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What’s Ahead
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| NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty at a 2019 event commemorating the completion of the life extension program for the W76-1 nuclear warhead. Gordon-Hagerty is submitting written testimony to Congress this week as part of a “paper” hearing. (Image credit – NNSA) |
Coronavirus Scrambling Congressional Calendar
Spring is normally a pivotal period in the annual federal budget process as the House and Senate Appropriations Committees hold public hearings while writing their spending proposals behind closed doors. The panels have not yet indicated how they will proceed in light of the pandemic, though the chair of the Senate committee has indicated it may hold virtual hearings or skip that step in the process entirely. Much of Congress’ attention is instead turning to overseeing the roughly $2 trillion coronavirus relief legislation that was just enacted and developing a potential follow-on package. The House has also established a bipartisan Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis to oversee the relief funds.
Defense Panel Holding ‘Paper’ Hearing on Nuclear Weapons Funding
In a bid to continue public oversight of defense programs during the coronavirus pandemic, the Senate Armed Services Committee is holding a “paper” hearing on Thursday to examine the Department of Energy’s budget request for nuclear weapons programs. At the scheduled time of the hearing, the committee will post opening statements from witnesses and committee members online and will submit written questions to the witnesses, with a target response time of one week. Among the witnesses are Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, who leads DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration, and Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette. The budget for nuclear weapons is expected to be particularly controversial this fiscal year, as NNSA is seeking to increase funding for weapons modernization and stewardship programs by 25% to $15.6 billion, which includes funding for a new type of warhead. Although the committee does not write NNSA’s budget legislation, it can direct or limit the agency’s activities through the annual National Defense Authorization Act. The top Republican on the counterpart House committee said last month he expects nuclear weapons modernization to be the “most contentious issue” in this year’s version of the legislation. (Update: The hearing has been postponed.)
Academies to Explore Higher Ed Role in Coronavirus Response
The National Academies is kicking off an event series this week focused on the role of higher education institutions in responding to the pandemic. The first event will address how researchers can assist national response efforts and subsequent meetings will turn to topics such as how labs are shifting research agendas, ways to improve public information by crowdsourcing scientific expertise, and options for providing rapid policy advice. The series of seven events will run through the end of April.
NOAA Ocean Exploration Efforts Spin Up
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Ocean Exploration Advisory Board is meeting this week to discuss the status of the agency’s unmanned systems (UxS) strategy and its ocean mapping efforts, among other topics. NOAA has recently taken several steps to support these priorities, including establishing a new Unmanned Systems Operations program and purchasing two new oceanographic vessels. The agency has also sought partnerships to advance innovation in UxS and ocean mapping, striking a four year agreement with a private-sector company to develop deep-water autonomous technologies, and holding a prize competition focused on ocean observations. NOAA is prioritizing ocean mapping in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone, in accordance with an executive order issued in 2019.
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In Case You Missed It
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| NSF Director France Córdova and White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Kelvin Droegemeier at the agency’s 2018 award ceremony. (Image credit – National Science Board) |
Droegemeier Takes Helm of NSF as Córdova Concludes Term
France Córdova stepped down as director of the National Science Foundation on March 30 as she concluded her six year term. With President Trump’s nomination of Sethuraman Panchanathan to succeed her still pending in Congress, the administration chose to appoint White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Kelvin Droegemeier as acting director in the interim. Droegemeier previously served on NSF’s governing board for 12 years, including four years as its vice chair. This is the first time since OSTP’s establishment in 1976 that its director has taken on a separate role in a federal agency. The job would ordinarily fall to NSF’s deputy director, also a Senate-confirmed position, but that post has been vacant since 2014. The next-highest-ranking official at the agency is Chief Operating Officer Fleming Crim, who is not a presidential appointee. In an interview with Physics Today, Cordova said she now plans to return to her home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to consider her next career step.
DOE Labs Remain Open for ‘Mission Critical’ Work
Lawrence Livermore National Lab expanded its onsite activities last week following two weeks of “minimum safe operations” due to California’s shelter in place order. While the majority of employees continue to work remotely, a small number have returned to the lab to carry out “mission-critical activities,” including some classified work. At a town hall meeting last week, Los Alamos National Lab Director Thom Mason said his lab will likewise continue to perform essential activities onsite, such as nuclear stockpile stewardship, nuclear forensics, and production of medical isotopes. He noted New Mexico’s national labs are exempt from some restrictions imposed by the state-level stay at home order. Sandia National Lab’s main campus in Albuquerque is reopening several buildings that had been vacated after employees tested positive for coronavirus. In addition, staff at some DOE facilities are remaining on site to carry out COVID-19 research. Oak Ridge National Lab is now accepting rapid access proposals for coronavirus research at its Spallation Neutron Source, which is coming back online following a planned shutdown in March, and the High Flux Isotope Reactor, which is still on a planned shutdown.
NASA Outlines Long-Term Lunar Plans
On April 2, NASA released a “plan for sustained lunar exploration and development” that broadly outlines activities it intends to conduct at the Moon after it returns astronauts to the surface, a milestone it aims to accomplish by 2024. The plan includes the establishment of a facility called Artemis Base Camp near the lunar south pole that would eventually host crews for periods of one-to-two months and provide a hub for further exploring the surface and potentially operating a radio telescope on the lunar far side. The document also reaffirms NASA’s plans to work with international partners to build out the future Gateway outpost in lunar orbit, though agency officials recently stated it may not be used for the first crewed landing. Although the document responds to a call from the National Space Council last summer to flesh out NASA’s entire Moon to Mars program, it includes few details about plans for crewed Mars exploration while projecting that a first mission will occur “in the 2030s.” Policy legislation pending in the House would require NASA to focus on Mars while designating sustained lunar exploration as outside the “critical path” of preparing for a crewed Mars mission.
Space Station Research Set for Move to NASA Science Directorate
Craig Kundrot, the head of NASA’s Space Life and Physical Sciences Research and Applications Division, said last week the agency will likely move his portfolio out of the agency’s human exploration directorate. He said the division is set to be administered by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and that an official announcement will be made in “probably a matter of weeks.” The division’s physical sciences portfolio revolves around work performed using the International Space Station, particularly research on phenomena peculiar to micro-gravity environments. Its biological research, which includes a large component dedicated to human health in space, takes place on the station and other platforms, including ground-based facilities.
NASA to Fund Six-Cubesat Heliophysics Mission
NASA announced on March 30 that it will fund a mission called the Sun Radio Interferometer Space Experiment (SunRISE) with a launch target date no earlier than summer 2023 and a total development and launch cost of $63 million. Comprising six cubesats orbiting the Earth in a close formation, the mission will produce three-dimensional maps of solar activity by observing the radio waves emitted. NASA is increasingly supporting science missions employing small-scale spacecraft such as cubesats, which have lower costs and can readily accommodate mission architectures entailing multiple spacecraft.
DOE Expands Support for Direct Air Capture Carbon Mitigation
Last week, the Department of Energy announced plans to provide up to $22 million to support development of technologies that remove carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere. One solicitation, from the department’s Office of Science, will support “fundamental research in materials and chemical sciences” at DOE national labs. A second, from the Office of Fossil Energy, will focus on applied materials research and field testing prototypes. In its appropriation for fiscal year 2020, Congress directed the Office of Fossil Energy and the Office of Science to together spend at least $15 million on direct air capture R&D as part of a larger effort to support negative-emissions technologies.
Commission Calls for Doubling Federal AI Spending
The National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence released its first set of quarterly policy recommendations last week, building on a preliminary report released late last year. The congressionally chartered group calls for the federal government to double non-defense spending on AI to $2 billion in fiscal year 2021, a steeper rate than the doubling by fiscal year 2022 proposed in President Trump’s latest budget request. Among the commission’s other recommendations are to establish a National AI Research Resource, described as an “infrastructure that would provide researchers and students with access to compute resources, co-located with AI-ready government data sets, educational tools, and user support.” It also recommends increasing investments in complementary areas, including AI-enabling microelectronics and spectrum sharing for 5G telecommunications networks.
EPA Extends Comment Period for Science Transparency Rule
The Environmental Protection Agency announced last week it has extended the deadline from April 17 to May 18 for public comments on revisions to a proposed rule to restrict the agency from using certain scientific studies that lack publicly available data. In response to the announcement, House Science Committee Chair Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) said “While this extension is a step in the right direction, it is unreasonably optimistic to expect the COVID-19 public health crisis to subside by mid-May,” reiterating her previous call to extend the comment period to “at least 109 days.” In a separate letter, Democratic committee chairs including Johnson request that all agencies extend the deadlines for open comment periods, citing the challenges associated with responding to EPA’s transparency rule.
Pandemic Delays Future Circular Collider Announcement
At a videoconference meeting last month, the CERN Council agreed to postpone the release of the European Particle Physics Strategy Update due to the coronavirus pandemic. The strategy was drafted at a meeting this January and makes recommendations about future priorities, including on such crucial questions as whether CERN should move ahead with its proposed Future Circular Collider megaproject. Those recommendations were due to be approved at a meeting of the CERN Council on May 25, but the council will instead hold another videoconference on that date to determine next steps. The council resolved that in the meantime it would be inappropriate to release the draft strategy or make any comment about its contents.
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Events This Week
All times are Eastern Daylight Time and all congressional hearings are webcast, unless otherwise noted. Listings do not imply endorsement.
Monday, April 6
Tuesday, April 7
Wednesday, April 8
Thursday, April 9
Friday, April 10
Monday, April 13
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Opportunities OSTP Extends Deadline for Open Access RFI
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has again extended the deadline for its request for public input on “approaches for ensuring broad public access to the peer-reviewed scholarly publications, data, and code that result from federally funded scientific research.” Submissions are now due May 6.
National Science Board Hiring Policy Analyst
The National Science Board is hiring a Science and Engineering Policy Analyst responsible for identifying and researching significant policy issues, leading high-level discussions on S&T policy, and serving as the point of contact for board committees, among other tasks. Applications are due April 15.
APS Collecting Stories about Physics During the Pandemic
The American Physical Society is accepting stories about the experience of physicists during the pandemic. Submissions may address questions such as: “How are you carrying out your research? What steps are you taking to help your students or to stay in touch with collaborators? How are you using your physics training during the pandemic?” To submit your story, send a 100 to 200 word email to physics@aps.org.
Know of an upcoming science policy event either inside or outside the Beltway? Email us at fyi@aip.org.
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