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What’s Ahead
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| House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) (Image credit – Paul Morigi, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) |
House Appropriators Advancing Science Spending Bills
On Monday, subcommittees of the House Appropriations Committee are meeting to advance draft fiscal year 2022 spending legislation covering a range of science agencies, including NASA, the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, and National Institutes of Health. The drafts were released to the public over the weekend and show that appropriators have generally agreed to provide large funding increases for science agencies, albeit in most cases not so large as the Biden administration requested. The drafts would not fund the administration’s proposed Advanced Research Projects Agency for Climate, though they would provide more than requested for ARPA–Energy. The bill for NIH would set up an ARPA–Health within the agency with an initial budget of $3 billion, short of the $6.5 billion the administration requested. The DOE Office of Science would receive a 4% budget increase, suggesting appropriators have been more convinced by the administration’s proposal to focus spending increases on applied energy R&D than by the House Science Committee’s vision of boosting funding for fundamental science.
Additional details on agency spending proposals will be contained in draft reports to be released in conjunction with the full committee’s consideration of the legislation. The full committee is scheduled to take up the Defense Department’s spending bill on Tuesday, and has already released the accompanying report draft, with DOE’s spending bill following on Friday. Final spending legislation will have to be negotiated with Senate appropriators, who have not yet released counterpart proposals, and it will require Congress to agree to overall budget limits for the year. House Republicans have argued that Democratic appropriators are unilaterally moving ahead with proposals that include far too much spending on non-defense programs. Spending proposals will be incorporated into FYI’s Federal Science Budget Tracker as they become available.
Manchin Pushing Ahead With Revised Energy Infrastructure Bill
On Wednesday, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is meeting to consider the Energy Infrastructure Act, a bill drafted by committee Democrats that proposes an array of ambitious spending initiatives for energy technology R&D and demonstration projects. Carbon emissions mitigation and clean hydrogen production are major focal points, with total proposed funding for different initiatives exceeding $20 billion. Unlike a draft of the bill released last month, a new version that was released ahead of this week’s hearing would not directly appropriate funds but rather would only recommend that Congress appropriate the funding proposed. The committee has not indicated whether the change is essentially procedural, with the expectation the funding would later be appropriated through a special infrastructure spending package, or if it reflects a shift in expectations about whether the proposed funding will be included in such a package. Currently, though, discussion surrounding infrastructure spending is focused on a bipartisan framework that includes no funding for R&D and technology demonstrations. President Biden has endorsed that framework and Committee Chair Joe Manchin (D-WV) was one of its architects.
Senate Commerce Committee Examining Technology Supply Chains
The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee is holding a hearing on Thursday to consider issues that may arise if the government undertakes major new initiatives to secure technology supplies in sectors such as semiconductors and aerospace. Congress and the Biden administration are both currently advancing ambitious proposals to reduce reliance on tenuous foreign supply chains of technologies and materials, including by bolstering domestic R&D and industry. As one step toward that goal, the committee has incorporated a provision into the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act to create a Commerce Department program dedicated to increasing the resiliency of supply chains for “critical industries” and managing initiatives such as the semiconductor subsidy program authorized in the CHIPS for America Act. At the hearing, the committee will hear from six witnesses, including IBM Research Director Darío Gil, Information Technology Industry Council Senior Vice President of Policy John Miller, and James Lewis, director of the Strategic Technologies Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
State Department Science Nominee Faces Senate Panel
Environmental lawyer Monica Medina is testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday in support of her nomination to lead the State Department’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. The bureau oversees offices focused on science and technology cooperation, climate change mitigation negotiations, marine and water conservation, space, and biodefense and has been led on an acting basis since 2014. Medina currently is the publisher of Our Daily Planet, a sustainability newsletter, and previously worked in senior positions in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration during the Clinton and Obama administrations.
AAAS CEO to Testify at Immigration Policy Hearing
The House Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing on Tuesday to discuss how “outdated” immigration policies dissuade skilled immigrants from pursuing careers in the U.S. The CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Sudip Parikh, is one of four witnesses testifying at the hearing. In his written testimony, Parikh suggests ways to better attract STEM workers to the U.S., such as by making it easier for foreign students to receive green cards post-graduation. He also suggests Congress make foreign student visas into “dual intent” visas, meaning that applicants would not have to demonstrate they intend to leave the U.S. after graduation and could instead declare their interest in seeking green cards.
Science Committee to Highlight Equity Issues in Energy Innovation
The House Science Committee is holding a hearing on Friday to discuss ways of “fostering equity in energy innovation,” a priority of Energy Subcommittee Chair Jamaal Bowman (D-NY). The witnesses will be Dan Kammen, a professor of energy at the University of California, Berkeley; Myles Lennon, an anthropologist and professor of environment and society at Brown University; Shobita Parthasarathy, director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy program at the University of Michigan; and Bruno Grunau, regional director of the Cold Climate Housing Research Center in Alaska.
Astronomers Fleshing Out Megaconstellation Mitigation Options
Astronomers and other stakeholders are holding a workshop called SATCON 2 this week to discuss potential policy frameworks for mitigating optical and radiofrequency interference from the expansion of satellite megaconstellations. The workshop will build on last year’s SATCON1 workshop, which identified mitigation strategies for satellite operators, such as reducing satellite reflectivity and positioning satellites in orbits under 600 kilometers. SATCON2 participants will discuss resources and metrics needed to implement recommendations from the SATCON1 workshop. In advance of the workshop, the National Science Foundation has released a report by the JASON science advisory panel that likewise suggests mitigation options. The panel’s highest-priority recommendation is to “eliminate or highly regulate” the number of satellites in orbits higher than 600 kilometers, which are significantly more visible than those in lower orbits.
Emerging Technologies Summit Seeks to Spur Global Cooperation
On Tuesday, top officials from the Biden administration and members of Congress are participating in a day-long Global Emerging Technologies Summit organized by the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence. Speakers include the secretaries of commerce, defense, and state as well as President Biden’s Science Adviser Eric Lander and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. Lander will participate in a panel discussion on international cooperation with officials from countries in the “Quad” alliance of the U.S., India, Japan, and Australia. Other countries represented at the summit include the U.K., New Zealand, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, Italy, and Denmark. Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner, Sen. Todd Young (R-IN), and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) will speak at the summit and several other members of Congress will deliver prerecorded remarks.
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In Case You Missed It
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| An image from the National Academies research security roundtable held last week. The roundtable is co-chaired by MIT Vice President for Research Maria Zuber, top left, Carnegie Institution for Science President Emeritus Richard Meserve, top right, and former National Intelligence Council Chair John Gannon, middle left. (Image credit – National Academies) |
NSF and DOE Pressed for Details on Foreign Talent Plan Probes
At a meeting last week of the National Academies’ research security roundtable, officials from the National Science Foundation and Department of Energy offered new details on their investigations into grantees suspected of concealing ties to foreign institutions, such as participation in talent recruitment programs. NSF Inspector General Allison Lerner estimated that more than 50% of her office’s current investigative portfolio consists of “talent plan-focused failures to disclose and other related inappropriate activity.” DOE’s investigations chief Lewe Sessions said his office has 35 active cases involving “undisclosed foreign affiliations of employees and contractors, undisclosed research conflicts of interest, theft of intellectual property, and associated fraudulent activity in obtaining federal grant funds,” of which 24 involve universities and 11 national labs or companies. He added the caseload “represents a nearly 200% increase from prior fiscal years” and that DOE is seeking the authority to prevent grantees from participating in foreign talent recruitment programs, stating that it would be the first federal agency to do so.
The roundtable co-chairs expressed frustration that the agencies were unable to provide more granular information on trends in the number of cases. Lerner said she was hesitant to provide details in part because the investigations could result in no findings of wrongdoing, and Sessions remarked that part of the increase in cases likely reflects his office prioritizing such investigations in recent years. NSF’s chief research security officer, Rebecca Spyke Keiser, suggested that another reason for the increase is that the Chinese government broadened the scope of its talent recruitment programs around 2016 to allow scientists to participate on a part-time rather than full-time basis. “That was when we also saw many of these programs start to not be disclosed and an uptick in number of people subscribing to the programs,” she said. Separately at the meeting, university representatives presented a set of principles they have developed to inform debates about research security policy and summarized relevant provisions in the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act.
NSF Names Next Head of Geosciences Directorate
The National Science Foundation announced last week that it has selected Alexandra Isern to lead its Geosciences Directorate, which oversees a $1 billion portfolio of fundamental research in Earth, atmospheric, ocean, and polar sciences. She has worked at NSF for the past 20 years and has been leading the Geosciences Directorate in an acting capacity since Bill Easterling departed in June after leading the directorate for four years. Isern received her bachelor’s degree in geology from the University of Florida in 1987 and her doctorate in geochemistry from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in 1993. She officially begins her new role on July 19.
Flagship Electron-Ion Collider Passes Early Project Milestone
Last week, the Department of Energy cleared the Electron-Ion Collider project at Brookhaven National Lab to proceed into its preliminary design phase, which will conclude with the establishment of a baseline cost and schedule. When complete, the collider will provide cutting-edge capabilities for studying the fundamental particles and forces that bind atomic nuclei together and will replace Brookhaven’s existing Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Construction work is scheduled to begin in 2024, after RHIC completes its scientific program, and the new facility is expected to be ready for research operations in the early 2030s. DOE currently estimates the project will cost between $1.7 billion and $2.8 billion.
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Events This Week Monday, July 12
Tuesday, July 13
Wednesday, July 14
Thursday, July 15
Friday, July 16
Monday, July 19
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Opportunities DOE Seeking Input on Barriers to ‘Inclusive Innovation’
The Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy is seeking input on barriers facing first-time funding applicants and groups from underserved communities. DOE notes that based on the input it may create “application support services for funding opportunities, incubation and acceleration services for entrepreneurship; and other measures to support a just and inclusive innovation ecosystem,” among other actions. Comments are due Aug. 8.
ITIF Hiring Senior Clean Energy Innovation Analyst
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation is hiring a senior policy analyst for its clean energy innovation program. The analyst’s duties include assessing “domestic and international policies that have the potential to accelerate or impede climate and clean energy innovation.” Applicants should have an advanced degree in public policy, energy technology, or a related field with at least three years of relevant experience.
Day One Project Hiring Defense Budget Reform Project Manager
The Day One Project, an initiative to identify actionable S&T policy ideas, is hiring a project manager to lead its Defense Budget for the 21st Century initiative, which will suggest reforms to the Department of Defense’s Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (PPBE) system. The position is for a one-year term with the possibility of extension. Applications for the position will be accepted until filled.
Know of an upcoming science policy event either inside or outside the Beltway? Email us at fyi@aip.org.
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