What’s Ahead

Retiring Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) plays Christmas carols in the atrium of the Hart Senate Office Building on Dec. 16. During his 18 year Senate career, Alexander was one of Congress’ top advocates for energy R&D funding, most recently and influentially as chair of the Senate Energy-Water Appropriations Subcommittee. Previously, Alexander served as Tennessee governor from 1979 to 1987, president of the University of Tennessee from 1988 to 1991, and U.S. secretary of education from 1991 to 1993. He also ran for president in 1996 and 2000. (Image credit – Senate Republicans)

Congress Set to Pass Spending, Pandemic, and Energy Policy Package

Late this weekend, Congress reached a wide-ranging deal to pass legislation that encompasses appropriations for fiscal year 2021, $900 billion in new pandemic relief spending, and a host of other bills, including major energy policy legislation that reconciles separate bills advanced in the Senate and House earlier this year. Congress passed a stopgap spending measure on Sunday that gives it until the end of Monday to hold votes on the package and send it to President Trump, who is expected to sign it. As of noon Monday, details of the final appropriations agreement had not yet been released, but it is unlikely to yield major surprises for science agencies as the original House and Senate proposals did not markedly deviate from current funding levels in most cases. It is unclear if the relief package includes any funding directed to mitigating disruptions to research or science facilities projects, though summaries indicate it provides $82 billion in general aid for colleges and schools.

Veto Pending on Defense Policy Legislation

Congress will adjourn for the Christmas holiday this week, but with Trump poised to veto the National Defense Authorization Act, lawmakers are expected to return for override votes before the new Congress is seated at the beginning of January. Sent to Trump on Dec. 11, the sprawling defense policy update includes provisions establishing major national initiatives in artificial intelligence research and microelectronics R&D and production. The legislation is a high priority for congressional leaders and there are no indications they lack the two-thirds majorities needed to enact it without Trump’s approval. However, there remains some uncertainty surrounding the override process as opponents could raise procedural hurdles and some Republicans who originally voted for the bill may be unwilling to defy Trump.

FYI This Week Returns Jan. 4

FYI This Week will be on hiatus through the end of the year and will return on Jan. 4. That edition will cover year-end policy actions and any news from President-elect Biden’s transition as his team prepares for Inauguration Day on Jan. 20. President Obama’s transition team announced the positions of White House science advisor and head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in late December 2008, along with the outside chairs of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. At the moment, though, there are no clear indications of what Biden’s schedule for science policy appointments will be. In addition to our coverage in This Week, FYI will offer more in-depth analysis through its Bulletins. If you would like to receive FYI updates by email, we invite you to sign up for This Week and our Bulletins by clicking here. We also invite you to keep tabs on budgetary, legislative, and leadership developments using the trackers on the FYI website.

In Case You Missed It

Gina McCarthy speaking on her appointment to coordinate domestic climate policy for the Biden administration. (Image credit – Biden Transition Team)

Gina McCarthy Named National Climate Advisor

President-elect Biden announced picks for the senior members of his “climate team” last week, including former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy as his “national climate advisor” in a newly established White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy. Currently CEO of the National Resources Defense Council, McCarthy led the EPA under President Obama from 2013 to 2017 and spearheaded the Clean Power Plan, a regulatory framework for curbing carbon emissions from existing power plants that the Trump administration has since rescinded. During the Trump administration, she has been a vocal opponent of its efforts to roll back regulations on fuel-efficiency standards for cars, methane emissions, and mercury emissions, as well as of its plans to restrict EPA from using scientific studies that lack publicly accessible data. McCarthy’s deputy will be Ali Zaidi, who is currently New York’s deputy secretary to the governor for energy and environment. Alongside McCarthy and Zaidi, Biden announced his intent to nominate former Democratic Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm as energy secretary, North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Michael Regan as EPA administrator, Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM) as interior secretary, and environmental lawyer Brenda Mallory as chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Clean Energy Jobs Advocate Granholm Picked for Energy Secretary

In selecting former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm as his nominee to lead the Department of Energy, Biden emphasized her efforts to “promote a clean energy future with new jobs, new industries, cleaner and more affordable energy.” Granholm is a longstanding proponent of using federal funding to promote regional economic development based on clean energy technologies. Her advocacy on the subject draws from her efforts as governor to rescue her state’s auto industry and diversify its economy through a “rust-to-green” strategy, including through DOE funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Since leaving office, she has argued the U.S. needs to take aggressive, targeted action to support its businesses in the face of foreign competition and better equip its workforce to compete in emerging industries. At the announcement event, Granholm remarked that she is “obsessed” with creating jobs in the clean energy sector. “We can let other countries beat us to those opportunities, or we can get in the game,” she concluded.

Legislation Moving Quickly as 116th Congress Winds Down

Several science-related bills are at or near the finish line as the 116th Congress comes to a close, while others advanced last week but will likely need to be reintroduced next year:

On Dec. 18, President Trump signed bills focused on reducing marine debris, improving coastal data collection by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and updating policy for the National Sea Grant College Program. A separate bill updating policy for the Integrated Coastal and Ocean Observation System currently awaits Trump’s signature.
Other bills headed to Trump’s desk include the National Landslide Preparedness Act, which updates policy for the U.S. Geological Survey’s landslide hazards research and 3D elevation mapping programs, and a bill protecting Apollo-era lunar landing sites.
An amended version of the NASA Authorization Act passed the Senate by unanimous consent. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), a lead sponsor of the bill, acknowledged Congress will not complete work on it this year but said he expects it to serve as the starting point for efforts in the next legislative session.
The Senate also passed the Learning Excellence and Good Examples from New Developers (LEGEND) Act, which would provide further direction to NOAA as it creates an Earth Prediction Innovation Center. A companion bill was introduced in the House last year but has not yet advanced.
Leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee introduced the National Ocean Exploration Act, which would update priorities for NOAA’s ocean mapping and exploration programs.

NIST Submits Tech Transfer Policy Proposals to Congress

The National Institute of Standards and Technology sent a package of legislative proposals to Congress this month focused on reforming policies that govern the commercialization of technologies produced at federal labs. Among other changes, the legislation would increase the annual cap on patent royalties for federal employees from $150,000 to $500,000, enable federal labs to copyright certain software they produce, and extend the maximum information protection period for Cooperative Research and Development Agreements from 5 to 12 years. It would also permit all government-operated labs to use Other Transaction Agreements (OTA) and enable all government-owned labs to establish non-profit foundations that can raise additional resources for the labs’ missions. Congress has previously created a handful of foundations and granted some agencies OTA authority, which provides substantial flexibility over traditional contract mechanisms. The legislative package is a culmination of the NIST’s “Return on Investment” initiative, a marquee effort of NIST Director Walter Copan. In an email announcing the package, Copan wrote that NIST also plans to propose changes to the Bayh-Dole Act, which governs the commercialization of federally funded technologies produced outside the government.

APS Suggests Priority Actions for Incoming Administration

The American Physical Society sent a letter to President-elect Biden last week outlining policy recommendations in six areas: COVID-19 relief, research security, immigration, STEM workforce development, nuclear threat reduction, and climate change. Among its immigration and workforce recommendations, APS asks Biden to rescind the Trump administration’s proposed rule capping student visa lengths, a rule increasing salary requirements for H-1B visa holders, and an executive order restricting diversity training by federal agencies and contractors. It also proposes the Biden administration develop incentives for top research universities to develop strong partnerships with minority-serving institutions and that it encourage science agencies to adjust grant application requirements to account for the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on women. It further urges the Biden administration to ensure future COVID-19 relief legislation includes at least $26 billion in supplemental funding for federal science agencies, as proposed in the Research Investment to Spark the Economy (RISE) Act. On climate change, APS asks Biden to reverse the Trump administration’s relaxation of methane emissions regulations and launch an effort to more accurately measure them. (APS is an AIP Member Society.)

Physics Societies Issue Statement on Open Access Policy

Last week, AIP and 16 other physics societies issued a joint statement that welcomes the “policy momentum” toward increasing open access to research papers while cautioning against actions that could “undermine the viability of high-quality hybrid journals,” which operate on a subscription basis but allow authors to pay a fee to make individual papers freely available. The societies raise particular concerns about the Rights Retention Strategy proposed by European-led Coalition S, which aims to override certain restrictions on article sharing. The societies note that the physics community has been an early adopter of open science mechanisms such as the arXiv preprint server but that hybrid journals still publish more than 85% of physics articles. They argue that broader global financial support will ultimately be required for most hybrid physics journals to “viably transition” to full open access. (FYI is published by AIP, a non-profit federation of scientific societies. AIP is partially supported by revenue generated from AIP Publishing, a wholly owned but independently operated subsidiary that produces scientific and scholarly journals.)

Europe Finalizes Budget for Flagship Science Program

The European Parliament approved a seven year budget last week that includes €95.5 billion ($117 billion) in current prices for the European Union’s next flagship science funding program, known as Horizon Europe. Its predecessor, Horizon 2020, had a budget of about €80 billion in current prices, which account for expected inflation over the seven year period. The funding for Horizon Europe will be split into three “pillars,” respectively focused on fundamental research and fellowships, global challenges and industrial competitiveness, and the European Innovation Council. About €16 billion of the total will go to the European Research Council, which allocates competitively awarded grants for fundamental research across the EU, supplementing the efforts of member countries’ science agencies. In a statement on the budget agreement, the council praised the negotiators’ decision to partially reverse a cut proposed for Horizon Europe earlier in the year. Separately, European officials moved last week to finalize budgets for the EU space program and a new defense R&D fund.

Events This Week

Monday, December 21

National Academies: “Applied Research Topics for Hazard Mitigation and Resilience,” kickoff meeting 1:00 - 5:00 pm Wilson Center: “Political Fallout: Nuclear Weapons Testing and the Making of a Global Environmental Crisis” 4:00 - 5:30 pm

Tuesday, December 22

No events

Wednesday, December 23

No events

Thursday, December 24

Federal holiday

Friday, December 25

Federal holiday (AIP Closed until Jan. 4, 2021)

Opportunities

Atmospheric Science and Climate Board Seeking Members

The National Academies Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate is accepting nominations for five new members to serve a three year term beginning in early 2021. The board seeks candidates with expertise in atmospheric chemistry, climate change, meteorological sciences, and observation and forecasting systems, among other topics. Nominations are due Dec. 31.

Technology and Public Purpose Fellowship Application Open

The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University is accepting applications for its Technology and Public Purpose Fellowship, which supports “multidisciplinary approaches to maximizing the societal benefits of emerging technologies while minimizing the harms.” The fellowship term is from Sept. 2021 to May 2022. Applications are due Jan. 11, 2021.

AGU Hiring for Public Affairs Internship

The American Geophysical Union is accepting applications for its spring public affairs internship. Interns will monitor congressional events, write blog posts, and assist the public affairs team in organizing virtual advocacy days, among other responsibilities. Interested individuals must have completed at least two years of coursework towards a degree in Earth or space sciences.

For additional opportunities, please visit www.aip.org/fyi/opportunities. Know of an opportunity for scientists to engage in science policy? Email us at fyi@aip.org.

Know of an upcoming science policy event either inside or outside the Beltway? Email us at fyi@aip.org.