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| FYI: Science Policy News from AIP |
| THIS WEEK |
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| What’s Ahead |
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Editor’s Note: The next edition of FYI This Week will be published on Aug. 14.
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| Lawmakers have departed the Capitol for the August recess. (Architect of the Capitol) |
High-Stakes Budget Talks in Store After August Recess
Congress is now on its August recess, a traditional break in activity ahead of the high-stakes business of fall, which typically involves finalizing appropriations legislation and the annual National Defense Authorization Act. This year, both the House and Senate have put topline spending proposals for almost all federal agencies on the table ahead of the recess. The proposals broadly agree that the NASA Science Mission Directorate, the National Science Foundation, and early-stage Department of Defense R&D programs should take cuts. However, Senate appropriators are aiming to provide a 10% boost for DOD basic research accounts, opposing cuts proposed by both House appropriators and the Biden administration. Energy R&D programs are poised to be a bone of contention during negotiations as House appropriators are looking to roll back recent funding increases for clean energy programs while protecting nuclear energy R&D from a cut sought by Senate appropriators and the Biden administration. For further details, visit FYI’s Federal Science Budget Tracker.
Going into the recess, detailed proposals from House appropriators for a number of agencies, including several science agencies, remain under wraps as hardline Republicans are still seeking revisions that would impose steeper spending cuts across the government. For that reason, House appropriators’ views are not publicly known on matters such as whether NASA should cancel its flagship Mars Sample Return mission, a possibility broached by Senate appropriators. The conflict in the House might also presage difficulties in passing a stopgap spending measure that would prevent a government shutdown after the end of fiscal year 2023 on Sept. 30. Another issue looming this fall is a dispute over President Biden’s nomination of Monica Bertagnolli to direct the National Institutes of Health. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who chairs the committee with jurisdiction over the nomination, is refusing to move it forward unless President Biden acts to lower prescription drug prices, including potentially by supporting the use of government “march-in rights” on patents. NIH has been without a Senate-confirmed director since the end of 2021, when Francis Collins retired from the role.
Panel to Discuss Status of US Particle Physics, Fermilab Access
The Department of Energy and National Science Foundation’s High Energy Physics Advisory Panel will meet on Aug. 7 to discuss a study evaluating U.S. particle physics in its international context and to receive an update on the forthcoming “P5” report, which will recommend budget-constrained priorities for projects over the next decade. The panel will also discuss restrictions Fermilab has imposed on public and visitor access to its site. Earlier this year, nearly 3,000 scientists and community members signed a petition calling on the lab to ease the restrictions. Separate from the HEPAP meeting, DOE is holding a pre-solicitation conference on Aug. 2 to discuss the upcoming competition for the Fermilab management contract, which it plans to award by the end of September 2024. DOE is also seeking comments on a draft request for proposals for the contract.
DHS Rebooting Academic Advisory Council
On Aug. 7, the Department of Homeland Security will hold a kickoff meeting for the Homeland Security Academic Partnership Council, which will recommend ways the department can improve its outreach and coordination with educational institutions. DHS disbanded a similar council in 2017, leading university leaders and some lawmakers to press the department to reestablish such an advisory mechanism, arguing it would serve as a valuable forum to discuss matters such as research security and policies affecting international students. The new council’s charter offers examples of topics the body may consider, which include improving the sharing of security-related information and expanding research opportunities through centers-of-excellence programs.
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| In Case You Missed It |
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| President Biden looks at a piece of a quantum computer during a tour of an IBM facility in New York in 2022. Quantum information technology is among the areas he is prioritizing for domestic manufacturing through a new executive order. (Adam Schultz / The White House) |
Biden Order Seeks Domestic Manufacturing of Federally Funded Inventions
President Biden issued an executive order on July 28 that aims to expand domestic manufacturing of technologies that are developed with federal R&D funds. The order generally directs federal agencies to “consider domestic manufacturing in federal R&D funding agreement solicitations,” and it requires recipients of such funds to update the awarding agency on where any associated inventions are manufactured. In situations involving technologies deemed important to the U.S. economy and national security, agencies are directed to consider whether “exceptional circumstances” warrant expanding the standard domestic manufacturing requirements set by the Bayh-Dole Act. A press release accompanying the order explains, “The Bayh-Dole domestic manufacturing requirement doesn’t apply to an organization with a non-exclusive license, federal funding awardees themselves, or an organization that takes an invention developed with U.S. federal funding to market to sell solely overseas. For critical and emerging technologies, agencies are encouraged to expand the domestic manufacturing requirement to not just exclusive licensees but other entities.” The order echoes the Department of Energy’s move in 2021 to expand domestic manufacturing requirements for its grant recipients. Both Biden’s order and the DOE policy include procedures for waiving the domestic manufacturing requirement.
Stephen Streiffer Picked to Direct Oak Ridge National Lab
Oak Ridge National Lab announced last week that Stephen Streiffer will join the lab in October as its next director. Streiffer is currently Stanford University’s vice president for SLAC National Accelerator Lab, which the university manages on behalf of the Department of Energy, and he is also serving as the lab’s acting director. He earned a doctorate in materials science and engineering from Stanford and, before moving back there last year, spent much of his career at Argonne National Lab, where he held various leadership roles. Most recently, he was deputy lab director for science and technology from 2020 to 2022, and he directed Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source user facility from 2014 to 2020 as it prepared for a major upgrade now being installed. He also was co-director of the National Virtual Biotechnology Laboratory, a DOE initiative to provide researchers investigating COVID-19 with priority access to national lab facilities. Thomas Zacharia stepped down as director of Oak Ridge at the end of last year and the lab is being led on an interim basis by Jeff Smith, who recently retired as the lab’s deputy for operations. SLAC announced earlier this month that its next director will be John Sarrao, currently the deputy director for science, technology, and engineering at Los Alamos National Lab.
Senate Passes NDAA, Setting up Negotiations With House
The Senate passed its version of this year’s National Defense Authorization Act on July 27 on an 86-11 vote, clearing the way for lawmakers to integrate it with the House-passed version this fall. Amendments adopted during floor debate last week include ones that would:
- Require U.S.-based entities to disclose investments in foreign companies working in advanced semiconductors, artificial intelligence, quantum science and technology, hypersonics, satellite-based communications, and networked laser scanning systems with dual-use applications.
- Direct the Treasury to provide Congress with an assessment of gifts and grants to U.S. institutions of higher education that are from companies listed by the Treasury as associated with the Chinese military-industrial complex.
- Direct the Department of Energy to expand its efforts to increase domestic uranium supplies and production of high-assay low-enriched uranium.
- Extend the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act by almost two decades and expand its coverage so that the government can, for instance, consider claims from a broader geographic area, including claims related to the Trinity test and radioactive waste from the Manhattan Project.
Any provisions from either the House or Senate bill could be dropped or altered during the final negotiations. Among provisions in the Senate version that the White House objects to is a requirement that the Defense Department work with the National Security Agency to set criteria for what microelectronics the department can acquire. The White House states the requirement would “severely disrupt” the department’s programs for acquiring commercial components.
Fire Weather Bill Advanced by House Science Committee
Hearing Highlights Prospects of Subsurface R&D
A House Science Committee hearing last week explored emerging applications of subsurface R&D in the wake of its role in enabling fracking as a means of accessing fossil fuels from shale formations. These include increasing the viability of geothermal energy and the underground storage of carbon dioxide and hydrogen, as well as aiding in critical minerals extraction, radioactive waste storage, and soil and groundwater remediation. Representing industry, the national labs, and academia, the witnesses observed that the Department of Energy funds subsurface work through several programs, including its geothermal and carbon storage applied R&D programs, environmental remediation office, and the Office of Science. One witness, an executive from geothermal startup Fervo Energy, which just achieved a major cost-effectiveness milestone, said the company had benefited from DOE funding and urged additional support for efforts to scale up production. He noted that the department’s funding for geothermal energy is small compared to other clean energy technologies capable of delivering constant power.
China Select Committee Turning Attention to Technology Security
The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party held a hearing on technological competition between the U.S. and China last week to make the case for a more expansive federal response. Committee Chair Mike Gallagher (R-WI) argued the U.S. should do more to restrict China’s access to the fruits of U.S.-funded R&D, saying, “We have a bucket with massive holes in the bottom and we’ve continued to pour billions and billions of R&D dollars into that bucket every year. We could plug the holes by enforcing export controls, ensuring appropriate research security safeguards, and enacting balanced outbound-capital restrictions.” Shortly after the hearing, Gallagher and Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) sent a letter to the Commerce Department urging it to tighten the semiconductor export controls targeting China that it implemented last October, arguing that “workarounds” for the controls have been exploited. Republican members focused their remarks at the hearing on the case for tighter controls on commerce and research involving Chinese entities, while Democrats made a point of advocating for increasing science funding and making it easier for experts to immigrate to the United States. Krishnamoorthi, who has sponsored legislation on the subject, remarked, “We must double down on our people, whether that’s advanced skills-based training and STEM education, or enhancing our legal immigration system, which is our number-one killer competitive advantage over the People’s Republic of China.”
Scientific Integrity Act Reintroduced in House
Last week, Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY) reintroduced the Scientific Integrity Act, which would set baseline requirements for federal science agencies’ integrity policies. Tonko has introduced the legislation at various points in the past, but it has never gained enough traction to become law, either on its own or as part of a package such as last year’s CHIPS and Science Act. While this latest version has Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) as a cosponsor, no Republican from the House Science Committee has signed on. Shortly after taking office, President Biden ordered federal agencies to review their scientific integrity policies, and early this year the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy released a framework to guide agencies in revising and enforcing their policies. OSTP also released its first-ever scientific integrity policy in May. Tonko’s legislation has aimed to reinforce scientific integrity policies regardless of presidential administration.
New IPCC Chair Announced
On July 26, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change announced the election of a new chair, Jim Skea, for its seventh assessment cycle. Skea is a professor of sustainable energy at Imperial College London and previously co-chaired the IPCC’s Working Group lll, which assesses options for mitigating climate change. Skea stated that his three main priorities are “improving inclusiveness and diversity, shielding scientific integrity and policy relevance of IPCC assessment reports, and making the effective use of the best available science on climate change.” Also last week, the IPCC named NASA chief scientist and climate researcher Kate Calvin as one of the Working Group lll co-chairs for the new assessment cycle.
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| Events this Week |
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All times are Eastern Daylight Time, unless otherwise noted. Listings do not imply endorsement.
Monday, July 31
Tuesday, August 1
Wednesday, August 2
Thursday, August 3
Friday, August 4
Saturday, August 5
Monday, August 7
Tuesday, August 8
Wednesday, August 9
Tuesday, August 15
Know of an upcoming science policy event either inside or outside the Beltway? Email us at fyi@aip.org.
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| Opportunities |
NOAA Seeking Input on Climate Services
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is requesting input on how to enhance its delivery of “climate services,” comprising climate data, information, science, and tools. NOAA states that responses “will be used to create an action plan that will inform more equitable and inclusive design, production, and delivery of climate services for users of all disciplines and backgrounds.” Responses are due Sept. 21.
CSET Hiring Research Coordinator
Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology is hiring a research coordinator to help manage its pipeline of analysis products and ensure research timelines are met. Candidates should have a bachelor’s degree and at least three years of research program management or administrative support experience. Applications are due Aug. 14.
NSPN Hiring SciPol Scholars Program Coordinator
The National Science Policy Network is hiring a program coordinator to lead its Science Policy Scholars In-Residence program, which embeds early career scientists and engineers in policy organizations via virtual, part-time residencies. Preferred candidates will have familiarity with policy-relevant writing and experience coordinating training programs or virtual events.
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