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What’s Ahead Senate Appropriators Set to Advance DOE Spending Bill
The Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to advance its fiscal year 2019 spending bill for the Department of Energy this week, with subcommittee consideration on Tuesday and the full committee review on Thursday. The committee has not yet released its funding proposals, but the bill should be posted shortly before or after the committee meetings. Senate appropriators have set an ambitious schedule for advancing the full set of 12 appropriations bills, looking to complete their work by the end of June.
Senate Appropriators to Hear from NASA Administrator Bridenstine
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine is set to testify Wednesday before the Senate Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) Appropriations Subcommittee on NASA’s fiscal year 2019 budget. The administration budget proposals he is set to defend were made before he joined the agency in April. The proposals include canceling the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, cutting the Earth Science Division budget, and reorienting NASA’s immediate focus to lunar exploration. The hearing will be Sen. Jerry Moran’s (R-KS) first NASA budget hearing as subcommittee chair. When Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) became chair of the full Appropriations Committee in April, he switched out his CJS Subcommittee gavel for the Defense Subcommittee gavel.
Senators Preparing to Unveil Annual Defense Policy Bill
The Senate Armed Services Committee will hold closed subcommittee meetings early this week to complete work on the Senate version of this year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The NDAA is an annual bill that sets policy for the Department of Defense and the National Nuclear Security Administration, and it contains a large number of provisions relating to R&D and defense technology issues. The full committee will take up the bill in closed session beginning Wednesday and will release the text after it has voted to approve it for consideration on the Senate floor. The House Armed Services Committee already approved its version of the bill earlier this month, and the House is currently accepting proposed amendments from all members of the chamber before beginning floor debate.
House Committee Looks to Advance Nuclear Technology
The House Energy and Commerce Committee will be continuing its work on the “modernization” of the Department of Energy on Tuesday with a subcommittee hearing on how to encourage the development of advanced nuclear energy technologies. The subcommittee will hear from two panels of witnesses. Appearing on the first panel are Brent Park, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation, and Ed McGinnis, the top official at the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy. The second panel will comprise an expert in energy law, representatives from the nuclear fuel and electrical utility industries, and a nuclear energy expert from the Union of Concerned Scientists. A committee memo outlines specific legislative measures that will be subject to discussion, including a draft bill that would direct DOE to take steps to increase the availability of high assay low enriched uranium (HA-LEU). HA-LEU is a nuclear fuel that is enriched to contain between 5 and 20 percent uranium-235 and could be used in certain advanced reactor technologies.
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In Case You Missed It
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| Chris Fall addresses the ARPA–E Innovation Summit in March 2018. |
Chris Fall Picked to Lead DOE Office of Science
President Trump announced his intention on May 18 to nominate Chris Fall to be director of the Department of Energy Office of Science, which oversees a $6.3 billion research portfolio and is the largest federal sponsor of the physical sciences. In January, Fall was named the principal deputy director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy and has been serving as the agency’s top official in the absence of a director. Prior to joining ARPA–E, he held a series of positions at the Office of Naval Research, including acting chief scientist. From 2014 to 2017, he was detailed to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy as assistant director for defense programs and later as acting associate director for national security and international affairs. Fall holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a Ph.D. in neuroscience, both from the University of Virginia.
DOE Spending Bill Clears House Committee
Last week, the House Appropriations Committee approved its fiscal year 2019 spending bill that funds the Department of Energy on a vote of 29 to 20. The report accompanying the bill contains policy direction and instructions for allocating money among DOE programs. For the Office of Science, it specifies that the Advanced Scientific Computing Research, Fusion Energy Sciences, and High Energy Physics would each receive increases of more than 10 percent, while Basic Energy Sciences, Nuclear Physics, and Biological and Environmental Research would maintain nearly flat funding. It also includes increased funding to ramp up a number of construction projects, including the ITER fusion energy facility in France. Within a flat budget for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons R&D programs, the report mostly rejects the administration’s proposed deep cuts to the Inertial Confinement Fusion program and establishes new budget accounts to “ensure that funds provided will be used to adequately maintain the NNSA’s experimental capabilities as intended.” For further details, see FYI’s Federal Science Budget Tracker.
NASA, NSF, NIST, NOAA Spending Bill Advances in House
The House Appropriations Committee also approved its fiscal year 2019 Commerce-Justice-Science Subcommittee’s spending bill last week, on a vote of 32 to 19. The report accompanying the bill contains detailed funding proposals for NASA, the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The subcommittee continues to focus on building up the budget for NASA’s Planetary Science Division, driven by subcommittee chair John Culberson’s (R-TX) enthusiasm for exploring Jupiter’s moon Europa. It also rejects the administration’s proposal to cancel the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, although it expresses concern about the projected cost of the mission and provides about $150 million less than the amount NASA previously projected it would need for fiscal year 2019. For NSF, the bulk of a nearly 50 percent increase for the agency’s facilities construction account would go toward ramping up construction of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope in Chile. Prior to advancing the bill, the committee adopted an amendment that would restore funding for a $10 million greenhouse gas monitoring program at NASA that the Trump administration plans to end. However, it is still proposing to slash NOAA Climate Research by 38 percent, or $59 million.
Bridenstine Weighs in on Climate Science, WFIRST
During an agency-wide town hall event on May 17, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine commented publicly on a number of high-profile scientific issues for the first time since being sworn in. He described his current views on climate science, saying, “I don’t deny the consensus that the climate is changing. In fact, I fully believe and know that the climate is changing. I also know that we human beings are contributing to it in a major way.” Asked about the administration’s proposed cancellation of the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), he said, “I think WFIRST is going to continue to go forward. If I had a crystal ball, I’d say there’s a 90 percent chance of that.” However, he stressed that NASA must ensure that WFIRST does not go down the same path as the James Webb Space Telescope. He noted how the latter mission’s large cost and schedule overruns have disrupted the decadal survey process that sets research priorities for the agency.
Misinformation About Climate Science Overshadows Discussion of Solutions at Hearing
The House Science Committee held a hearing on May 16 that ostensibly was convened to examine the role of technological innovation in addressing climate change. Several Republican committee members aired skepticism of mainstream climate science and used inaccurate or out-of-context information to question the causes and magnitude of global warming and sea level rise. Committee Democrats criticized the majority for continuing to debate the human role in climate change and argued they intended to use the hearing to present a “false choice” between mitigation and adaptation strategies. Republican committee leaders argued the U.S. should leverage technology in developing climate change mitigation and adaptation measures, criticizing emissions reduction policies such as the Paris Climate Agreement. Witnesses expressed support for simultaneous consideration of mitigation and adaptation measures as well as continued federal investment in energy research, development, and demonstration.
Quantum Experts Stress Workforce Needs at House Hearing
At a May 18 subcommittee hearing on quantum computing held by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, witnesses identified workforce development as key for realizing the promise of nascent technologies that leverage quantum phenomena. Christopher Monroe, a physics professor at the University of Maryland who has co-founded a quantum computing startup company, attested to a skills “mismatch” between industry and academia, with the former lacking adequate familiarity with the hardware necessary to build quantum computers and the latter lacking the ability to manufacture at scale. He advocated for the federal government to spin up several quantum technology labs to facilitate skills transfer between these sectors as part of a National Quantum Initiative. (The Optical Society, an AIP Member Society, helped develop the NQI concept). Diana Franklin, a computer science education professor at the University of Chicago, testified that previous lapses in funding for quantum computer science had disrupted the pipeline of graduate students in the field. She urged steady federal funding of interdisciplinary teams that include quantum software developers and computer scientists alongside support for hardware development.
NIH Director Calls for Funds to Fix Outdated Facilities
At a hearing last week, National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins thanked the Senate Appropriations Committee for the “ incredible increase” of $3 billion the agency received in fiscal year 2018 appropriations and stressed the need for continued investments, including funding to address a $1.8 billion backlog of facility maintenance and repair. Collins said that based on a recent analysis, NIH laboratories rank near the lowest in the federal government “ due to the high likelihood of floods, power outages, and mechanical failures,” and called for $200 million in fiscal year 2019 funds to continue repairing and upgrading deteriorated infrastructure. NIH is currently working with the National Academies to identify which of its facilities are in greatest need of repair.
Senate Passes Volcano Monitoring Bill
On May 17, the Senate passed a bill to establish a “National Volcano Early Warning and Monitoring System” on a voice vote. The bill would unify existing volcano monitoring systems, directing the U.S. Geological Survey to establish a national volcano data center and a national watch office to provide around-the-clock awareness of all active volcanoes in the U.S. It also stipulates that the system include an extramural grant program that supports volcano monitoring research. The bill authorizes $55 million for the system for fiscal years 2019 through 2023, although this does not guarantee appropriations. A similar bill in the House is awaiting floor consideration.
High Energy Physics Panel Completes Portfolio Review
At its meeting last week, the High Energy Physics Advisory Panel (HEPAP) approved its review of the currently operating high energy physics experiments that are supported by the Department of Energy. DOE requested the portfolio review last fall to prioritize the experiments in the event it had to implement the major funding cut the Trump administration proposed for fiscal year 2018. Although Congress ultimately provided DOE’s HEP office with a significant funding increase, the department could still use the review to inform future decisions about the experiments. The exercise could also provide a template for more routine reviews, similar to the senior reviews that NASA conducts for its science missions. A draft of the main review report is available here. A draft of separate report on the experiments based at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN can be found here.
Steven Cowley Named Director of Princeton Plasma Lab
On May 16, the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) named physicist Steven Cowley as its next director. Cowley earned his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1985 and was previously a researcher at PPPL from 1987 to 1993. From 1985 to 1987 he worked at the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) Culham Laboratory, a nuclear fusion research facility, and held academic positions at the University of California, Los Angeles, from 1993 to 2008 and Imperial College London from 2001 to 2016. Cowley was also chief executive of UKAEA from 2009 until 2016, when he became the president of Corpus Christi College at Oxford University, and he has served as a member of the UK Prime Minister’s Council of Science and Technology. As PPPL director, Cowley succeeds Stewart Prager, who stepped down in 2016 following a catastrophic failure of the recently upgraded National Spherical Torus Experiment. Repairs to the fusion energy research facility are ongoing.
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Events This Week
Friday, May 25 No events.
Monday, May 28 Memorial Day Holiday
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Opportunities AAAS Seeking Director for Center for Scientific Evidence in Public Issues
The American Association for the Advancement of Science is accepting applications for the first director of its Center for Scientific Evidence in Public Issues (EPI Center). The goal of the Center, which will launch this year, is to “bring clearly and strategically communicated scientific evidence on public issues to decision-makers — from policymakers to parents — and to others who influence them, when they need it most.” Interested individuals with an advanced degree and at least 15 years of experience developing and managing science and policy programs are encouraged to apply.
UCS Seeking Geoengineering Policy Fellow
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is accepting applications for a geoengineering policy fellow to be based at its headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Position responsibilities include tracking developments in solar geoengineering research and policy, developing communications materials on solar geoengineering research, and serving as a public spokesperson for UCS on these issues. Interested individuals with a Ph.D. and with relevant experience in the social science dimensions of climate change, energy, or geoengineering technologies are encouraged to apply by June 3.
Know of an upcoming science policy opportunity? Email us at fyi@aip.org.Know of an upcoming science policy event? Email us at fyi@aip.org.
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