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What’s Ahead
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| Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) speaking at a press conference on a bipartisan effort she is part of to advance a compromise pandemic relief package. That package is part of negotiations over major legislation taking place this week, as is a broad bipartisan energy policy bill that she has pushed alongside Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), right. (Image credit – C-SPAN) |
Congress Racing to Finish Budget Deal, Energy Bill
After passing a one week stopgap last week, Congress has until Friday night to finalize the federal budget for the current fiscal year or pass another stopgap measure to avert a government shutdown. Congressional leaders are still looking to combine the appropriations legislation with a coronavirus relief package. Early this week, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is expected to formally introduce a $908 billion relief package, which has been a focal point of recent negotiations, but disagreements remain over matters such as granting liability protections for businesses and providing aid to state and local governments. The House and Senate are also reportedly near agreement on a slimmed-down version of major energy policy legislation advanced earlier this year, which is a top priority of outgoing Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chair Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).
National Defense Authorization Act Enters End Game
The fiscal year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act is headed to President Trump’s desk this week after the House passed it on Dec. 8 on a vote of 335 to 78 and the Senate followed suit with a vote of 84 to 13 three days later. Once enacted, the annual defense policy update will establish national initiatives in artificial intelligence research and microelectronics R&D and production, as well as make numerous other updates to defense R&D policy. First, though, it faces a veto from Trump, who has objected to the absence of a provision removing internet companies’ liability protections for content they host and the inclusion of a requirement to rename military bases named after Confederate leaders. Lawmakers will likely seek to overrule Trump if he follows through, but if he waits until the constitutional ten day deadline to issue a veto, the override votes might not take place until just before the bill expires at the conclusion of the current Congress in January.
PCAST Holding Lame Duck Meeting
The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology is convening on Friday for what could be its final meeting of the Trump administration. The council is tentatively set to approve a report on potential approaches for creating institutes that support “Industries of the Future,” a term encompassing quantum information science, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, advanced communications, and biotechnology. The report follows a PCAST roadmap issued this past summer that recommended mechanisms for facilitating the translation of research into applications, bolstering the U.S. STEM workforce, and strengthening federal laboratories’ engagement in the R&D enterprise. As part of its congressionally mandated duties, PCAST will also vote on its review of the interagency Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Program, which coordinates advanced computing projects across federal agencies. PCAST is established through executive order and is traditionally reconstituted with a new membership by each presidential administration.
Advanced Reactor Commercialization Study Launching
The National Academies is launching a study this week on “opportunities and barriers to commercialization of new and advanced nuclear energy technologies over the next 30 years.” The study committee will meet in public session on Thursday to discuss its charge, which includes consideration of research, development, and deployment needs; economic and regulatory challenges; safety and waste management; and potential applicability of the technologies outside the energy sector. Staff members from the Department of Energy and three congressional committees will discuss the department’s recently launched advanced reactor demonstration program, and the new director of Idaho National Lab John Wagner will brief the committee on current technology collaborations with private companies and utilities. The study is chaired by Richard Meserve, a former chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and sponsored by DOE and James Truchard, co-founder of the scientific equipment manufacturer National Instruments. It is being conducted in parallel with a congressionally mandated study on advanced reactor waste management.
FCC Holding Quantum Internet Forum
On Tuesday, Federal Communications Commission Chair Ajit Pai is convening a half-day forum showcasing U.S. efforts to develop the technologies necessary to build a “quantum internet,” which could confer unique security advantages over traditional networks. The Department of Energy has proposed to connect all 17 of its national labs through a quantum network, starting with regional networks near its labs in Illinois and New York. A leader in that effort, physicist David Awschalom of the University of Chicago, will deliver a keynote address at the forum. Officials from DOE, the National Science Foundation, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will discuss funding and workforce needs.
US Competitiveness Commission Offering Findings
The U.S. Council on Competitiveness is holding its annual National Competitiveness Forum on Thursday. Speakers include the directors of Los Alamos, Berkeley, and Oak Ridge National Labs, as well as industry executives and leaders from eight universities. The event will highlight findings from the first year of the National Commission on Innovation and Competitiveness Frontiers, an initiative the council launched to develop a policy agenda for spurring innovation and driving “long-term productivity and inclusive prosperity.”
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In Case You Missed It
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| Five of the 18 members of NASA’s Artemis Team are introduced in person at the National Space Council meeting on Dec. 9. (Image credit – NASA) |
NASA Names Artemis Astronauts, Releases Lunar Science Plan
At the National Space Council meeting on Dec. 9, Vice President Mike Pence announced the names of 18 astronauts comprising NASA’s “Artemis Team,” who are eligible to undertake crewed missions to the Moon. The agency also released a nearly 200 page report last week detailing science goals for the first crewed surface mission, which is expected to land in the Moon’s south polar region. Assembled by a science definition team appointed in September, the document sets out an agenda for sample collection, in situ measurements, and instrumentation installation that will be “carefully choreographed” to take advantage of a human presence and constant communication with scientific personnel on Earth. It also recommends capabilities that would enhance the mission’s science return, such as cryogenic storage and power supplies for extended instrument operation, and it presumes robotic and follow-on crewed missions will help build out a broader research program and instrumentation network. While the astronaut announcement and science report both anticipate the first crewed landing will be the third Artemis mission and take place in 2024, revisions to the Artemis program’s schedule and potentially its mission architecture are expected under the incoming Biden administration.
White House Updates National Space Policy
Also during last week’s National Space Council meeting, the White House released an updated version of the National Space Policy. The 40 page document, which was last fully updated in 2010, establishes cross-government priorities for space, such as strengthening the space industrial base, protecting access to the electromagnetic spectrum, responding to hazards such as solar storms and space debris, and developing space nuclear power and propulsion technologies. For instance, the policy directs the Department of Energy to support the design and development of such technologies and “maintain, on a full cost recovery basis, the capability and infrastructure to develop, furnish, and conduct safety analyses for space nuclear systems.” The policy also establishes a set of six national “principles,” including ones declaring the U.S. will “expand its leadership alongside nations that share its democratic values, respect for human rights, and economic freedom” as well as pursue the exploitation of natural resources in space without making or recognizing claims to national sovereignty.
Fusion Advisory Panel Unanimously Approves Long-Range Plan
After three days of deliberations, the Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (FESAC) voted unanimously last week to approve a long-range strategic plan for the Department of Energy’s fusion and plasma science research programs. Prior to the final vote, FESAC members offered revisions to a draft version of the plan prepared by a subcommittee over the past year, which included further emphasizing the risks of the constrained budget scenarios outlined in the plan, highlighting additional opportunities for partnerships with other federal agencies, and strengthening a recommendation on diversity, equity, and inclusion. The report concludes a two year process aimed at developing consensus within the U.S. fusion and plasma science community, which has in the past struggled to unite around a shared set of priorities. FES Director James Van Dam lauded the committee’s efforts, remarking, “By approving this report, you and the entire community have demonstrated that we have gotten over the hump of being able to arrive at consensus.”
DOE Offers Updates on Neutron Facilities and COVID Impacts
Linda Horton, the head of the Department of Energy’s Basic Energy Sciences (BES) program, told the advisory committee for her office last week that DOE has approved a statement of mission need to replace the pressure vessel on the High Flux Isotope Reactor at Oak Ridge National Lab. The statement is the first step toward advancing the project, which the committee recommended in a recent report with an eye toward undertaking the job in the 2030s. Horton also reported the reactor has been shut down since September because irregularities were discovered in a new fuel element similar to problems experienced in another fuel element in late 2018 that led to the reactor being kept offline for almost a year. DOE is still evaluating the situation. Meanwhile, the department has given the go-ahead to begin construction on a power upgrade to Oak Ridge’s Spallation Neutron Source and approved the preliminary design for the facility’s Second Target Station expansion project. Horton also reported that the Linac Coherent Light Source II project at SLAC National Accelerator Lab, which had received its final scheduled appropriation, will need an additional $91 million to cover pandemic-related disruptions that have also delayed the facility’s completion date to January 2024. She noted several current user facilities have expanded their operating hours as part of DOE’s contribution to COVID-19 research, but that the overall number of BES facility users dropped in fiscal year 2020 from more than 16,000 to less than 13,000.
China-US Neutrino Experiment Draws to a Close
The China-based Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment held a ceremony over the weekend to mark the end of data collection, which employed eight detectors installed underground just northeast of Hong Kong to measure neutrinos produced at the nearby Daya Bay nuclear power plant. The experiment has been an equal partnership between the Chinese Institute of High Energy Physics and the U.S. Department of Energy, which contributed $35.5 million to its construction, with efforts led by scientists at Berkeley and Brookhaven National Labs. Scientists from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Chile, Russia, and the Czech Republic also participated. Over its more than nine year lifespan, the Daya Bay experiment has gathered copious data on neutrinos’ subtle “flavor-oscillating” behavior and on antineutrino production in nuclear reactors, and the collaboration will persist as analysis of that data continues.
National Weather Service Considers Data Access Limits
The National Weather Service announced in a November memo that it is proposing to limit the frequency of users’ access to websites used for downloading weather data, citing “infrastructure constraints.” At a forum on the topic last week, agency officials explained they are considering limiting the number of connections to 60 per minute for outside users, which includes private companies, academic researchers, and graduate students. They added the original goal was to implement the limits before the U.S. weather model is updated in February 2021. Though the officials estimated the restrictions would not affect 75% of users, they indicated the timeline and approach may be adjusted because of feedback generally critical of the change. The officials said any proposal would be implemented gradually with community feedback and they are accepting comments through Dec. 18.
Microwave Attack Deemed Plausible Cause of Diplomat Illness
After a number of U.S. personnel stationed in Cuba and later China fell ill with mysterious symptoms starting in 2016, the State Department commissioned the National Academies to assess potential natural and artificial causes. The resulting report, which was released to the public on Dec. 5, concludes that concentrated radiofrequency energy “appears to be the most plausible mechanism” for certain acute symptoms experienced by personnel in Cuba, such as sudden perceptions of pressure or loud sounds. The study committee deems other potential causes as more speculative, such as the prospect the victims suffered from a form of mass psychological illness, though it states psychological conditions could be a contributing factor for some symptoms. Citing data limitations, the committee raises many caveats about its findings and does not draw conclusions about the cases in China. The State Department received the report from the Academies this past summer and has yet to make its own conclusion about the cause of the illnesses. Last year, Congress authorized the State Department to provide special compensation to those affected and this year’s pending defense policy update clarifies that affected employees from other agencies can also be compensated.
STEM Legislation Moves Forward in Congress
With the current legislative session winding down, Congress recently advanced several STEM-related bills:
- Sens. Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) introduced the Rural STEM Education Act, a companion to a bill the House passed in September. The legislation would direct the National Science Foundation to support research on ways to improve STEM education in rural schools and broaden participation of rural students in STEM fields. Among its other provisions, it would also direct the National Institute of Standards and Technology to establish a prize competition to spur technological innovations that improve broadband access in rural communities.
- Reps. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) and Randy Weber (R-TX) introduced the Flood Level Observation, Operations, and Decision Support (FLOODS) Act in the House, a companion to a bill the Senate passed on Nov. 16. Among its provisions, the bill would establish a “National Integrated Flood Information System” to coordinate flood research at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and create a committee to coordinate water management efforts across federal agencies.
- On Dec. 3, the House passed the Coordinated Ocean Observations and Research Act, which reauthorizes NOAA’s Integrated Coastal and Ocean Observation System through 2024 and codifies the agency’s National Water Center, among other provisions. The bill now heads back to the Senate, which passed a different version of the bill in July.
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Events This Week Monday, December 14
Tuesday, December 15
Wednesday, December 16
Thursday, December 17
Friday, December 18
Monday, December 21
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Opportunities UCAR Seeking Director of Government Relations
The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research is accepting applications for a government relations director to primarily work at its headquarters in Boulder, Colorado. The incumbent will act as the “primary organization contact and internal advisor for legislative and public policy matters,” cultivating support for UCAR research and education initiatives among federal policymakers and funders, among other duties. Applicants must have an advanced degree and at least ten years of experience working with legislators and policymakers. The position will be posted until Jan. 4, 2021.
NSF Hiring Engineering Education Division Director
The National Science Foundation is hiring a director for its Division of Engineering Education and Centers. The division supports research centers focused on engineering grand challenges, efforts to broad participation of underrepresented groups in engineering, and engineering education research. Applications are due Jan. 31, 2021.
Academies Accepting High Energy Density Physics Nominations
The National Academies is accepting nominations for members to serve on a committee that will assess high energy density (HED) physics research in the U.S. and provide an overview of the status of international efforts in the field. Nominations are specifically sought from historically underrepresented groups and from members with expertise in nuclear security workforce program management, and science policy, among other areas. Nominations are due Dec. 31.
Know of an upcoming science policy event either inside or outside the Beltway? Email us at fyi@aip.org.
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