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What’s Ahead
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| Reps. Frank Lucas (R-OK) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) are poised to respectively become chair and ranking member of the House Science Committee after a leadership dispute in the House is resolved. (Image credit – Bill Ingalls / NASA, Committee on House Administration) (Bill Ingalls / NASA, Committee on House Administration) |
New Congress Begins With House in Limbo
The latest two-year session of Congress began on Jan. 3 with leadership of the House still uncertain, as Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has so far been unable to secure majority approval in his bid to be speaker. Meanwhile, the Senate began the session with no trouble and promptly adjourned until late January. Some of the first business for each chamber will be organizing the various committees that process legislation and conduct oversight of federal agencies. While most committee chairs and ranking members were lined up before the end of the last Congress, the uncertainty over House leadership could, if not resolved soon, delay the assignment of committee members and subcommittee leaders in that chamber. Once the impasse is cleared, Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK) is expected to become chair of the House Science Committee and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) is replacing retired Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) as the committee’s top Democrat. On the Senate side, Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Ranking Member Roger Wicker (R-MS) is stepping down to take up the corresponding role on the Armed Services Committee and it is not yet clear who will take his place.
With control of Congress now split between parties, Democrats will no longer be able to enact their priorities unilaterally using the budget reconciliation procedure. However, having gained an outright majority in the Senate, Democrats can more easily process presidential nominations and advance legislation through committees. President Biden has already begun resubmitting nominations that expired at the end of last year. Only a few science agency positions requiring Senate confirmation are currently unfilled, including David Crane, who is awaiting approval to take charge of the Department of Energy’s new infrastructure arm. Biden has not yet named a nominee to succeed Francis Collins as National Institutes of Health director and the role has now been without one for an entire year. Stay up to date on changes in congressional and agency leaders with FYI’s Federal Science Leadership Tracker.
NIST Safety Commission Starts Work After Fatal Accident
The National Institute of Standards and Technology is holding a two-day kickoff meeting starting Wednesday for a seven-member commission that will recommend improvements to the agency’s safety policies and culture. NIST formed the commission in part due to two recent serious accidents: a radiation incident at the agency’s research reactor in February 2021 that was linked to inadequate staff training, and a fatal fall of an employee last year in the agency’s National Fire Research Laboratory. The commission is chaired by former Idaho National Lab Director Mark Peters, who currently is an executive vice president at the Battelle Memorial Institute, which manages several Department of Energy national labs. The commission is charged with submitting preliminary findings in 75 days and will sunset in one year unless renewed.
Meteorologists Flock to Denver for Data-Centric AMS Meeting
The American Meteorological Society’s annual meeting, which begins on Sunday in Denver, is themed around the role of data in science, policy, and society. Among its plenary events, a panel of science agency officials will kick off NASA’s “Year of Open Science” and discuss its associated Transform to Open Science (TOPS) Initiative, a five-year effort to promote adoption of open science practices. NASA’s Science Mission Directorate already updated its public access policy late last year to require data underlying agency-funded research to be made publicly available no later than when the associated peer-reviewed results are published, consistent with new White House guidance on public access. The meeting will also include panel sessions dedicated to the role of scientific information in democratic societies and how data informs AMS efforts to promote equity and inclusion. In addition, there will be a variety of town hall sessions focused on federal efforts to collect and disseminate Earth science information and models, including ones on next-generation Earth observatories and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s nascent Earth Prediction Innovation Center. Senior NOAA officials will also discuss the agency’s response to the 2021 advisory committee report recommending weather research priorities for the next decade. (AMS is an AIP Member Society.)
Astronomers Gather in Seattle for AAS Meeting
The American Astronomical Society’s annual winter meeting is kicking off in Seattle on Sunday. The meeting will feature numerous sessions focused on the James Webb Space Telescope, which began science operations this summer and has repeatedly surprised astronomers and the general public alike with its imagery. Another focus of the meeting is to discuss prospects for addressing recommendations of the recent astronomy and astrophysics decadal survey, such as constructing at least one and preferably both of the facilities in the U.S. Extremely Large Telescope Program: the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) and the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT). A plenary session will feature three of the 11 members of the Maunakea Stewardship and Oversight Authority, a board established by the Hawaiian government last year to manage the Maunakea site, a proposed location for the TMT. The speakers are the board’s chair, the Maunakea Observatories’ representative on the board, and one of the Native Hawaiian activists involved in protests against siting the TMT on Maunakea. (AAS is an AIP Member Society.)
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In Case You Missed It
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| President Biden signed the final appropriations legislation for fiscal year 2023 on Dec. 29. (Image credit – Erin Scott / The White House) |
Final FY23 Budget Broadly Boosts Science Budgets
After a months-long stalemate, Congress passed legislation on Dec. 23 that finalizes federal agencies’ appropriations for fiscal year 2023 and President Biden signed it on Dec. 29. The legislation broadly increases the budgets of science agencies, including an 8% increase for the Department of Energy Office of Science, a 12% increase for the National Science Foundation, and a 32% increase for the National Institute of Standards and Technology. However, the NSF increase is entirely from a special supplementary appropriation and about half the NIST increase is for earmarked projects outside the agency. Even with these funds included, the appropriations for the agencies fall well short of the targets Congress set this summer through the CHIPS and Science Act. The budgets for other science agencies will generally keep pace with inflation, though a notable exception is that NASA’s Science Mission Directorate budget is only increasing 2%.
The legislation is accompanied by explanatory statements that include detailed budget allocations and policy direction. Figures for program-level funding outcomes are collected in FYI’s Federal Science Budget Tracker. Excerpts of the statements covering selected agencies are linked below:
Biden Signs Annual Defense Policy Bill
Science Committee Republicans Float Major NOAA Policy Bill
On Dec. 21, incoming House Science Committee Chair Frank Lucas (R-OK) announced one of his top priorities this year will be developing legislation that would remove the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from the Commerce Department and make it an independent agency like NASA. The move would be a central provision of a bill known as an “organic act” that would also enshrine NOAA’s existence in statute for the first time. The agency was created by President Richard Nixon in 1970 through an executive order known as Reorganization Plan No. 4, which placed it within the Commerce Department rather than following an advisory council recommendation to house it in the Department of the Interior. While Nixon’s order was grounded in broad authorities granted to the president by statute, Congress has never formally backed the specifics of his plan.
As part of his announcement, Lucas released draft legislation that would rescind Reorganization Plan No. 4 and reestablish NOAA’s organization from scratch. The legislation would keep the National Weather Service within NOAA while elevating the Office of Space Commerce out of NOAA and making it an agency of the Commerce Department. Other elements of NOAA’s organization are left unspecified, with the agency directed to develop and implement its own reorganization plan that would maximize its efficiency in carrying out core functions. Lucas remarked in a statement that the draft is based on “years of extensive conversations with stakeholders” and that he aims to pass the legislation during the 118th Congress in cooperation with the Senate and the Biden administration.
Next Landsat Mission To Be Trio of Satellites
NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey announced on Dec. 20 that the next mission in the venerable Landsat series will comprise three identical satellites, marking a departure from previous Landsat missions’ single-satellite architecture. Although smaller in size, the new satellites will be able to observe with improved spatial resolution and in 15 more spectral bands than Landsat 9, which launched in 2021 and observes in 11 bands. The Landsat program has now provided a continuous 50-year record of land imagery and data, and a principal aim of the new three-satellite configuration is to provide updated imagery with greater frequency. It also follows commercial satellite service providers in moving toward use of disaggregated satellite constellations. At a Senate hearing in December, USGS official Kevin Gallagher explained in his written testimony that Landsat still provides value amid commercial options because of the continuity and precise calibration of its datasets and because its medium-resolution infrared imagery is not expected to be commercially viable in the next decade. He also indicated that commercial service providers are eager for the government to maintain “gold standard” systems such as Landsat.
Mars InSight Mission Concludes
NASA retired its Mars InSight lander on Dec. 22 after it missed two communications attempts with Earth following a steady decline in battery power as its solar panels became coated in dust. NASA selected the mission as part of its Discovery program in 2012 and launched it in 2018 after it missed its first launch opportunity two years earlier. Its primary mission concluded in 2020 and since then it had been undertaking an extended mission. InSight’s goal was to monitor seismic activity on Mars to gain clues about the planet’s internal structure. It did so largely successfully, demonstrating that Mars is tectonically active, and by chance it detected vibrations from a major meteoroid impact that the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter visually observed last year. However, the mission was also hampered by the failure of a heat probe instrument to burrow beneath the surface due to unexpected properties of the Martian soil. The mission’s total cost was about $850 million.
DOE and NOAA Nominees Confirmed
In the waning days of the 117th Congress, the Senate confirmed three science agency leaders on voice votes:
- MIT engineering professor Evelyn Wang as director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy
- Energy industry attorney and executive Gene Rodrigues as head of the Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity, and
- Climate policy expert Jainey Bavishi as assistant secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere, a top-level role within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Still awaiting confirmation are Jeff Marootian to lead the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and David Crane to be DOE under secretary for infrastructure. Both are currently serving in DOE roles that do not require confirmation. Nick Guertin, currently the Defense Department’s Director of Operational Test and Evaluation, is awaiting confirmation to be assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development, and acquisition.
Science Leaders Step Aside With New Year
Several key leaders at science agencies and labs have left their roles as of Jan. 1, having previously announced departure plans last year:
- Thomas Zurbuchen has left his position as head of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, which he had held since 2016. The directorate’s deputy head Sandra Connelly will take his place as NASA conducts its search for his successor.
- Dennis Andrucyk has stepped down as director of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center after three years in the role. NASA Chief Program Management Officer Dave Mitchell is now acting director.
- Thomas Zacharia has retired as director of Oak Ridge National Lab. Zacharia worked at the lab for 35 years and had been its director since 2017. The lab’s interim director is Jeff Smith, who retired as its deputy for operations in 2021.
- Anthony Fauci has stepped down as President Biden’s chief medical adviser on COVID-19 and as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He is capping off a tenure of extraordinary length, having been the institute’s director since 1984.
Emerging Biotechnology Commission Members Named
The House and Senate Armed Services Committees have announced the full 12-member roster for the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology, a panel established by Congress a year ago to review advances in the field as well as associated threats and policy issues. The commission will be chaired by Jason Kelly, CEO of Ginkgo BioWorks, a Boston-based synthetic biology company, and its vice chair will be Michelle Rozo, who until recently led biotechnology R&D efforts at the Defense Department. Other commission members include Reps. Stephanie Bice (R-OK) and Ro Khanna (D-CA), Sens. Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Todd Young (R-IN), and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, along with others from academia, industry, and government. Congress has directed the committee to submit a final, unclassified report within two years that recommends actions Congress and federal agencies can take to strengthen U.S. activities, with an interim report due within a year. The commission follows on the heels of the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, which was led by Schmidt and completed its work in 2021.
NATO Revs Up Innovation Accelerator With US Official in Key Role
At a meeting last month, the board of directors of the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) elected its U.S. member Barbara McQuiston to be its first chair. The member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization agreed to create DIANA in 2021 and approved its charter last year, with the goal of investing €1 billion in technology startups over a period of 15 years through a new venture capital fund. The initiative will focus on nine emerging technology areas, and at last month’s meeting the board selected energy resilience, secure information-sharing, and sensing and surveillance as its priorities for 2023. Before joining DIANA’s board at the end of October, McQuiston was the U.S. Defense Department’s deputy chief technology officer for science and technology, overseeing its laboratories and portfolio of early-stage R&D. During the Obama administration, she worked at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and in 2021 she performed the duties of under secretary of defense for research and engineering before Heidi Shyu was confirmed to that role.
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Events This Week
All times are Eastern Standard Time, unless otherwise noted. Listings do not imply endorsement.
Monday, January 2
Tuesday, January 3
Wednesday, January 4
Thursday, January 5
Friday, January 6
Sunday, January 8
American Astronomical Society: 241st meeting
(continues through Thursday)
Monday, January 9
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Opportunities White House Seeks Input for National Biotechnology Initiative
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy is seeking input to inform the National Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Initiative through two requests for information. The first seeks comments on how biotechnology and biomanufacturing can further societal goals, as well as research, infrastructure, and workforce requirements for a strong bioeconomy. The second focuses on identifying shortcomings in the regulation of emerging biotechnology products. Comments are due Jan. 20 and Feb. 3, respectively.
New Engineering and Diplomacy Fellowship Accepting Applications
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers is seeking applicants for its new State Department Engineering and Diplomacy Fellowship program. Fellows will spend one-year terms as technical advisors within the State Department. Applicants must have an advanced degree in engineering, public policy experience, and at least five years of professional experience. Applications are due Jan 31.
Congressional Technology Policy Fellowship Accepting Applicants
Tech Congress is seeking candidates for its early-career Congressional Innovation Fellowship, who will be placed for one-year terms across 12 congressional offices. Applicants must have completed an advanced degree in a technical field prior to the start of the fellowship and have two to six years post-undergraduate experience. Applications are due Feb. 2.
Know of an upcoming science policy event either inside or outside the Beltway? Email us at fyi@aip.org.
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