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What’s Ahead
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| House Armed Services Committee Chair Adam Smith (D-WA) (Image credit – HASC) |
House and Senate Put Finishing Touches on Defense Bills
The House and Senate will vote this week on final amendments to their respective versions of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021. Among the 407 amendments approved for consideration on the House floor is one aimed at increasing domestic supply of microelectronics through manufacturing incentives and R&D initiatives. The amendment is a substantially modified version of the recently introduced CHIPS for America Act, directing the Department of Defense to form a public-private consortium for advanced semiconductor development, and directing the Commerce Department to create a National Semiconductor Technology Center and award grants for R&D and the construction of domestic fabrication facilities. The Senate is also expected to vote on an amendment related to domestic semiconductor manufacturing. Among other research-related amendments up for consideration in the House is a modified version of the National Security Innovation Pathway Act, which would provide a limited number of visas for technical experts working in fields relevant to national security. Another amendment would direct DOD to designate an academic community liaison for efforts to protect research from “undue foreign influences.”
Spending Bills Begin to Arrive on House Floor
House appropriators have completed work on their fiscal year 2021 spending proposals and legislative action now begins on the House floor, where representatives are scheduled to debate a package this week that includes funding for the U.S. Geological Survey and Environmental Protection Agency. Under the proposal, the USGS budget would receive a 2% increase, bringing it to almost $1.3 billion, while EPA’s science and technology budget would increase 4% to $745 million. The package also includes an amendment attached during committee deliberations that would prohibit EPA from implementing its pending rule titled, “Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science.” The rule aims to restrict the agency’s use of scientific studies that lack accessible datasets and has been widely criticized as a threat to the agency’s ability to regulate effectively.
Major Research Security Bill Set to Advance in Senate
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is holding a meeting Wednesday to vote on the bipartisan Safeguarding American Innovation Act and 24 other bills. Building on a subcommittee investigation led by Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Tom Carper (D-DE), the bill would add criminal penalties for federal grantees who fail to disclose any sources of “outside compensation” and establish a Federal Research Security Council led by the White House Office of Management and Budget to coordinate agency grant policies and information sharing about security risks. The bill would also empower the State Department to deny visas to applicants who currently or previously had ties to rival military organizations, institutions involved in the theft of U.S. research or export control violations, or a “government that seeks to undermine the integrity and security of the U.S. research community.” While the bill has received endorsements from some research community leaders, others have raised concerns about the scope of the visa denial authorities, the breadth of certain disclosure requirements, and the assignment of new research policy responsibilities to OMB.
Ocean and AI Research Bills up for Committee Vote
The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee is meeting on Wednesday to consider pending nominations and bills, including several related to research. These include the BLUE GLOBE Act, which would update policy for a number of National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration research programs and commission a study on the case for creating an Advanced Research Projects Agency–Oceans (ARPA–O), and two bills on artificial intelligence. The FUTURE of Artificial Intelligence Act would establish a federal advisory committee for the Commerce Department on the development and implementation of AI technologies, and the Advancing Artificial Intelligence Research Act would provide statutory backing for the National Science Foundation’s plans to fund AI research institutes. The committee will also consider the nomination of Commerce Department Chief of Staff Michael Walsh to be the department’s general counsel. Walsh played a central role in pressuring NOAA to publicly contradict its weather forecasters during last year’s Hurricane Dorian scandal, as documented in a report the department’s inspector general released this month.
Workshop Seeks Post-Pandemic Vision for Universities
The National Academies is hosting a workshop Tuesday on how to “build a more effective and resilient 21st century research university” after the U.S. emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic. Academic and government leaders will join the presidents of the three academies to discuss how the pandemic has sharpened questions about research funding, research integrity and public trust, international collaboration, and the future of education and workforce development. Among the speakers are Association of American Universities President Mary Sue Coleman, Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities President Peter McPherson, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Director Mike Witherell, and former National Science Foundation Director France Córdova. Opening and closing remarks will be delivered by Alan Leshner, chair of the Academies Committee on Science, Engineering, Medicine and Public Policy, who argued in a letter to Science last week that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated longstanding career challenges facing young scientists, which should be addressed by redesigning graduate curricula, improving mentorship, and focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion. The National Academies has been working throughout the pandemic to consider the host of issues it presents. Last week, it released a report on the health and educational implications of reopening K–12 schools, recommending districts implement extensive health precautions and prioritize full-time, in-person instruction for grades K–5 and students with special needs, who are particularly ill-served by online instruction.
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In Case You Missed It
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| Anthony Fauci speaking at a March 25 briefing by the White House Coronavirus Task Force. (Image credit – Tia Dufour / The White House) |
White House Backtracks on Campaign to Discredit Fauci
Last week, reports emerged that unnamed White House officials were attempting to seed negative press coverage of Anthony Fauci, a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Then on July 13, Trump himself retweeted a message critical of Fauci and the next day White House trade adviser Peter Navarro published an op-ed in USA Today questioning Fauci’s competence, which an editor later conceded did not meet the publication’s standards for accuracy. In an interview with The Atlantic, Fauci called the attacks “bizarre,” remarking, “I wish we didn’t have a lot of those distractions, which I think are noise that gets in the way.” Meanwhile, members of the public health and medical science communities have rallied to Fauci’s defense, and National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins signaled to the biomedical news site STAT that he would not carry out an order to fire or demote Fauci were he to receive one. Now, the White House has distanced itself from the attacks, saying Navarro’s op-ed was unauthorized. On July 19, Trump said in an interview he had spoken at length with Fauci and attested he has a “very good relationship” with him, though he also remarked that he regards Fauci as “a little bit of an alarmist.” Fauci is a civil servant with deep expertise in epidemics and has led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984. He has recently gained widespread recognition for speaking frankly about the COVID-19 pandemic, sometimes in contradiction of Trump.
ICE Rescinds Student Removal Policy
On the eve of a July 14 court hearing, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement abandoned plans to require international students to leave the country if they could only take online classes this fall. Announced the week before, the policy triggered a wave of lawsuits from universities and state attorneys general, as well as calls in Congress from more than 200 Democrats and 15 House Republicans for it to be rescinded. (AIP signed onto an amicus brief supporting one of the lawsuits.) After abandoning its move, ICE released an updated FAQ document with guidance for students on F and M visas, though it is unclear how ICE plans to treat international students who are not currently in the U.S.; the document simply states that new students “should remain in their home country.” Meanwhile, after a months-long halt, the State Department has begun to resume some visa processing activities, and on July 16 it announced that students traveling from the Schengen Area, the UK, and Ireland with valid F-1 and M-1 visas do not need a “national interest exception” to gain entry to the U.S. Department officials are scheduled to testify on the current status of consular affairs at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Tuesday.
Plan S Coalition to Override Journals’ Article-Sharing Policies
The Plan S coalition, a group of science funding-agencies driving toward open-access research, announced a policy change last week allowing their grantees to publish in any journal, even if it has not accepted the coalition’s no-embargo terms. Under the policy, which is scheduled to take effect in 2021, researchers could meet the open access requirement by posting the journal-accepted version of their article in an online repository under the “CC-BY” license, which allows others to republish the work. However, many journals currently prohibit use of liberal licensing terms such as CC-BY. Robert Kiley, the head of open research at the Wellcome Trust, a philanthropy participating in the coalition, told Nature that the Plan S requirement would be implemented in grant terms and have “legal precedence over any later publishing agreement.”
Biden Climate Plan Proposes ‘ARPA–C’
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden released a climate plan last week that outlines a policy agenda for achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Biden proposes spending $400 billion over 10 years on clean energy R&D, prioritizing resilient infrastructure development, and recommitting to international climate efforts. The plan also calls for a “new cross-agency Advanced Research Projects Agency focused on climate” named ARPA–C, which would focus on advancing grid-scale energy storage, decarbonizing the industrial and agricultural sectors, and accelerating the deployment of carbon capture and sequestration technologies, among other priorities. ARPA–C would also work to “identify the future of nuclear energy,” seeking to develop low-cost small modular nuclear reactors and address safety and waste disposal challenges. In addition, Biden’s plan proposes reinvigorating the Mission Innovation initiative, an international effort launched in 2015 to increase funding for breakthrough clean energy technologies. It suggests the effort should be reset on a “more ambitious track” and that the U.S. should quadruple its originally planned investment. To support the development of low-carbon manufacturing, the plan suggests enacting a national strategy that brings together universities, local governments, and businesses to expand access to new skills and technologies for communities in every state.
DOE Releases Roadmap for Energy Storage Grand Challenge
The Department of Energy released a 115 page draft of its Energy Storage Grand Challenge Roadmap last week, laying out plans to make the U.S. independent of foreign sources for critical materials by 2030. The roadmap proposes five main tracks to guide the department’s efforts: technology R&D, manufacturing and supply chain, technology transitions, policy and valuation, and workforce development. Within the technology development track, the roadmap calls for developing “technology-neutral performance and cost targets” as well as supporting all stages of innovation, “from fundamental research to pre-commercial demonstrations.” DOE has also released a request for information, asking stakeholders for input on the document that will inform its final version, with comments due by Aug. 21.
Billion-Dollar X-Ray Laser Powers Up at SLAC
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory’s Linac Coherent Light Source II (LCLS-II) began operating for the first time on July 17. The $1 billion facility is the second high-energy x-ray free electron laser (XFEL) to come online in the U.S., and will work in tandem with the original LCLS, which was the world’s first high-energy XFEL when it was completed in 2009. Since then, a number of XFELs have been built in other countries, including the world-leading European XFEL in Germany, which started operations in 2017. XFELs apply precisely crafted magnetic fields to accelerated electrons, creating coherent x-ray pulses that have properties akin to laser beams and can probe material behavior at the atomic level. LCLS-II already boasts uniquely fast and uniform pulse repetition, but a planned energy upgrade will still be needed to achieve some of the capabilities already available at the European facility. In the more immediate future, LCLS-II expects to perform more than 80 experiments over the next six months for researchers from around the world, including studies of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. It will also continue to build up its initial suite of capabilities as additional components are installed over the next two years.
Webb Space Telescope Now Aiming for a Fall 2021 Launch
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| The James Webb Space Telescope in the clean room at prime contractor Northrop Grumman’s testing facility in Redondo Beach, California. (Image credit – Chris Gunn / NASA) |
NASA announced on July 17 that it has settled on Oct. 31, 2021 as the new target launch date for its flagship James Webb Space Telescope. The mission had been scheduled to launch in March 2021, but the agency reports that pandemic-related disruptions to testing made that target impossible to meet. In a call with reporters, NASA officials said the costs of the delay will be met by tapping reserve funds held outside the telescope’s budget, allowing the mission to remain within the $8.8 billion cap that Congress has placed on its development cost. They also said about half the new delay is directly attributable to the pandemic and that the new schedule includes about two months of padding, addressing the tight timeline the project was working under prior to the pandemic. The Webb telescope has been plagued by cost and schedule increases throughout its two decades of design and development, but it is expected to deliver revolutionary infrared observational capabilities when its science operations finally begin.
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Events This Week Monday, July 20
Tuesday, July 21
Wednesday, July 22
NOAA: Science Advisory Board meeting (continues Thursday) Commerce Department: Civil Nuclear Trade Advisory Committee meeting 9:00 am - 4:00 pm Senate: “US-China: Winning the Economic Competition” 9:30 am, Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee Senate: Business meeting to advance eight bills 9:45 am, Commerce Committee (G50 Dirksen Office Building) National Academies: “What’s New in Low Dose Radiation” 10:00 am - 12:00 pm Senate: “Stopping the Spread: Examining the Increased Risk of Zoonotic Disease from Illegal Wildlife Trafficking” 10:00 am, Environment and Public Works Committee (106 Dirksen Office Building) Senate: Business meeting to advance the Safeguarding American Innovation Act and 24 other bills 10:00 am, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (215 Dirksen Office Building) CSIS: “Clean Energy Innovation: A New Report from the International Energy Agency” 10:00 - 11:00 am Nuclear Threat Initiative: 2020 NTI Nuclear Security Index Rankings 11:00 am - 12:00 pm Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions: “How do Conservatives Plan to Tackle Climate Change?” 12:00 - 1:00 pm National Academies: “NSF’s Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier” 1:00 - 2:00 pm Senate: “Advancing Effective U.S. Competition With China: Objectives, Priorities, and Next Steps” 2:00 pm, Foreign Relations Committee (325 Russell Office Building) Senate: Hearing to receive testimony on water and power legislation 2:30 pm, Energy and Natural Resources Committee (366 Dirksen Office Building)
Thursday, July 23
Friday, July 24
Monday, July 27
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Opportunities NSF Hiring Physical Sciences Facilities Analyst
The National Science Foundation is seeking a science analyst to support the facilities portfolio within the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate, which funds a suite of ground-based telescopes and other major multi-user facilities. The analyst will support oversight of both mid-scale and major science facilities through their full life cycle, including by assessing budget trends and their impacts on the directorate. Applications are due July 24.
NIST Seeking Input on CUI Security Requirements
The National Institute of Standards and Technology is accepting comments on the final draft of its enhanced security requirements for Controlled Unclassified Information associated with critical non-federal programs that are targeted by sophisticated adversarial organizations. NIST states that based on previous public comments, the final draft includes “a more flexible requirements selection approach to allow implementing organizations to customize their security solutions,” among other changes. Comments are due Aug. 21.
Mirzayan S&T Policy Fellowship Application Open
The National Academies is now accepting applications for the 2021 Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Graduate Fellowship Program. Fellows spend 12 weeks at the National Academies in Washington, D.C., learning about the role of science in federal policymaking and gaining hands-on experience working for one of its study committees or boards. Interested individuals who have earned a graduate degree in a STEM-related field within the last five years are encouraged to apply. Applications are due Sept. 14.
Know of an upcoming science policy event either inside or outside the Beltway? Email us at fyi@aip.org.
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Around the Web
News and views currently in circulation. Links do not imply endorsement.
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Science, Society, and the Economy
- Science has always been political (Science, editorial)
- The Endless Frontier Act must be reworked to incorporate public values at this crucial time for America (Issues in Science and Technology, perspective by Nicholas Weller, et al.)
- Universities must reassert their values (Foreign Affairs, perspective by Jonathan Holloway)
- America’s innovation engine is slowing (The Atlantic, perspective by Caleb Watney)
- Why America needs a national innovation plan right now (The Hill, perspective by John Allen and Darrell West)
- Revitalizing the domestic semiconductor industry (Harvard Belfer Center, report)
- NREL impact in Colorado totals $875M, $1.4B nationwide (Boulder Daily Camera)
- Patience: We don’t have it. That’s why we’re in trouble — with COVID-19 and climate change (Physics Today, perspective by Johanna Miller)
- How Facebook handles climate disinformation (New York Times)
- No, NASA didn’t create a 13th zodiac sign (CNN)
- Fighting flat-Earth theory (Physics World)
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