AAAS Policy
Alert -- November 4, 2009
Budget News
On October 29 the House and Senate agreed to the Department of Interior, Environment, and
Related Agencies (H.R. 2996)
conference report, and the next day
President Obama signed it into law. Attached to the bill was a new
continuing resolution (CR) extending funding at FY 2009 levels through
December 18 for agencies still without FY 2010 appropriations. (The
previous CR was set to expire on October 31.) The bill provides $1.1
billion in total funding for the U.S. Geological Survey, $68 million
(6.5%) more than FY 2009 (not including stimulus funds) and $14 million
(1.3%) more than the President's request. The Science and Technology
program in the Environmental Protection Agency receives $846 million in
total funding (including Superfund transfers), $56 million (7.1%) more
than FY 2009 and $4 million (0.5%) more than the President's request.
The President signed both the Homeland
Security (H.R. 2892)
and Energy
and Water Development (H.R. 3183)
appropriations bills into law
on October 28. Details of the conference reports were discussed in the
10/14/09
and 10/7/09
Policy Alerts,
respectively. These two, together with the Interior/Environment bill
above, bring the total number of completed appropriation bills to five
out of a total of twelve.
The Defense authorization bill
(H.R.
2647) conference report was passed by the Senate on October 22
and signed into law by the President on October 28. This authorization
bill does not appropriate funds, but does provide important guidelines
for the upcoming conference of the Defense appropriation bill (H.R.
3326). Of the two most contentious programs in this year's
appropriations bill, one was authorized for funding while the other was
not. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter alternative propulsion system
program was authorized in the amount of $430 million for RDT&E and
$180 million for procurement. Congress agreed with the President's
request regarding the VH-71 Presidential helicopter, effectively
canceling the program, but "strongly encourage(s) the Department of
Defense and the Executive Branch to consider a complete range of
alternatives" for the President's transportation requirements.
The Commerce, Science, Justice
and Related Agencies (H.R. 2847)
appropriation bill has stalled
in the Senate, and with a full Senate calendar, no appropriation bills
are currently scheduled for debate. Two appropriation bills -- Defense
and Transportation, both with significant R&D components -- are
waiting to be discussed in conference, but no date has been set for
either of these bills. The Senate has yet to pass the remaining five
spending bills. For an update on the current status of appropriations,
see the AAAS R&D Budget Web
site.
Other Congressional News
Senate Committee Holds
Hearings, May Mark Up Climate Change Bill. Last week the Senate
Committee
on Environment and Public Works held three days of hearings
on S.1733, the
Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act. The Committee
heard testimony from over 50 witnesses. The committee plans to mark up
the climate bill this week, but a threatened boycott by committee
Republicans would prevent the quorum needed to proceed. Meanwhile, the
final round of informal negotiations before the December Copenhagen
conference is taking place November 2-6 in Barcelona, Spain through the
U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Senate Committee Begins Mark-Up
of WMD Bill. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs Committee held its first mark-up of the Weapons of Mass
Destruction Prevention and Preparedness Act of 2009 (S. 1649)
last
week, but failed to muster a quorum necessary to take a vote on the
bill. The legislation would create a new tiered system for regulating
high-containment laboratories that conduct research on select-agent
toxins and pathogens. The committee will continue its mark-up of the
legislation this week. AAAS has submitted comments
on the bill.
Executive
Branch
ARPA-E Awards First Grants.
The new Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) in the
Department of Energy has announced its first set of grants. The 37
grants total about $151 million, representing more than a third of the
$400 million appropriation ARPA-E received under the American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The largest share of the grants will go to
small businesses (43%), followed by academic institutions (25%), and
large companies (19%). Over 3,600 concept papers were submitted. From
among these, DOE requested about 300 proposals. A detailed list of
the
37 grants is available on the DOE website.
People in the News. -
President Obama announced his intention to nominate Philip
E. Coyle III
to serve as the new Associate Director for National Security and
International Affairs within the White House Office of Science and
Technology Policy (OSTP). Coyle currently serves as a Senior Advisor to
the President of the World Security Institute and has worked for many
years on nuclear weapons research, arms control and nonproliferation
issues.
- The Senate has confirmed Regina
Benjamin, founder of the Bayou La
Batre Rural Health Clinic in Alabama, as U.S. Surgeon General.
Elsewhere
CIRM Awards Grants for
Stem-Cell Based Therapies. The California Institute
for
Regenerative Medicine has awarded $230 million in four-year grants
to
California universities and companies for research on stem-cell based
therapies for 11 diseases. The Institute has made other grants
previously, but these are the first that are expected to result
eventually in filings with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for
the start of clinical trials. Only 4 of the 14 grants involve embryonic
stem cells. The others involve adult stem cells or conventional drugs
aimed at killing cancer-causing stem cells. In addition to the $230
million from California, Canada and Britain are contributing another
$43 million because some of the research will be done by collaborators
in those countries.
Report Finds Most-Qualified STEM
Students Opting for Other Careers. High-profile reports,
officials, and business leaders have called for increasing the number
of U.S. students studying science, technology, engineering and math
(STEM), at both pre-college and college levels, as a way for the nation
to remain competitive in the global economy. A new
report by
researchers at Rutgers and Georgetown Universities suggests that the
supply of U.S.STEM students has remained fairly steady for almost 30
years, but that the most qualified and capable among them are showing
less interest in pursuing STEM careers. Analyses of transitions from
high school to college to early- and mid-career jobs, based on
longitudinal surveys conducted by the U.S. Departments of Education and
Labor, suggest that more attention could be focused on finding ways to
make STEM careers more attractive to top students who now seem to be
turning to other sectors for work.
States Lowering Education
Standards. A report
from the U.S. Department of Education's
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) revealed that whereas
12 states had made their testing standards for measuring proficiency
more stringent in one or more grade levels or subjects, at least 26
states had made their standards less stringent. The NCES researchers
compared state proficiency levels with those recommended by the
National
Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
Global Technology Fund
Announced. In his speech in Cairo last June, President Obama
announced that the U.S. was planning to "launch a new fund to support
technological development in Muslim-majority countries." Last week, the
Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a government agency
whose mission includes fostering economic development in new and
emerging markets, followed through by issuing a
call for proposals to
manage one or more private equity investment funds to promote
technology development in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. OPIC will
provide financing ranging between $25 million and $150 million in total
capital for each fund or funds established.
CORRECTION: Last week's Policy Alert stated that in its
final report, the Augustine Committee on Human Spaceflight Plans had
issued a set of recommendations including "focusing instead on the
longer-term goal of sending humans in a flyby of the Martian moons."
The Augustine Committee has emphasized that its report was not to be
read as a set of recommendations but rather as a series of potential
paths that NASA could undertake, including sending humans in a flyby of
Mars and/or landing humans on one of the Martian moons, among many
other options.
Publisher: Alan I. Leshner
Editor: Steve Nelson
Contributors: Joanne Carney, Patrick Clemins,
Mark Frankel, Erin Heath, Barbara Jasny, Earl Lane, Al Teich, Ric
Weibl, Jamie Wheeler, Kasey White, Brad Wible
NOTE: The AAAS Policy Alert is a newsletter provided to AAAS Members to
inform them of developments in science and technology policy that may
be of interest. Information in the Policy Alert is gathered from
published news reports, unpublished documents, and personal
communications. Although the information contained in this
newsletter is regarded as reliable, it is provided only for the
convenience and private use of our members. Comments and
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