AAAS Policy Alert -- September 19, 2012

IN THIS ISSUE

BUDGET NEWS

House Passes Continuing Resolution. As expected last week, the House voted 329 to 91 to approve a stopgap continuing resolution that would continue funding the government through March 2013. The resolution, if successfully passed by Congress and signed into law, would avoid a government shutdown when FY 2012 ends Sept. 30. The Senate is expected to pass the measure this week before Congress's anticipated recess at week's end.

OMB Releases Sequestration Report. Responding to a mandate from Congress, on Sept. 14 the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released a detailed report (PDF) outlining the funding impacts of sequestration. According to the report, defense programs would decline by 9.4%, while nondefense programs would decline by 8.2%. (Both figures refer to discretionary spending only.) This would amount to roughly $12.3 billion in R&D cuts: $7.4 billion on the defense side, and $5.0 billion on the nondefense side. In the coming weeks, the AAAS R&D Budget Program will also issue estimates of the impacts of sequestration on federal R&D-specific funding for agencies and states through FY 2017.

Congress Weighs Varying Approaches to Sequestration. Congress continues to debate and jockey for political position on all things sequester-related. Last week the Republican-controlled House passed a bill along party lines that would "turn off" the across-the-board cuts on defense spending next year, provided that equal savings are found elsewhere. The Administration has already said that the President would veto the bill, which is unlikely to make it through the Senate in any event. On the opposite end of the political spectrum, the Congressional Progressive Caucus said its members would resist any attempts to reduce spending on entitlements and safety net programs like Social Security and Medicare, a key component of several deficit-reduction strategies like the Bowles-Simpson report. And in the upper chamber, a group of Senators is working on a $55 billion plan to delay the fiscal cliff six months or more through a mix of spending cuts and, potentially, revenue increases.

For updates on the federal research and development budget for FY 2013, please visit the AAAS R&D Budget and Policy website.

OTHER CONGRESSIONAL NEWS

House to Consider STEM Jobs Act. This week the House is scheduled to vote on legislation introduced late last week that would change the current system of awarding permanent residency visas via a lottery system to one that would award visas to foreign nationals in STEM fields. The STEM Jobs Act (PDF) (unnumbered at this time), was introduced by Judiciary Committee chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) and would give priority to foreign nationals who have studied in the U.S. and earned a Ph.D. or master's degree from a U.S. university in a STEM field. In order to be eligible, individuals must have a prospective employer petition on their behalf and must agree to work in the U.S. for five years.
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Golden Goose Awardees Named. The winners of the first Golden Goose Awards, honored in a Capitol Hill ceremony last week, are Charles Townes, inventor of laser technology; Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie, and Roger Tsien, who advanced biomedical research with a protein found in jellyfish; and Jon Weber, Eugene White, Rodney White, and Della Roy, who pioneered bone grafts using coral.

House Considers "Stop the War on Coal Act" This Week. H.R. 3409 includes five separate bills. Most notably, Title I (Coal Miner Employment and Domestic Energy Infrastructure Protection Act) would prohibit the Secretary of the Interior from implementing new rules and regulations that would negatively affect the economy or eliminate mining jobs. Title II (Energy Tax Prevention Act) would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from using the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gasses. The bill has been reported by the House Committee on Natural Resources and may be considered by the full House sometime this week.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Marks Up Cancer Bill. The Committee expanded the scope of the Pancreatic Cancer Research and Education Act and re-named it the Recalcitrant Cancer Research Act of 2012 (H.R. 733). The bill would require the director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to develop a strategy for funding and conducting research on specific types of cancer that have five-year survival rates of less than 10% and cause disproportionate numbers of deaths in the U.S., according to an article by the Association of American Medical Colleges. The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions plans to consider the amended version on Sept. 19.

EXECUTIVE BRANCH

USDA Announces Long-Term Agro-ecosystem Research Network (LTAR). The U.S. Department of Agriculture has created a network of agricultural research sites on which to study long-term ecosystem processes such as soil erosion and climate change. The LTAR program will focus on improving agricultural resilience and will collaborate with other long-term research networks already in existence, including NSF's Long-Term Ecological Research Network (LTER) and National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). USDA has requested $9.5 million from Congress to fund LTAR research.

ELSEWHERE

NRC Issues Report on Ballistic Missile Defense. The National Research Council has released a report, "Making Sense of Ballistic Missile Defense: An Assessment of Concepts and Systems for U.S. Boost-Phase Missile Defense in Comparison to Other Alternatives." The report, funded by the Missile Defense Agency, concludes that boost-phase defense systems - intended to shoot down enemy missiles immediately following launch, while the rocket engine is still firing - are neither practical nor feasible, and recommends that the U.S. ballistic missile defense concentrate on intercepting enemy missiles in midcourse. The report makes recommendations for strengthening the current systems (press release here).

U.S. and Canada Sign Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement Amendments. Last week the U.S. and Canada signed amendments to the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (news release here; agreement history here). The amendments address invasive species, such as the Asian carp and zebra mussel, as well as impacts of climate change, such as rising lake levels. In support of these efforts, EPA announced $1.7 million in Great Lakes Restorative Initiative grants to improve water quality in Cleveland-area watersheds.

UK Commits Funds for Open Access. The UK government has pledged approximately $16 million to help researchers pay article fees for open access publications, following the adoption of a new open-access policy by the Research Councils UK and the recommendations of a government working group. The funding will supplement money that the Research Councils will provide through a block grant after its policy goes into effect on April 1, 2013 (more details here).

Japan Considers Plan to End Nuclear Power. A Japanese Cabinet panel has endorsed a new energy policy that would phase out the nation's use of nuclear power by the 2030s. The previous energy plan, adopted in 2010, proposed increasing nuclear power resources. However, those plans were revisited following the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi plant in March 2011. Polls show support for the new policy, although renewable energy sources may not be able to fully replace nuclear power, potentially increasing Japan's reliance on fossil fuels (more background here).

People in the News. - On Sept. 12 the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) announced the nomination of C. Daniel Mote, Jr. to serve as the President of the NAE, replacing Charles Vest who will retire in June 2013. Mote is the past president and Regents professor of the University of Maryland and will serve a six-year term beginning July 2013.
- Christopher P. Austin has been named the first permanent director of the NIH's newest center, the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS). He will succeed NCATS Acting Director Thomas R. Insel on Sept. 23. Austin had been serving as director of NCATS Division of Pre-Clinical Innovation since the NCATS launch in December 2011. A developmental neurogeneticist by training, Austin came to NIH in 2002 from Merck (more details here).

Archived issues of AAAS Policy Alert can be found at http://www.aaas.org/spp/policyalert.

Publisher: Alan I. Leshner
Editor: Steve Nelson
Contributors: Joanne Carney, Ed Derrick, Laci Gerhart, Erin Heath, Matt Hourihan, Earl Lane, Deborah Runkle, Gretchen Seiler, Sara Spizzirri

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 suggestions regarding the Policy Alert are welcome. Please write to alert@aaas.org.

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