Congress passed the $409.6 billion omnibus appropriations bill last night, approving a number of earmarked spending projects that will be attached to next year’s fiscal budget. The bill — which President Barack Obama is expected to sign into law today, according to Politico — allocates a number of earmarks for Cornell research.

Among them, Cornell hopes receive $2.2 million to begin construction on a Grape Genetics Research Center in Geneva. As of last night, however, the electronic system that charts which projects are included in the bill had not been updated, according to Stephen Johnson, Cornell’s vice president for government and community relations.

“We’re hopeful that [the projects] are in there, but reluctant to say until we can verify,” he said.

In advance of their full meeting Friday, Cornell’s Board of Trustees met in committees yesterday to discuss a range of topics, including federal research funding and a re-examination of the University’s policy on conflicts of interest and standards of ethical conduct.

In accordance with New York State’s Open Meetings Law, several committees held open sessions yesterday before subsequently convening in closed sessions, which were not available to the media.

At the trustees’ Committee on Governmental Relations, Cornell’s office of government and community relations updated members about how the University will be impacted by recent federal legislation.