, Nagaland.
College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Aizawl, Mizoram.
College of Horticulture, Thenzawl, Mizoram
College of Post Graduate Studies in Agricultural Sciences, Umiam, Meghalaya
College of Agriculture, Kyrdemkulai, Meghalaya
College of Community Sciences, Tura, Meghalaya
College of Agricultural Engg. And Post Harvest Technology, Ranipool, Sikkim
College of Horticulture, Bermiok, Sikkim
College of Fisheries, Lembucherra, Tripura
College of Horticulture and Forestry, Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh
College of Agriculture, Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Rani Lakshmi Bai Central Agricultural University, Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh
College of Agriculture, Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh
College of Horticulture and Forestry, Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh
College of Fisheries, Datia, Madhya Pradesh
College of Veterinary & Animal Sciences, Datia, Madhya Pradesh
Systemic assessment of Farmers’ Distress Index (FDI) is not available for the whole country. However, a pilot study “Agrarian Distress and PM Fasal Bima Yojana: An Analysis of Rainfed Agriculture” was conducted to help farmers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh during 2020-21 and 2021-22. FDI covers multiple causes of distress ranging from climate variability to price volatility and the low risk-bearing ability of farmers etc.
The Multidimensional FDI was studied at sub-district level with an aim to develop an early warning system for farm distress. The main objective of FDI was to develop a user-friendly tool designed to forewarn different stakeholders and provide policy support about the severity of farmer distress based on seven key parameters viz., exposure to risk, adaptive capacity, sensitivity, mitigation and adaptation strategies, triggers, psychological factors and impacts (Annexure). It enables timely preventive action by identifying area. The FDI also proposes a scalable framework for implementation ensuring that government support reaches the most affected regions efficiently.
The FDI is designed to develop a forewarning system to take preventive measures to identify farmer distress, providing alerts three months in advance. FDI can be used as a planning tool to address the causes of farmers’ distress and also evolve measures to tackle those causes. It targets to recommend a location-specific distress management package based on various dimensions of the FDI. FDI can be used to categorize and prioritize action points by the government and the local community to reduce farmers’ distress.
This information was given by Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, shri bhagirath Choudhary in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.
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MG/KSR
ANNEXURE
Explanation of indicators used in FDI
Pillars
Indicator-1
Indicator-2
Indicator-3
Exposure
Loss due to pest/diseases (%)
Loss due to floods/cyclones (%)
Loss due to droughts (%)
Adaptive capacity
Education of the head of household (years)
Total owned land (acre)
Leased-in land (acre)
Sensitivity
Irrigated area (% of total area)
Indebtedness (Rs)
SC/ST community and number of children in household
Adaptation
Non-crop income (as % of total household income)
Number of government schemes household benefited (in current year)
Household savings (Rs.)
Trigger
Informal credit (Rs)
Pressure from repayment of loans (yes/no)
Lack of cash-in-hand to meet immediate farm expenses (yes/no)
Psychological
Feeling of social isolation (yes/no)
Unable to fulfil family obligations (yes/no)
Addicted to alcohol (yes/no)
Impact
Increased indebtedness (Yes/No)
More participation in public works (MGNREGA) (yes/no)
What you need to know: With the release of a new draft working report by leading artificial intelligence experts, California continues to lead in advocating for the responsible use of emerging AI technology and the study of its impacts and opportunities.
SAN FRANCISCO – California’s leadership in the AI industry is helping to guide the world in the responsible implementation and use of this emerging technology. Today, a group of world-leading AI academics and experts, convened at the request of Governor Newsom, released a new draft report on workable guardrails based on an empirical, science-based analysis of the capabilities and attendant risks of frontier models — which will help pave the way for the use of AI for the benefit of all Californians.
“The future happens in California first – including the development of powerful AI technology. As home to over half of the world’s top AI companies, our state carries a unique responsibility in leading the safe advancement of this industry in a way that improves our communities, maintains our economic dominance, and ensures that this fast-moving technology benefits the public good.”
Governor Gavin Newsom
AI is already changing the world, and California will play a pivotal role in defining that future. As the fifth-largest economy in the world and the birthplace of the tech industry, California continues to dominate this sector as the leader in AI. The state is home to 32 of the 50 top AI companies worldwide. In addition to championing responsible use of this emerging industry, California is harnessing its potential to increase efficiency and support state operations.
Studying AI’s risk and opportunities
Today’s working report is a result of the Governor’s convening of leading experts on artificial intelligence and policy to help California develop workable guardrails for deploying generative AI (GenAI), focusing on developing an empirical, science-based trajectory analysis of frontier models and their capabilities and attendant risks. Authors include the “godmother of AI,” Dr. Fei-Fei Li, Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University and Founding Co-Director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute; Mariano-Florentino “Tino” Cuéllar, President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Social and Ethical Implications of Computing Research; and Dr. Jennifer Tour Chayes, Dean of the College of Computing, Data Science, and Society at UC Berkeley.
The working report includes recommendations on ensuring evidence-based policymaking, balancing the need for transparency with considerations such as security risks, and determining the appropriate level of regulation in this fast-evolving field. As a working white paper, the authors invite public participation. Academics, experts, and other stakeholders can submit comments or suggestions regarding their recommendations here.
California’s AI global leadership
California has launched efforts to help the state take advantage of this emerging technology, while also creating responsible policy guardrails to protect Californians, businesses, and workers. In 2023, Governor Newsom signed an executive order laying out California’s measured approach to state GenAI procurement. That EO has shaped the future of ethical, transparent, and trustworthy GenAI deployment, all while California remains the world’s GenAI leader.
Harnessing the power of AI
In 2024, Governor Newsom announced the state’s efforts to help utilize GenAI technologies to solve challenges, everything from reducing traffic to helping address homelessness.
Governor Newsom also co-hosted a GenAI summit in May 2024 with leaders across academia, industry, civil society, and government to discuss how the state can best use this transformative technology on behalf of Californians.
First-of-its-kind effort with NVIDIA
In August 2024, the state partnered with NVIDIA to launch a first-of-its-kind AI collaboration. The initiative, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom and NVIDIA founder & CEO Jensen Huang, aims to:
Train students, educators and workers
Support job creation and promote innovation
Use AI to solve challenges that can improve the lives of Californians
Among other goals, it strives to bring new AI resources into community colleges from NVIDIA – including curriculum and certifications, hardware and software, AI labs and workshops, and more – to open new pathways for students, educators, and workers to learn new skills and advance their careers.
Staying ahead of threats
Last year, Governor Newsom also signed a series of bills to crack down on sexually explicit deepfakes and require AI watermarking, protect performers’ digital likenesses, and combat deepfake election content.
Press Releases, Recent News
Recent news
Mar 17, 2025
News SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom issued the following statement regarding the death of San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Deputy Hector Cuevas Jr.:“Jennifer and I are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of Deputy Cuevas. Our heartfelt condolences go out to his…
Mar 17, 2025
News Lo que necesita saber: California tiene un nuevo compañero en Sonora, México para impulsar el desarrollo de recursos energéticos renovables, la resiliencia de la cadena de suministro y el transporte limpio. To read this release in English, click here. Sacramento,…
Mar 17, 2025
News What you need to know: California has a new partner in Sonora, Mexico to boost the development of renewable energy resources, supply chain resilience, and clean transportation. Para leer este comunicado en español, haga clic aquí. Sacramento, California –…
The Commission is strongly committed to upholding and promoting the fundamental rights of women throughout the EU. The Commission is also fully committed to advancing women’s rights and gender equality in all policy areas, including health policies and it recognises that sexual and reproductive health and rights ( SRHR) are an essential part of achieving gender equality.
This is evident in the Commission’s Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025[1], which stresses that the EU supports women’s human rights, its defenders, SRHR, and efforts to curb sexual and gender-based violence throughout the world.
However, it is important to note, that regulatory powers regarding health policies and therefore SRHR and sexual education, lie within the competences of the Member States. The EU competence is limited to encouraging cooperation between Member States and, if necessary, to lend support to their action.
The Commission organises exchanges of best practices on gender equality, in the context of its Mutual Learning Programme[2], including on women’s health and SRHR.
The directive on combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence[3], adopted in May 2024, obliges Member States to ensure that victims of sexual violence have access to healthcare services, including sexual and reproductive healthcare services, in accordance with national law.
The Commission will continue promoting women’s rights throughout the EU and across policy areas, including SRHR. The Commission presented a Roadmap for Women’s Rights in connection with the International Women’s Day in March 2025 and the principles identified in the roadmap will guide the development of the next Gender Equality Strategy post-2025.
[1] Gender equality strategy — European Commission https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/policies/justice-and-fundamental-rights/gender-equality/gender-equality-strategy_en
Promoting a culture of the rule of law is a priority for the Commission. The best guarantee for the respect of EU common values is a robust political and legal culture supporting the rule of law in every Member State.
While respecting the competence of Member States to organise their education systems, the Commission supports the implementation of the 2018 Council Recommendation on promoting common values[1].
This collaboration involves policymakers, civil society and social partners in the working group on Equality and Values in Education and Training[2].
Building on the 2023 Council conclusions on citizenship education[3], the Commission is exploring guidelines for democratic citizenship education and a competence framework tailored for the EU context.
The Erasmus+ programme[4] promotes common values through initiatives like the Jean Monnet actions, Erasmus+ Teacher Academies and the European School Education Platform.
The Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values programme[5] supports civil society organisations at all levels in the EU empowering them to enhance democratic processes and protect and promote fundamental values, such as the rule of law.
In September 2024, the Commission launched a communication campaign for the general public explaining in accessible terms why the rule of law matters in everyday life[6].
The campaign will also be hosted on the EU Learning Corner[7], which offers a range of educational materials related to fundamental values.
The Commission will explore how to further develop such activities. The annual Rule of Law Report also refers to good practices for promoting a rule of law culture at national and EU level such as the discussion on promoting a rule of law culture through education held in the Education Council in May 2024[8].
On March 19th, the Committee on Culture and Education will hold an exchange of views on the role of EU policies in shaping the European Sport Model.
Mr. Bogdan Zdrojewski, rapporteur for the own-initiative report on this topics will be joined by representatives of the Polish Presidency of the Council and the Directorate General for Education and Culture of the European Commission. The focus will be on discussing the key features of the European Sport Model and what can be done at European level to strengthen it.
Consumer awareness is key to a sustainable and secure digital experience: Shri Pralhad Joshi Department of Consumer Affairs and Meta Strengthen Partnership to Enhance Consumer Protection
Posted On: 18 MAR 2025 7:24PM by PIB Delhi
Union Minister for Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Ministry for New and Renewable Energy, Shri Pralhad Joshi along with Mr. Joel Kaplan, Chief Global Affairs Officer, Meta announced a new collaboration ‘Be an Empowered Consumer’ to empower consumers through digital literacy initiatives under the government’s flagship consumer awareness campaign ‘Jago Grahak Jago’.
Speaking at the launch of the partnership, Shri Joshi said, “We are pleased to partner with Meta on this crucial initiative to equip citizens with the knowledge and tools that will enable them to navigate the digital landscape and protect themselves online.”
“Consumer awareness is key to a sustainable and secure digital experience and the campaign will strengthen consumer protection measures and reinforce our commitment to empowering Indian consumers,” he added.
Shri Joshi emphasised that with the collaboration, the efforts of Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of India, towards consumer protection will reach to the remote areas of the country.
The joint campaign ‘Be an Empowered Consumer’ seeks to educate Indians on recognizing online threats and promoting healthy online habits, including the use of strong passwords, verification of online information, and reporting suspicious activity. This was discussed in a meeting before the launch.
During the meeting, the Union Minister was also apprised about a joint project commissioned with IIT Bombay by the chair established by the Department at the National Law School of India University Bangalore, and supported by Meta. The project explores the feasibility of leveraging Llama 2, Meta’s openly available large language model, in creating a citizen-centric chatbot: GrahakNyay. The chatbot will enhance access to consumer rights information, a robust grievance redressal tool that will help individuals file complaints and resolve queries more efficiently. The chatbot is now ready for a closed group beta testing and will be officially launched and integrated into DoCA’s website once its testing is complete.
Smt. Nidhi Khare, Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, present while addressing the event, said that the government remains steadfast in its commitment to upholding and safeguarding consumer rights. To make this commitment effective, it is important that consumers are aware of online threats and are able to perceive the unethical business practices, she said. Also, having right to have their grievances heard and addressed is essential for fostering accountability, transparency, and fairness. The chatbox will make it possible through the process of seamless complaint filing and resolution of queries, she stated.
Mr. Joel Kaplan, Chief Global Affairs Officer, Meta during the event said, “With technology progressing so quickly, it can be hard for people to stay up to date with the best ways to keep themselves safe online, which is why we’re pleased to work with the Department of Consumer Affairs and contribute to India’s digital consumer protection efforts. At Meta we think AI can help people protect themselves and be informed online consumers. By making AI more accessible, we hope to improve consumer awareness, streamline redressal processes, and equip people with the knowledge they need to make informed choices online.”
The above initiatives are steps in direction of Department’s efforts towards consumer protection and empowerment through enactment of progressive legislations and launching of technology driven programmes. With evolution of technology consumer has been rendered vulnerable to new forms of unfair trade and unethical business practices such as misleading advertisements, Tele-marketing, direct selling, e-commerce etc., thereby, requiring appropriate and swift executive interventions to prevent consumer detriment.
To address the myriad and constantly emerging vulnerabilities of the consumers and to promote, protect and enforce the rights of the consumers, an executive agency, Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has been established under section 10 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. Section 18 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 empowers CCPA to protect, promote and enforce the rights of consumers as a class, prevent unfair trade practices, ensure no false or misleading advertisement is made and ensure that no person takes part in the publication of any advertisement which is false or misleading. Additionally, under section 18 (2) (j) and (l), CCPA can issue safety notices to alert consumers against dangerous or unsafe goods or services and issue necessary guidelines to prevent unfair trade practices and protect consumers’ interest respectively. As per section 19 of the Act, CCPA may, on receiving information or complaint or directions from central government or of its own motion, conduct or cause to be conducted a preliminary inquiry as to whether there exists a prima facie case of violation of consumer rights or unfair trade practice or any false or misleading advertisement and if satisfied, it shall cause investigation to be made by the Director-General. Under section 20 and 21, CCPA has power to impose penalties up to 50 lakh rupees against such practices.
In this direction, CCPA has passed appropriate orders in the past against companies and online platforms, in addition to issuing advisories against illegal sale and facilitation of wireless jammers, sale of drugs without prescription, sale of car seat belt alarm stopper etc. Further, Consumer Protection (E-commerce) Rules, 2020 and Guidelines for Prevention of Misleading Advertisements and Endorsements for Misleading Advertisements, 2022 were notified to make e-commerce platforms more transparent and accountable to consumers. The Department also published booklet on “Endorsements know-hows for celebrities, influencers and virtual influencers on social media platforms”. In addition to these, time and again, CCPA has issued guidelines to strengthen the legislative framework against unethical business practices in the form of Guidelines on Prevention of Dark Pattern 2023, Guidelines for the Prevention and Regulation of Greenwashing, 2024 and Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Misleading Advertisement in Coaching Sector 2024.
Now, this two-pronged approach – leveraging AI for consumer grievance redressal through GrahakNyay chatbox and enhancing digital literacy through ‘Be an Empowered Consumer’ campaign, marks a significant step in strengthening consumer rights in India.
Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
Committee for Safeguarding National Security of HKSAR launches 10th National Security Education Day thematic exhibition The Chief Executive announced in the 2024 Policy Address that a thematic exhibition will be held at the National Security Exhibition Gallery to dovetail with the 10th National Security Education Day. With full support from the Department of Justice, the Education Bureau, the Security Bureau, the Civil Service Bureau, and the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau, the opening ceremony of the 10th National Security Education Day thematic exhibition was launched today (March 18) at the Hong Kong Museum of History, marking the beginning of a series of activities on national security education. The exhibition will be open to all Hong Kong citizens from tomorrow (March 19) onwards.
As stipulated by the National Security Law of the People’s Republic of China, passed by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress in 2015, the 15th of April each year is designated as National Security Education Day. At the national level, various provinces, municipalities and regions have leveraged this special occasion as an opportunity to advance national security education under the guidance of a holistic approach to national security.
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government has always been committed to promoting national security education. Over the years, under the leadership of the Central Government and with the support of various offices of the Central People’s Government in Hong Kong, as well as the joint efforts of all sectors of society, diverse creative promotional activities have been held with widespread participation, thereby fostering a positive atmosphere where all Hong Kong citizens join hands to build the Great Wall of national security.
Since the launch of the National Security Exhibition Gallery in August last year, the Education Bureau has been inviting school sponsoring bodies and schools to organise student visits. As of the first term of the current school year, over 43 000 students from about 120 primary and secondary schools have visited the gallery, and the visits have deepened their understanding of national security through display panels, a 3D theatre, interactive games, and animations.
The 15th of April this year marks the 10th National Security Education Day. The thematic exhibition adopts the national theme of “The 10th anniversary of National Security Education Day: advancing towards more in-depth and effective implementation”, reflecting on the development of promoting national security education in the country and the HKSAR over the years.
Officiating at the opening ceremony of the thematic exhibition, the Secretary for Education, Dr Choi Yuk-lin, said, “The Education Bureau has consistently been supporting schools in enhancing national education and fostering students’ sense of patriotism and awareness of national security through diverse measures, using approaches such as ‘organic integration’ and ‘natural connection’ to enhance their sense of national identity.
“National security is the cornerstone of peace and stability in the country. We will continue to work hand in hand with all sectors of society to promote national security education, with a view to strengthening the public’s awareness and sense of responsibility in safeguarding national security on their own accord, and creating a positive atmosphere of patriotism and love for Hong Kong.”
The HKSAR Government will continue its unwavering efforts to widen and deepen the promotion of national security education. By fostering the active participation and collective efforts of all sectors of society, especially the community and young people, we will continue to break new ground in national security work and write new chapters in the journey towards achieving national prosperity and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Issued at HKT 21:01
Question for written answer E-001020/2025 to the Commission Rule 144 Elena Kountoura (The Left)
In Greece, there is a serious issue of discrimination regarding maternity leave for substitute teachers, who are only entitled to 119 days of parental leave[1]. Because of this, many women are forced to return to work early or even resign[2], with multiple negative consequences for their family as well as for their financial and professional situation. The Greek Government’s refusal to equalise maternity leave for this category of workers raises a serious problem, both for the protection of women’s rights and for the country’s compliance with European law.
Taking into account: a) the Commission’s letter of formal notice to Greece for the incorrect transposition of Directive 1999/70/EC[3] into national law, setting a two-month deadline for Greece to eliminate discrimination between workers, b) Article 5(1) of Directive (EU) 2019/1158 on work-life balance, which stipulates that every worker is individually entitled to four months of parental leave[4], c) the deadline for equalising leave for substitute and permanent staff by the end of September 2024[5], d) the fact that substitute teachers are not entitled to leave in the event of threatened miscarriage, and e) the fact that the Greek Government has ignored all of the above:
1.What actions does the Commission intend to take to ensure the protection of female workers and the country’s full compliance with European law?
2.How does the Commission intend to support Member States in protecting gender equality in the workplace?
Submitted: 10.3.2025
[1] In contrast to the nine months provided for permanent teachers, see Article 142 of Law 3655/2008, as amended by Article 43 of Law 4997/2022 (https://www.kepea.gr/uplds/file/2022/n4997%202022.pdf) and Article 33 of Law 4808/2021 (https://www.minedu.gov.gr/publications/docs2021/adeies_anaplirotwn_ekpaideutikwn.pdf).
[2] It is noted that resignation is accompanied by a two-year exclusion from recruitment competitions, https://www.minedu.gov.gr/publications/docs2018/N4589FEK13.pdf.
[3] The directive prohibits discrimination against workers with fixed-term contracts.
[4] Member States shall put in place the necessary measures to ensure that each worker is individually entitled to four months of parental leave to be taken before the child reaches a certain age, up to the age of eight, to be determined by the Member State or by collective agreements, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EL/TXT/?uri=CELEX:02019L1158-20190712.
Source: United States Senator for North Dakota John Hoeven
03.18.25
Senator Outlines Efforts to Build Project ULTRA, Grand Forks into Proving Ground for Counter-UAS Tech
EMERADO, N.D. – Senator John Hoeven and representatives from BlueHalo today announced that the company is expanding its operations to the Grand Forks region, tying into a range of operations critical to the future of the nation’s defense, like counter-drone, while laying the groundwork to also connect with the region’s growing space operations. Specifically, BlueHalo:
Has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with GrandSKY to install itsVigilantHalo systemin support of Project ULTRA at the unmanned aerial systems (UAS) technology park.
Project ULTRA is an effort to make Grand Forks the proving ground for developing the technology needed to protect U.S. military installations and service members against the malicious use of UAS.
VigilantHalo will significantly enhance Project ULTRA’s ability to track unmanned aircraft by providing a seamless link between the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) unfiltered radar data feed, the state’s Vantis network and other sensor systems.
Will provide on-site supportfor the Sky Range program, which is operated by the Test Resource Management Center (TRMC) at GrandSKY.
BlueHalo will be supporting the use of its PANTHER phased array antenna, which is the technology used to convert Grand Forks’ Global Hawks into Range Hawks, enabling them to track hypersonic missiles and other airborne and space-based threats, while communicating with satellites.
The company will also partner with the University of North Dakota (UND) on further development of phased array technology.
Continues working to adapt its phased array antenna for spaced-based platforms, including the low-Earth orbit mission at Grand Forks Air Force Base.
The STAPS Project is funded under the $8.3 million Hoeven secured in Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 to partner BlueHalo with Bismarck State College.
This effort seeks to miniaturize and enhance the phase array antenna so it can be packaged and launched on satellites.
This would allow for additional tracking data in hypersonic missile testing, with the potential for future applications such as tracking adversary missiles.
“Partnerships are the foundation on which North Dakota’s UAS ecosystem is built, and these initiatives being undertaken by BlueHalo are adding new capabilities and opportunities to link the many exciting operations going on in the Grand Forks region,” said Senator Hoeven. “Importantly, BlueHalo is bringing the VigilantHalo system to GrandSKY at the same time as we are establishing access to the unfiltered FAA radar data feed, giving private companies a unique advantage as they work to develop counter-UAS technologies under Project ULTRA. Combined with the company’s support for the Sky Range hypersonic missile testing and the potential to bring their phased array technology to our satellite mission, today’s announcement ties together North Dakota’s role in some of the most critical missions for the future of our nation’s defense.”
“North Dakota is a hub for national security research, development, and operations–from drones to hypersonic missiles to total airspace command and control,” said Trip Ferguson, BlueHalo Chief Operating Officer. “The state’s unique blend of leaders like Senator Hoeven who understand these urgent priorities with organizations like GrandSKY who are leaning forward to bring solutions to the table is creating an environment of rapid innovation. BlueHalo is already hard at work here to develop and transition solutions to the frontlines. We’re excited to expand these efforts alongside partners who share the same focus and commitment to the mission.”
“This agreement with BlueHalo allows GrandSKY to further expand its capabilities in BVLOS operations, and the integration of VigilantHalo as a ground-based sense-and-avoid system strengthens the safety and efficiency of uncrewed flights,” GrandSKY President Tom Swoyer Jr. said. “This collaboration addresses the critical challenges of integrating UAS into the national airspace system while also integrating counter-UAS capabilities which are becoming increasingly critical to national security.”
Installing VigilantHalo at GrandSKY
VigilantHalo is an advanced command and control system capable of combining multiple feeds from radars and sensors, enabling:
More robust UAS traffic management, detect and avoid capabilities and beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) unmanned flights.
Companies that partner with GrandSKY under Project ULTRA a unique set of capabilities as they develop UAS and counter-UAS technologies.
The new system supports Hoeven’s efforts to increase the size and scope of Project ULTRA to develop new tools and methods for the U.S. to counter the malicious use of drone technology. To this end, the senator continues working to secured an increase contract ceiling for Project ULTRA, which would enable it to serve as a bridge between an existing Department of Defense contracting vehicle and new counter-UAS capabilities being developed in the private sector.
Source: United States Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-New Mexico)
Lujan, Schiff, Klobuchar, and Shaheen spearhead effort to stop “further pain at a time of high food prices and instability within U.S. agricultural markets”
Anthony, N.M. – U.S. Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, led a group of 31 Senators demanding a reversal of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s cancelation of food purchase programs across the United States, warning of the harmful impacts this move will have on both families and American farmers.
In a letter led with U.S. Senators Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the lawmakers said the reported $1 billion in canceled purchases by the USDA adds further pain at a time of high food prices and instability within U.S. agricultural markets. U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) also signed onto the letter.
“We ask that you reverse the cancellation,” the Senators wrote. “We have grave concerns that the cancellation…poses extreme harm to producers and communities in every state across the country. At a time of uncertainty in farm country, farmers need every opportunity to be able to expand market access for their products.”
The purchases from American farmers fund food for food banks, schools, and child care centers in all 50 states, territories, tribal governments, and the District of Columbia.
The letter was also signed by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-N.M.), Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Angus King (I-Maine), Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Jeffrey Merkley (D-Ore.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Chris Van Hollen (Md.), Peter Welch (Vt.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
The full letter sent to USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins can be found here and below:
Dear Secretary Rollins:
We write to express serious concerns regarding the cancellation of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs supporting local and regional food purchases providing assistance to those in need. These successful programs, the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA) and the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program (LFS), allow states, territories, and Tribes to purchase local foods from nearby farmers and ranchers to be used for emergency food providers, schools, and child care centers.
At a time when food insecurity remains high, providing affordable, fresh food to food banks and families while supporting American farmers is critical. Notably, LFPA and LFS have benefitted producers and consumers by providing funding for purchases through all 50 states, four territories, and 84 tribal governments. Through LFPA and LFS, USDA has prioritized the procurement and distribution of healthy, nutritious, domestic food. It has also taken an important step towards igniting rural prosperity by expanding and strengthening markets among farmers and rural economies. As of December 2024, the programs had supported over 8,000 producers, providing increased marketing opportunities.
Most importantly, we ask that you reverse the cancellation of LFPA and LFS. We also ask that you provide a thorough and complete update on USDA’s implementation of LFPA and LFS, including answers to the following questions:
1. What is the status of reimbursements for entities that have agreements with USDA through LFPA and LFS? What is the last date for which states, territories, and Tribes received reimbursements for food purchases under LFPA and LFS?
2. Has the Administration conducted any assessments of how these program cancellations will impact producers and recipient organizations (e.g., food banks, schools, child care centers)? If so, please provide a copy of any such assessments.
We have grave concerns that the cancellation of LFPA and LFS poses extreme harm to producers and communities in every state across the country. At a time of uncertainty in farm country, farmers need every opportunity to be able to expand market access for their products.
Please provide responses to the information requested in our questions no later than Friday, April 4. Thank you for your attention to this urgent and important matter.
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced Keith E. Sonderling as the 38th Deputy Secretary of Labor.
Sonderling returns to the department, where he served as Acting and Deputy Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division. He most recently served as the Commissioner of the United States Equal Employment Opportunity from 2020-2024.
During his first stint at the Department of Labor from 2017-2020, the Wage and Hour Division set records for enforcement collections and educational outreach events. Sonderling also oversaw the development and publication of large-scale deregulatory rules and authored numerous Opinion Letters, Field Assistance Bulletins, and All-Agency Memorandums. In addition, Sonderling was instrumental in developing the division’s first comprehensive self-audit program, which collected more than $7 million for nearly 11,000 workers.
“Keith’s institutional knowledge and policy expertise will continue to be invaluable in our fight to put the American Worker First,” Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said. “I’m thrilled to have him on the team and look forward to working alongside him to renew the American Dream.”
“Returning to the U.S. Department of Labor, where I began my career in government, is truly an honor,” said Deputy Secretary Keith Sonderling. “In my new role, I am committed to helping Secretary Chavez-DeRemer in advancing President Trump’s labor agenda and most importantly putting American Workers first!”
Before entering government service, Sonderling was a partner at Gunster, one of Florida’s oldest and largest law firms. There, he counseled employers and litigated labor and employment disputes. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Florida and a Juris Doctor at Nova Southeastern University. He has also been a Professional Lecturer in the Law at the George Washington University Law School, teaching employment discrimination.
SAN JOSE, Calif., March 18, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — GTC— NVIDIA today announced it is building a Boston-based research center to provide cutting-edge technologies to advance quantum computing.
The NVIDIA Accelerated Quantum Research Center, or NVAQC, will integrate leading quantum hardware with AI supercomputers, enabling what is known as accelerated quantum supercomputing. The NVAQC will help solve quantum computing’s most challenging problems, ranging from qubit noise to transforming experimental quantum processors into practical devices.
Leading quantum computing innovators, including Quantinuum, Quantum Machines and QuEra Computing, will tap into the NVAQC to drive advancements through collaborations with researchers from leading universities, such as the Harvard Quantum Initiative in Science and Engineering (HQI) and the Engineering Quantum Systems (EQuS) group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
“Quantum computing will augment AI supercomputers to tackle some of the world’s most important problems, from drug discovery to materials development,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “Working with the wider quantum research community to advance CUDA-quantum hybrid computing, the NVIDIA Accelerated Quantum Research Center is where breakthroughs will be made to create large-scale, useful, accelerated quantum supercomputers.”
Propelling Quantum Innovation Through the NVAQC, commercial and academic partners will work with NVIDIA to use state-of-the-art NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 rack-scale systems, the most powerful hardware ever deployed for quantum computing applications. This enables complex simulations of quantum systems and the deployment of the low-latency quantum hardware control algorithms essential for quantum error correction. NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 systems will also accelerate the adoption of AI algorithms in quantum computing research.
To address the challenges of integrating GPU and QPU hardware, the NVAQC will employ the NVIDIA CUDA-Q™ quantum development platform, enabling researchers to develop new hybrid quantum algorithms and applications.
The HQI — a community of researchers dedicated to advancing the science and engineering of quantum systems and their applications — will collaborate with the NVAQC to advance their research on next-generation quantum computing technologies.
“The NVAQC is a very special addition to the unique Boston area quantum ecosystem, including word-leading university groups and startup companies,” said Mikhail Lukin, Joshua and Beth Friedman University Professor at Harvard and a co-director of HQI. “The accelerated quantum and classical computing technologies NVIDIA is bringing together has the potential to advance the research in areas ranging from quantum error correction to applications of quantum computing systems, accelerating quantum computing research and pulling useful quantum computing closer to reality.”
Researchers from the EQuS group, a member of the MIT Center for Quantum Engineering — which serves as a hub for research, education and engagement in support of quantum engineering — will use NVAQC to develop techniques like quantum error correction.
“The NVIDIA Accelerated Quantum Research Center will provide EQuS group researchers with unprecedented access to the technologies and expertise needed to solve the challenges of useful quantum computing,” said William Oliver, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and of physics, leader of the EQuS group and director of the MIT Center for Quantum Engineering. “We anticipate the future will also include other members of the Center for Quantum Engineering at MIT. Integrating the NVIDIA accelerated computing platform with qubits will help tackle core challenges like quantum error correction, hybrid application development and quantum device characterization.”
The NVAQC is expected to begin operations later this year.
Learn more about NVIDIA’s quantum computing initiatives and hear from industry leaders by joining Quantum Day at NVIDIA GTC, which runs through March 21.
About NVIDIA NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) is the world leader in accelerated computing.
For further information, contact: Alex Shapiro Enterprise Networking 1-415-608-5044 ashapiro@nvidia.com
Certain statements in this press release including, but not limited to, statements as to: the benefits, impact, availability, and performance of NVIDIA’s products, services, and technologies; third parties adopting NVIDIA’s products and technologies and the impact and benefits thereof; quantum computing someday augmenting AI supercomputers to tackle some of the world’s most important problems, from drug discovery to materials development; and working with the wider quantum research community to advance CUDA-quantum hybrid computing, the NVIDIA Accelerated Quantum Computing Research Center being where breakthroughs will be made to create large-scale, useful, accelerated quantum supercomputers are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause results to be materially different than expectations. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include: global economic conditions; our reliance on third parties to manufacture, assemble, package and test our products; the impact of technological development and competition; development of new products and technologies or enhancements to our existing product and technologies; market acceptance of our products or our partners’ products; design, manufacturing or software defects; changes in consumer preferences or demands; changes in industry standards and interfaces; unexpected loss of performance of our products or technologies when integrated into systems; as well as other factors detailed from time to time in the most recent reports NVIDIA files with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, including, but not limited to, its annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. Copies of reports filed with the SEC are posted on the company’s website and are available from NVIDIA without charge. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and speak only as of the date hereof, and, except as required by law, NVIDIA disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.
Many of the products and features described herein remain in various stages and will be offered on a when-and-if-available basis. The statements above are not intended to be, and should not be interpreted as a commitment, promise, or legal obligation, and the development, release, and timing of any features or functionalities described for our products is subject to change and remains at the sole discretion of NVIDIA. NVIDIA will have no liability for failure to deliver or delay in the delivery of any of the products, features or functions set forth herein.
Every County In Nevada Is Experiencing A Shortage Of Medical Professionals
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senators Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and John Boozman (R-AR) introduced a bipartisan bill to bring more doctors to areas currently facing severe shortages, like Nevada. The bipartisan Physicians for Underserved Areas Act would revise the graduate medical education process to increase the likelihood of areas with physician shortages getting more medical residency slots after hospital closures take place elsewhere in the country. Every county in Nevada is experiencing a shortage of medical professionals, and in 2024, Nevada was ranked 45th in the nation with regard to the availability of physicians per 100,000 residents.
“The dire shortage of doctors in our state is hurting Nevadans’ ability to get quality medical care,” said Senator Rosen. “We know that when more doctors train in our communities, they are more likely to stay here. That’s why I’m working across the aisle to bring more doctors to Nevada by increasing medical residency slots. I’ll keep working on commonsense solutions to ensure families can access affordable, quality health care.”
“Rural communities in Arkansas and across the country continue to face health care challenges starting with a lack of available medical providers,” said Senator Boozman. “I’m proud to help lead this bipartisan solution to ensure more medical school graduates practice in the communities that desperately need them so all Americans, no matter where they live, get the care they need.”
“At the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV, we recognize the critical need to expand Graduate Medical Education (GME) opportunities to address physician shortages in underserved areas,” said Marc J. Kahn, Dean of the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. “The Physicians for Underserved Areas Act is a crucial step toward ensuring that residency slots are redistributed in a way that prioritizes communities with the greatest need. By streamlining the process and expediting the timeline for GME slot reallocation, this legislation will help fill gaps in healthcare access and strengthen our medical workforce. We fully support this bipartisan effort led by Senator Rosen and Senator Boozman and appreciate their commitment to improving healthcare for all.”
“Nevada continues to struggle with expanding residency positions to address enduring physician workforce shortages,” said Dr. John Packham, Associate Dean of the University of Nevada, Reno’s School of Medicine. “This important legislation will support efforts by medical schools and teaching hospitals across the state to expand graduate medical education opportunities to prepare and retain tomorrow’s doctors in Nevada.”
“It is critically important for a clear and immediate pathway to exist from medical school to residency in areas with physician shortages or that are otherwise underserved,” said Dr. Renee Coffman, Co-Founder and President of Roseman University. “Without adequate GME spots, future doctors have no practical ability to stay in communities that need them most. Roseman University thanks Senators Rosen and Boozman for the Physicians for Underserved Areas Act and for their continued efforts in supporting the growth of the health care workforce.”
“The Nevada Primary Care Association, representing the state’s Community Health Centers, is grateful to Senator Rosen for re-introducing this important legislation,” said Nancy Bowen, CEO of the Nevada Primary Care Association. “Nevada has been blessed with rapid population growth throughout its modern history, but this has come at a cost of persistent and profound health provider shortages. The Physicians for Underserved Areas Act is an important step to increasing the number of providers who are trained in the state and stay to deliver health care to our residents.”
“The National Rural Health Association strongly supports the Physicians for Underserved Areas Act as a critical step in addressing physician shortages in rural communities,” said Alan Morgan, CEO of the National Rural Health Association. “By ensuring that unused residency slots are swiftly redistributed to hospitals that need them most, this bill will help strengthen the rural health workforce and expand access to care in underserved areas. We applaud Senators Rosen and Boozman for their leadership in advancing policies that prioritize rural patients and providers, and we urge Congress to move quickly on this important legislation.”
Senator Rosen is working to address Nevada’s health care professional shortage and improve medical care access in the state. Last week, she introduced the bipartisan REDI Act to increase the number of doctors and dentists in underserved areas by allowing them to defer student loan payments without interest until the completion of their residency or internship programs. Last month, she introduced the bipartisan Train More Nurses Act to address the nursing shortage affecting communities across the nation. Rosen’s bipartisan Maximizing Health Outcomes through Better Investments in Lifesaving Equipment for (MOBILE) Health Care Act was signed into law in 2022 to allow community health centers to use federal funds to establish new mobile health care units to increase access to health care services in rural and underserved communities.
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senators Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) joined Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) and 29 of their colleagues in demanding the Department of Agriculture reverse its cancellation of food purchase programs across the United States, warning of the harmful impacts this move will have on both families and American farmers. Nevada utilizes these federal funds to support the state’s food bank network and school nutrition programs by purchasing local foods from farmers and producers in Nevada, benefiting students, families, and the local economy.
“We write to express serious concerns regarding the cancellation of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs supporting local and regional food purchases providing assistance to those in need,” wrote the Senators. “These successful programs, the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA) and the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program (LFS), allow states, territories, and Tribes to purchase local foods from nearby farmers and ranchers to be used for emergency food providers, schools, and child care centers.”
“At a time when food insecurity remains high, providing affordable, fresh food to food banks and families while supporting American farmers is critical,” they continued. “We have grave concerns that the cancellation of LFPA and LFS poses extreme harm to producers and communities in every state across the country.”
The full letter can be found HERE.
Senators Rosen and Cortez Masto have been vocal opponents of the Trump Administration’s efforts to cut critical programs Nevadans rely on all while trying to give further tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy. The Senators have pushed multiple Departments under the Trump Administration for detailed, public information regarding the impacts of President Trump’s federal funding freeze, hiring freeze, and terminations on Nevada – including to the Department of the Interior, the U.S. Forest Service, the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Agriculture, and the General Services Administration. Earlier this year, Rosen and Cortez Masto urged the Department of the Interior to immediately cease its freeze of Inflation Reduction Act funding for the Lower Colorado River System Conservation and Efficiency Program.
Source: United States Senator for Washington State Patty Murray
Top appropriators press McMahon on how the Department will carry out requirements of federal law and its critical responsibilities despite far-reaching, illegal firings of approximately 50% of staff
Washington, D.C. — Today, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee and the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Subcommittee, and Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Subcommittee, sent a letter to the Department of Education (ED) demanding detailed answers about the mass firings it has conducted and how it is carrying out requirements of federal law and its critical responsibilities despite the sweeping reductions in force.
“We write to request your immediate response to questions we have raised about actions taken by the Department of Education and additional questions related to the massive reduction in force announced on March 11,” write the lawmakers. Citing the wide scope of responsibilities the Department is required by bipartisan laws to undertake to help students learn and thrive, the top appropriators in the Senate and House add: “Recent actions of the Department appear to undermine the Department’s obligation under these laws.”
“The staff at the Department provide real services that impact the daily lives of students and their families from enforcing students’ civil rights and providing transparent information on how our schools are doing to processing critical aid such as Pell Grants to helping low-income students all over our nation attend college and further their careers,” Murray, DeLauro, and Baldwin write. “Firing the people that ensure states, school districts, and institutions of higher education live up to their legal obligations is neither efficient nor accountable.”
In the letter, the lawmakers note that the Department’s staffing levels have largely remained flat in recent years despite significant growth in the programs it administers and the responsibilities it carries out. They write that the mass layoffs and other detrimental actions risk major reductions in support for and oversight of our nation’s K-12 schools and institutions of higher education and threaten vital support for students with disabilities, access to Pell Grants and other financial aid, oversight of student loan servicers, scrutiny of for-profit colleges, and more.
The letter follows an earlier March 6 letter the lawmakers sent alongside colleagues demanding answers about the chaotic, harmful actions taken by ED since January—which the Department has yet to respond to.
“Given the profound change to staff, budgets, and agency operations promised by this administration, it is critical that we receive additional information on these staffing reductions and changes to agency operations,” conclude Murray, DeLauro, and Baldwin before posing a series of detailed questions. “The President’s disregard for appropriations and other laws and the need for stability and productivity in government creates an imperative for the Department to provide accurate, timely responses on its use and planned use of taxpayer resources provided by the laws passed by Congress.”
Full text of the letter is availableHEREand below:
The Honorable Linda McMahon Secretary U.S. Department of Education 400 Maryland Avenue, SW Washington, DC 20202
Dr. Matthew Soldner Acting Director Institute of Education Sciences 550 12th Street, SW Washington, DC 20024
Dear Secretary McMahon and Acting Director Soldner:
We write to request your immediate response to questions we have raised about actions taken by the Department of Education (“the Department”) and additional questions related to the massive reduction in force announced on March 11, 2025. We believe the Department plays a critical role in fulfilling the purpose of our Constitution to “promote the general welfare of the United States” and strongly support the purposes Congress established for the Department to ensure equal access to educational opportunity, including by administering education programs and carrying out important functions established in law and funded each year by Congress. However, recent actions of the Department appear to undermine the Department’s obligation under these laws, despite your statement on March 11th that “Today’s reduction in force reflects the Department of Education’s commitment to ensuring efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: students, parents and teachers.”[1]
According to the Department’s most recent Congressional justifications and prior to this administration’s personnel actions, staffing levels at the Department were largely unchanged from 2016 despite the fact that the discretionary budget for the Department’s programs increased by 16.5 percent and the federal student loan portfolio grew by more than 30 percent between 2016 and 2024.[2] Further, the Department has the smallest staff of the 15 cabinet agencies despite representing the government’s third largest discretionary budget after the Department of Defense and the Department of Health and Human Services.[3] The Department also said that it had been tasked with “addressing some of the greatest challenges facing public education today: academic acceleration, students’ well-being and mental health, chronic absenteeism, school safety, and emerging and changing pathways from high school to college and career,” and, “modernizing and improving the entire student aid process to better help students and families, as well as implementing major legislation, including the FAFSA Simplification Act and FUTURE Act.”[4] The staff at the Department provide real services that impact the daily lives of students and their families from enforcing students’ civil rights and providing transparent information on how our schools are doing to processing critical aid such as Pell Grants to helping low-income students all over our nation attend college and further their careers. Firing the people that ensure states, school districts, and institutions of higher education live up to their legal obligations is neither efficient nor accountable.
We are very concerned that the Department’s staffing reductions will result in significant reductions in the support and oversight of critical Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) requirements for state and local educational agencies (SEAs/LEAs) to provide school report cards on the achievement of students, qualifications of teachers, and per-pupil spending in understandable and uniform formats. This is critical information parents, families, and communities need to have about their public schools and public school options that might be available. The ESEA also requires states to use a portion of Title I-A for grants to implement school support and improvement activities in the lowest performing schools and in schools with historically underserved student subgroups performing significantly lower than other subgroups of students, including through evidence-based interventions. However, the Department’s recent elimination of federally supported assistance used by SEAs and LEAs to effectively implement these requirements and limited state capacity will likely prevent effective implementation in many states and schools .[5][6][7][8] When combined with these massive staffing reductions, we are concerned that the Department’s ability to monitor or support implementation of the law will be nearly non-existent, leaving students and families with the long-term consequences for the Department’s short-sighted actions.
We are concerned that students with disabilities will also be harmed by the Department’s actions. The Department is required under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to monitor and support effective implementation of IDEA requirements. This includes the evaluation of results and outcomes for infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities through the State Performance Plan and Annual Performance Report processes intended to improve results and outcomes for more than seven million children with disabilities.[9] It is not clear to us how effective oversight will be conducted at the significantly lower staffing levels created by the Department’s recent actions.
The Department is also required by law to operate federal student aid programs and conduct oversight and enforcement of colleges and universities to ensure access to postsecondary education for our nation’s students and to help make college more affordable for American families.[10] Some of these responsibilities include ensuring students can apply for Pell grants and other financial aid to go to college, ensuring colleges and universities have the information and resources they need to disburse such aid to students, ensuring colleges and universities protect students’ civil rights, certifying universities compliance with administrative and fiscal rules to ensure low-quality colleges and universities cannot participate in Title IV aid programs, overseeing and approving accreditors, and protecting students and taxpayers from fraudulent universities that leave students with worthless degrees and debt. The vast reduction in force across the office of Federal Student Aid (FSA), the Office of General Counsel (OGC), and other offices puts all of this work in jeopardy.
However, your stated commitment to ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most rings hollow to us. Our actions should absolutely start with supporting students, just as we have directed through our federal education laws. The guiding purpose is to direct federal resources so all students have access to a high-quality education and schools close achievement gaps. For example, our laws include maintenance of effort requirements that generally prohibit SEAs and LEAs from reducing their support for education after receiving federal funds and only use federal funds to supplement, not supplant other funds.[11] It’s the Department’s statutorily required job to enforce these responsibilities.[12][13] Moreover, ESEA requires school districts receiving Title I-A funds to reserve a sufficient amount of these funds to identify and meet the needs of students experiencing homelessness. The Department has taken important steps in recent years to increase oversight of this provision and planned additional monitoring and technical assistance in fiscal year (FY) 2025.[14] Without the effective oversight and support of Department staff, we are concerned that students may not benefit from the additional federal resources Congress requires to be made available to identify and meet their needs.
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) enforces the nation’s civil rights laws in federally-funded education programs. Disability discrimination is typically the most frequent complaint received by OCR.[15] While OCR received the highest number of complaints in its history last year—and nearly three times the level in 2009—its staffing declined from 629 to 588 during this period.[16] Reporting also indicates that a change in priorities at OCR since January 20, 2025, has stalled work on investigations of disability complaints, preventing timely consideration of such complaints and appropriate remedies.[17] We are greatly concerned that the Department’s personnel actions will only add to delays in remedies that would provide students with disabilities the access to free appropriate education in the least restrict environment as required by federal law.
Given the profound change to staff, budgets, and agency operations promised by this administration, it is critical that we receive additional information on these staffing reductions and changes to agency operations.[18] The President’s disregard for appropriations and other laws and the need for stability and productivity in government creates an imperative for the Department to provide accurate, timely responses on its use and planned use of taxpayer resources provided by the laws passed by Congress. Finally, we expect all of the questions below are ones the Department itself would have already considered before making significant staffing reductions. We request you provide written answers to the following questions as soon as possible, but not later than, March 21, 2025:
For each program office[19] and in total by appropriation, please provide the number of staff terminated as a result of the March 11, 2025 reduction in force.
What are total expected savings in salaries and benefits in FY2025?
What share of the Department’s FY2024 budget do these savings represent?
How many remaining staff at the Department were assigned additional duties as a result of staffing reductions since January 20, 2025?
What is the average number of new duties assigned to remaining staff?
Please provide a complete list of office teams terminated as a result of the March 11, 2025 staffing reductions and other staffing reductions and the specific responsibilities of those terminated teams transferred to other office teams.
Please explain how the reduction in force announced on March 11, 2025 reflects a commitment to each of the following as claimed in Secretary McMahon’s statement accompanying the announcement:
How will these staff reductions ensure “that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers”? Please provide three examples and the analysis supporting the expected changes.
How do these reductions reflect the Department’s “commitment to… accountability”? Please provide three examples and the analysis supporting the expected changes.
How do these reductions reflect the Department’s “commitment to efficiency”? Please provide three examples and the analysis supporting the expected changes. Further, please explain how the Department’s decisions to cancel evaluation contracts that help us understand what is working and terminate Department grants and contracts that support the development and implementation of evidence-based solutions to challenges identified by state and local education leaders promotes efficiency.
For the Office for Civil Rights, please provide the number of investigative staff on board after all of the Department’s personnel actions taken since January 20, 2025, including the March 11, 2025 reduction.
Please provide the number of such staff in total and for each region for the immediately preceding pay period to the date including January 20, 2025.
Please provide the average caseload for such staff for the immediately preceding pay period to the date including January 20, 2025 and after all of the Department’s personnel actions taken since January 20, 2025, including the March 11, 2025 reductions.
Please provide the number of complaints pending investigation as of March 11, 2025.
Please provide the number of resolution agreements requiring monitoring for implementation of corrective actions as of March 11, 2025 and September 30, 2024. What is the average caseload for such work as of September 30, 2024 and after implementation of staffing reductions?
Please describe any changes planned to OCR’s current Case Processing Manual and explain how each change would improve civil right protections for students attending federally-funded educational institutions.
Please describe any organizational changes planned and explain how each change would improve civil right protections for students attending federally-funded educational institutions.
In FY2024, the Department was directed to increase its monitoring efforts in order to ensure compliance with the ESEA. However, it appears, as of today, the Department has only completed three consolidated monitoring reports conducted in FY2024 and none in FY2025.[20]
How many ESEA consolidated monitoring visits did the Department complete in FY2024? When can we expect to see those consolidated monitoring reports made public in order to understand compliance with the law?
How many ESEA consolidated monitoring visits is the Department conducting in FY2025? When can we expect to see those consolidated monitoring reports made public in order to understand compliance with the law?
How many ESEA consolidated monitoring visits is the Department planning to conduct in FY2026? When can we expect to see those consolidated monitoring reports made public in order to understand compliance with the law?
How many ESEA targeted monitoring visits is the Department conducting in FY2025? On what specific requirements of ESEA is the Department conducting this monitoring, and in how many states? If no such monitoring is planned, please explain why the Department is not conducting targeting monitoring necessary to understand compliance with the law?
How many ESEA targeted monitoring visits is the Department planning to conduct in FY2026? On what specific requirements of ESEA is the Department planning to conduct this monitoring, and in how many states? If no such monitoring is planned, please explain why the Department is not conducting targeting monitoring necessary to understand compliance with the law?
Please update the monitoring findings in the August 29, 2024 Report to Congress on school improvement[21] to include the status of implementation of each of the actions required and recommendations in the report.
For the last five years, the Department has conducted an annual review in January of each state’s website to check whether the state has posted state and local report cards, reviewed a subset of ESEA requirements, and followed up with states on noncompliance with requirements. This information is essential to help parents and families understand the resources available at each school, the quality of the school’s educator workforce, and performance of their school.
Has the Department completed this review of each state’s website this year as it has for each of the past five years? If not, why not? If so, which subset of requirements was the focus of its review?
How many states has the Department identified the need for corrective actions and engaged states on its findings and plans to remedy noncompliance? If none, please explain why.
What is the expected timeline for redress of each instance of noncompliance?
The reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act requires states that receive ESEA Title I funding to participate in state National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) assessments in reading and mathematics at grades 4 and 8 every two years. This is important information for parents, families, state and local education policymakers, and federal policymakers on performance of students. In fact, has been cited by this administration as it argues the low NAEP test results are a result of Democrats diverting attention from American students.[22]
Please provide copies of all documents, electronic communications, records, and meeting notes of Department staff from January 20, 2025 through the date of this letter that relate to NAEP.
Please provide an assurance that none of the Department’s actions since January 20, 2025 were inconsistent with the requirements of National Assessment of Educational Progress Authorization Act.
Please provide an assurance that no federal funds will be used in contravention of the requirements of the National Assessment of Educational Progress Authorization Act.
Please provide an assurance that none of the Department’s actions since January 20, 2025 will alter the validity or reliability of NAEP assessments on the currently approved schedule, including the national assessment required under section 303 of the National Assessment of Educational Progress Authorization Act.
Please explain the unprecedented decision made earlier this year to cancel the scheduled long-term trend assessment outside of a period of a national emergency.
The Department has critical oversight, support, and technical assistance obligations under the IDEA.
Please provide the number of staff on-board whose job includes responsibilities for Results Driven Accountability activities as of the pay period including January 1, 2025 and the number of such staff upon full implementation of the Department’s March 11, 2025 staffing reductions.
Please identify the timeline for completion of the 2025 and 2026 determinations under IDEA.
The Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 ushered in critical changes about the effective use of data and timely development and use of relevant evidence in federal policymaking. We have consistently supported the Department’s work, which has been recognized for its progress and achievement in this area.[23]
Please provide the number of staff in the Grants Policy Office of the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development as of September 30, 2024 and after the staffing reductions announced on March 11, 2025. Please describe the specific actions supported by the revised staffing level to undertake work required to advance evidence based policy making, the inclusion of priorities for evidence in discretionary grant programs, support for the use of evidence in formula grant programs, and building of staff capacity to support a culture of evidence at the Department.
Please identify any changes to the staffing, policies, and work of the Evidence Leadership Group as compared to September 30, 2024. Please share analysis, as applicable, related to the Department’s belief that these changes will better promote the development and use of evidence in the Department’s policymaking and formula and discretionary grant programs.
In 2020, Congress passed the FAFSA Simplification Act to modernize and streamline the FAFSA to make it easier for students and their families to apply for federal financial aid to attend postsecondary education. Initial implementation of the law was flawed and led to a chaotic launch of the 2024-2025 FAFSA. Due to a lot of hard work by dedicated Department staff, the roll out of the 2025-2026 FAFSA went more smoothly, yet more remains to be done to ensure the effective implementation of the FAFSA Simplification Act and the FUTURE Act. Your staff indicated that the March 11th reduction in force would not impact the ability of students to apply for financial aid,[24] but in reality, it took very little time to show how cuts to Department staff could hurt the functionality of the FAFSA. On March 12th, the FAFSA form had an unscheduled outage of approximately five hours and fired staff had limited access to their computers or phones to help get FAFSA back online.[25] The Department stated the cause of the outage was ”Planned Maintenance,” but when the entire team responsible for systems supporting the FAFSA form[26] was subject to the reduction in force, it calls into question whether that is an accurate representation of what happened to the FAFSA on March 12. Additionally, former Department staff have noted that among those fired on March 11th was a team that worked on FAFSA completion workshops, among other responsibilities, also calling into question whether critical work to boost FAFSA completion rates under the previous administration will continue.[27]
Please describe how the staff reductions will impact the ability of students to apply for financial aid or limit the full functionality of the FAFSA form, including FAFSA processing, school receipt of processed FAFSAs, processing of paper FAFSAs, and FAFSA correction functionality for applicants, institutions of higher education, and states.
Given the substantial cuts to Department staff who manage vendors that implement critical parts of the FAFSA, please describe how remaining Department staff will adequately manage, coordinate across, and oversee these vendors so that functionality for the FAFSA and its data center is maintained.
Please describe how the Department will continue developing the 2026-2027 FAFSA and ensure an October 1st launch as required by Congress.
Please describe how the Department will engage in communication efforts with students and their families to ensure they know federal financial aid is available to them and the FAFSA form is available to fill out.
Please describe how you will continue to report on important FAFSA submission and completion data and maintain monthly briefings for Congress.
Given the large cuts to FSA in this week’s reduction in force, please provide a staffing plan that details which staff will be reassigned to cover the work of those employees who are departing and involved in implementation of the FAFSA to ensure that student aid will continue to be disbursed without interruption.
Please describe how any changes in availability of the call center, including weekend and evening hours, will be sufficient to answer questions from FAFSA applicants and students with questions about their student loans.
Please describe how the Department will meet its statutory requirements to support applicants in the most common languages spoken in the United States?
In FY24, FSA oversaw the disbursement of more than $120 billion in federal financial aid to more than 9 million students across the country and managed $1.6 trillion in student loans held by approximately 45 million borrowers.[28] To help implement the FAFSA and provide student loan services, the Department contracts with vendors and is responsible for ensuring the quality of the work those contractors provide.
According to public reporting, many of the Department staff who oversee these contractors were terminated through the reduction in force.[29] How does the Department plan to oversee the vendors and contractors who are providing these services to student borrowers?
Please describe how the Department will work to uphold strong loan servicing standards across the agency’s vendors.
Reports also indicate that Department staff have met with staff from the Treasury Department to discuss moving the student loan portfolio to the Treasury Department,[30] a change that only Congress can make.[31] Please describe organizational changes being contemplated as they relate to the student loan portfolio and how they comply with current statutory requirements.
Reports indicate that the Ombudsman Group, which helps resolve discrepancies with student loans, helps students identify the right loan repayment option for them, and helps settle disputes between student loan borrowers and their servicers, among other issues,[32] was deeply affected by the March 11th reduction in force.[33] In the last year, over 130,000 complaints[34] were submitted to FSA and the Student Loan Ombudsman.
What are the Department’s plans to ensure that student loan borrowers are still able to get the support they need when with the wide variety of issues the Ombudsman Group handled?
Will the Department maintain the online portal for student borrowers to submit complaints regarding their student loans and if so, which office at the Department will be tasked with responding to those complaints?
The Borrower Defense to Repayment unit also appears to have been severely impacted by the March 11th reduction in force.[35] As you know, these Department staff review student loan relief applications from student borrowers who were misled or defrauded by the school. Borrower Defense to Repayment is a protection that has been authorized by Congress in the Higher Education Act[36] and provides student borrowers relief from their federal student loans that were taken out under fraudulent, misleading, or illegal acts of their schools. As of 2023, approximately 770,000 student borrowers applied for Borrower Defense to Repayment.[37]
What is the Department’s plan to ensure that it will carry out the statutory requirement to adjudicate the current remaining Borrower Defense to Repayment claims?
With such severe cuts to the people who worked in the Borrower Defense to Repayment unit, please describe how the Department will ensure that current and future student borrowers will be able to submit claims and have them adjudicated in a timely fashion going forward.
What proportion of the remaining staff will be responsible for fulfilling the Sweet settlement, and how will the Department ensure borrowers not included in the settlement are also able to file claims and have them resolved accordingly?
The Higher Education Act requires the Department to carry out numerous oversight responsibilities over the thousands of institutions of higher education that seek to participate in the Title IV program, including eligibility and certification requirements, program reviews, and enforcement of program participation agreements. These requirements help ensure institutions of higher education are on sound financial footing and abide by all requirements of Title IV.
Please describe how the Department will continue to carry out the work of the School Eligibility and Oversight Service Group (SEOSG), including ensuring institutions of higher education can submit initial and updated applications, recertifications, letters of credit, and documents related to program reviews.
Please describe how the reductions in the SEOSG will impact the caseloads of remaining staff at the Department conducting this important oversight work and not lead to increased waste, fraud, and abuse in the Title IV program.
How many program reviews does the Department estimate remaining staff will be able to conduct in FY2025, given the staffing cuts?
For the Office of Institutions of Higher Education Oversight & Enforcement, please provide the number of staff on board after all of the Department’s personnel actions taken since January 20, 2025, including the March 11, 2025 reduction.
Please provide the number of such staff in total and for each work unit under the Office of Enforcement and the Office of Partner Participation and Oversight for the immediately preceding pay period to the date including January 20, 2025.
Please describe any changes planned to investigations and oversight responsibilities under the Investigations Group, the Administrative Actions and Appeals Service Group, and the Resolutions and Referral Management Group, and explain how each change would protect students and taxpayers from misconduct by institutions.
The Office of Student Service is responsible for administering the TRIO, GEAR UP, and other discretionary grant programs. TRIO and GEAR UP implementation takes a significant amount of work due to the large number of grantees nationwide.
Please provide the number of staff on board for the Office of Student Service after all of the Department’s personnel actions taken since January 20, 2025, including the March 11, 2025 reduction.
Please provide the number of such staff in total and for each work unit under the Office of Student Service for the immediately preceding pay period to the date including January 20, 2025.
The Department enforces an ESEA requirement that must be met by a State, SEA, or LEA that receives ESEA funds to prevent an SEA, LEA, school, or individual acting on behalf of one of those entities from assisting an employee, contractor, or agent who has engaged in sexual misconduct with a minor or student in violation of the law in obtaining new employment. As directed in the Department’s 2024 appropriation, the Department has taken initial steps to improve compliance with this provision of law.[38] More must be done.
How many staff are actively working on the 2024 directive after all personnel actions taken through March 11, 2025?
Please provide a description of actions planned and the associated timeline for meeting this directive and assuring compliance with section 8546 of the ESEA.
The FY2025 Major Management Challenges report issued by Education’s Office of Inspector General found the Department has “established progress” in improving monitoring and oversight of its grantees.[39] The report further noted “the Department developed plans to address this Management Challenge that included improving its training and technical assistance and broadening consolidated monitoring efforts. These activities have been substantially implemented.”
Please provide the number of staff with responsibilities for implementing grantee monitoring and oversight as of September 30, 2024 and after all personnel actions taken through March 11, 2025.
Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter. We look forward to your prompt response.
Headline: Dome Manufacturer to Create 72 New Jobs, Invest $4.6 Million in Fayetteville for Manufacturing Facility
Dome Manufacturer to Create 72 New Jobs, Invest $4.6 Million in Fayetteville for Manufacturing Facility lsaito
Raleigh, NC
Today, Governor Josh Stein announced Yeadon Fabric Domes, LLC, a manufacturer of air supported structures, will create 72 new jobs in Cumberland County. The company will invest $4.6 million to build a manufacturing facility in Fayetteville.
“We are delighted to welcome Yeadon Fabric Domes to Cumberland County,” said Governor Stein. “Our manufacturing leadership and textile legacy woven with our strategic location and excellent quality of life will continue to attract innovative, global companies to our great state.”
Yeadon Fabric Domes is a leading designer and manufacturer of climate-controlled domed structures. From professional sports to swimming pools, the company’s air-supported facilities provide large, open spaces for a variety of sporting venues and applications. Yeadon Fabric Domes have been installed in more than 30 countries for customers including several professional football teams, University of Pennsylvania and Marquette University. Headquartered in Minnesota, Yeadon will build its own 72-foot-tall domed structure in a 50,000-square-foot space production site at the Fayetteville Regional Airport, adding more manufacturing capacity and service space for its operations.
“Yeadon Domes is thrilled to be expanding our operations to Fayetteville,” said Matt Mejia, CEO of Yeadon Fabric Domes. “Throughout the process, it has become clear that Fayetteville is the perfect place to build our manufacturing facility, and to continue producing world-class air-supported domes. We’re grateful for the support of Governor Stein, and our many partners throughout North Carolina. We look forward to joining the community and expanding Yeadon’s 55-year legacy in Cumberland County.”
“North Carolina is one of the fastest growing states in the nation as it continues to be recognized as the top state to do business in America,” said N.C. Commerce Secretary Lee Lilley. “Yeadon Fabric Domes will benefit from a friendly business environment, a world-class workforce, and a rewarding lifestyle in Cumberland County, and we believe they will find great success here.”
While salaries for the new positions will vary, the average annual salary will be $47,734, exceeding the Cumberland County average of $47,175. These new jobs could create a potential annual payroll impact of more than $3.4 million.
A performance-based grant of $225,000 from the One North Carolina Fund will help the company locate to Cumberland County. The OneNC Fund provides financial assistance to local governments to help attract economic investment and to create jobs. Companies receive no money upfront and must meet job creation and capital investment targets to qualify for payment. All OneNC grants require a matching participation from local governments and any award is contingent upon that condition being met.
“We welcome Yeadon Fabric Domes and its investment to our region,” said N.C. Senator Val Applewhite. “They will greatly benefit from our transitioning military families which offer a uniquely skilled and prepared workforce that a company of this impact will need.”
“This is a great win for Cumberland County and the entire state,” said N.C. Representative Diane Wheatley. “We extend our sincere appreciation to the partnership of state and local officials and the economic development professionals that supported Yeadon Fabric Domes in making its next home in Fayetteville.”
In addition to the North Carolina Department of Commerce and the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, other key partners in this project include the North Carolina General Assembly, North Carolina Community College System, Cumberland County, the City of Fayetteville, and the Fayetteville Cumberland County Economic Development Corporation.