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What’s Ahead
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| President Biden meets with congressional leaders to discuss legislation to raise the federal debt limit. (Image credit – The White House) |
Science Cuts on the Table in Debt Limit Negotiations
With the U.S. due to start defaulting on its debt in early June, negotiations are intensifying this week over legislation that would raise the federal debt limit in exchange for constraining federal spending. According to reporting by Politico, Biden administration officials have proposed providing flat funding for domestic programs, including scientific research, noting that would represent a cut after accounting for inflation. However, leaders of the Republican-controlled House are insisting on steeper cuts to domestic programs to offset spending increases on defense programs. As an opening move in the debt limit negotiations, the House passed legislation in April that would cut the current annual discretionary budget by $131 billion and limit it to 1% annual increases for the following nine years. House Republicans have not yet indicated what specific science programs they would cut under such constraints. Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee began advancing security-focused spending bills last week but have yet to reveal what spending limits the remaining bills will be subject to. Meanwhile, leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee have committed to begin advancing bipartisan spending bills in June. The absence of an overall agreement on spending levels for the fiscal year and the looming debt limit expiration have significantly delayed the appropriations process as well as work on Congress’ annual defense policy bill.
House Preparing Spectrum Allocation Legislation
On Tuesday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee is holding a hearing with National Telecommunications and Information Administration head Alan Davidson to discuss an array of proposals the committee is developing to update policy for the agency. Several of these proposals address NTIA’s representation of federal agencies in radio spectrum allocation decision-making, which is carried out by the Federal Communications Commission. Agency access to spectrum has become a contentious issue as telecommunications technologies have encroached on bandwidths used for satellite weather observations and the Global Positioning System, among other applications. A related issue currently occupying Congress is the recent lapse of the FCC’s authority to auction spectrum bands after lawmakers failed to pass a long-term extension.
Nobel Laureates Brainstorm Ways to Boost Trust in Science
The National Academies is hosting the 2023 Nobel Prize Summit starting Wednesday. Titled “Truth, Trust, and Hope,” the three-day event will bring together Nobel Prize winners and other experts to discuss misinformation and strategies for building trust in science. The program includes a “deliberative polling exercise” that will explore the possibility of engaging large groups of citizens to “democratically vet policy proposals concerning the information landscape.”
Editor’s note: Next month, FYI is launching a new website with a fresh look and new features, including major upgrades to our Federal Science Budget Tracker and Bill Tracker. More details to come.
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In Case You Missed It
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| An illustration of Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lunar lander. (Image credit – Blue Origin) |
NASA Picks Blue Origin to Provide Crewed Lunar Lander
On May 19, NASA announced it has selected the company Blue Origin to build a crewed lunar lander called Blue Moon for the agency to first use on its Artemis V mission, tentatively targeted for 2029. The contract requires the agency to pay $3.4 billion, while Blue Origin, which is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, expects its share of the project to cost “well north of that,” according to its vice president for lunar transportation. NASA is already paying the company SpaceX $2.89 billion to provide a crewed lunar lander for the Artemis III mission and an additional $1.15 billion for the Artemis IV lander. Both the SpaceX and Blue Origin contracts allow the companies to retain ownership of their landers while also requiring them to bear the burden of any cost overruns. NASA had originally planned to issue more than one lander contract for the Artemis campaign, but in 2021 it selected only SpaceX’s proposal after Congress provided a smaller appropriation than requested. Lawmakers then urged NASA to make a second selection, citing the need for redundancy and competition. The contracts will need continuing support through annual appropriations, but, notably, Blue Origin is headquartered near Seattle, which is represented in the Senate by the chamber’s lead appropriator, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA). In a statement responding to the company’s selection, she remarked, “This is great news for Washington state and our growing aerospace industry. … As chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I will do everything I can to support investments in innovation right here in Washington state.”
Manchin Puts Nomination for Renewable Energy Office on Ice
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chair Joe Manchin (D-WV) has blocked action on the nomination of Jeff Marootian to lead the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) within the Department of Energy. The nomination had been scheduled for a vote at a committee meeting last week, but Manchin ultimately removed it from the agenda. He explained in a statement that he was “not comfortable moving forward with Mr. Marootian at this time” because EERE has proposed new regulations on gas stoves. “While I appreciate that these rules would only apply to new stoves, my view is that it’s part of a broader, administration-wide effort to eliminate fossil fuels,” he remarked. Due to various energy policy disagreements with the Biden administration, Manchin has previously blocked certain other nominations his committee controls and recently withheld his support for all Environmental Protection Agency nominations, which are controlled by another committee. The Energy Committee did advance the nomination of David Crane to be DOE under secretary for infrastructure on a vote of 13 to 6 and it will now proceed to a final vote by the whole Senate.
DOE Names New Head for Fusion Science Program
The Department of Energy announced last week that it has selected nuclear engineer Jean Paul Allain to lead the Fusion Energy Sciences program within its Office of Science. An expert in plasma-material interactions and fusion technology, Allain currently leads the nuclear engineering department at Penn State University, where he has focused on expanding experimental facilities, increasing recruitment of faculty and staff, and establishing strategic initiatives with external partners. Allain is a member of the FES Advisory Committee and previously held faculty positions at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Purdue University. Allain’s start date has not yet been announced. The previous FES head Jim Van Dam retired in September and the program is currently led on an acting basis by John Mandrekas, director of its research division.
STEM Immigration Advocates Press Case to House China Committee
A bipartisan group of former high-ranking government officials who served in national security and science roles is making a renewed push to convince Congress to expand visa pathways for STEM degree holders. Last week they petitioned the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party to hold a hearing on how current immigration policies could be improved in light of the increasing competition between the U.S. and China, and to then recommend policy changes to committees that have the power to advance legislation. Many of the same former officials unsuccessfully pressed Congress last year to expand STEM visa pathways through the CHIPS and Science Act. Democrats, who controlled the House in the previous Congress, included such provisions in their version of the legislation but the final version dropped them due to objections from Senate Republicans. A lead sponsor of the provisions was Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), who is now the top Democrat on the China committee. Krishnamoorthi again made the case for expanding STEM immigration at a hearing the committee held last week, at which former Google CEO Eric Schmidt also outlined his own proposal for creating special visa pathways for STEM graduates from “partner countries” that could later be expanded to additional countries, including China. Committee Chair Mike Gallagher (R-WI) did not discuss the subject at the hearing.
G7 and Quad Countries Deepen Technology Coordination
Coordination of research and technology initiatives was high on the agenda at last week’s summit of the Group of Seven, comprising the United States, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy. In a joint statement released at the conclusion of their meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, the countries summarized commitments to better protect dual-use technologies from exploitation, enhance nuclear non-proliferation, and accelerate progress toward achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 through a new G7 Clean Energy Economy Action Plan, among many other initiatives. The countries’ science ministers also met just prior to the summit and issued their own joint statement outlining shared priorities in areas such as open access, research security, international talent mobility, and sustainable use of outer space. For instance, the ministers declared support for “immediate open and public access to government-funded scholarly publications and scientific data” and are set to release a white paper on “best practices for secure and open research.” They also warned of growing problems from orbital debris and emphasized the need to mitigate the effects of new satellite constellations on Earth-bound astronomy.
Leaders of the Quad countries, comprising Australia, Japan, India, and the United States, also met during the G7 summit. Among their announcements, the group issued joint principles on standards development for critical and emerging technologies and launched the Quad Investors Network, which will funnel public and private investment from the four nations into “critical technologies and supply chain resilience to develop innovative solutions to the greatest economic and security challenges in the Indo-Pacific region.” They also highlighted the inaugural cohort of the Quad Fellowship, which will annually support 100 students in pursuing STEM graduate studies in the U.S.
Barrasso Presses DOE to Restrict Use of AI Tools
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member John Barrasso (R-WY) sent a letter to the secretaries of energy and the interior last week asking them to immediately block access to third-party artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT out of concern that prompts given to them could include sensitive information. Barrasso noted that the Environmental Protection Agency has already blocked such access on its computers, as have various private companies, and he stated the Energy Department is “a prime target for adversaries that wish to undermine our national security and technological capabilities.” The letter also asks the agencies to conduct an internal review of the use of AI tools by their personnel and publish guidance on such tools by June 30. Barrasso’s letter comes as AI regulation and security have become a hot topic on Capitol Hill. Sam Altman, CEO of the company that created ChatGPT, appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, where he called on legislators to create an agency that would issue licenses and safety regulations for AI language models. Altman defended the value of the technology and its potential to reshape the economy, but also warned of potentially severe consequences if it is allowed to proliferate uncontrolled.
New DOJ Technology Protection Team Makes First Charges
Last week, the Justice Department announced five cases it is prosecuting through the “Disruptive Technology Strike Force” it formed with the Commerce Department in February to prioritize cases involving illegal acquisition of sensitive technology by “nation-state adversaries.” Two of the cases focus on technology exports to Russia, two on trade-secret theft benefiting China, and one on weapons programs in Iran. For instance, one of the China-focused cases involves an employee of a U.S. company who allegedly stole source code for 3D modeling technology he used to support his own company and who sought to participate in the Thousand Talents program sponsored by the Chinese government. The cases were announced by the head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, Matt Olsen, who sunsetted the “China Initiative” label the department had used to prioritize cases involving China and replaced it with a broader framing involving additional countries. Many of the cases pursued under the China Initiative involved academic researchers, whereas none of the five cases from the strike force involve academics.
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Events This Week
All times are Eastern Standard Time, unless otherwise noted. Listings do not imply endorsement.
Monday, May 22
Tuesday, May 23
Wednesday, May 24
Federal Demonstration Partnership: May meeting
(continues through Friday)
Thursday, May 25
Friday, May 26
No events start today.
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Opportunities NASA Seeks Input on Open Access Policy
NASA is seeking public input on its new Public Access Plan, which lays out policies and procedures for increasing access to scholarly publications, scientific data, and software. The agency updated the plan in response to a 2022 White House policy that requires agencies to provide public access to certain scientific papers and data immediately upon publication. Comments are due Aug. 17.
AAAS Solicits Science and Diplomacy Prize Nominations
The American Association for the Advancement of Science is seeking nominations for the 2024 David and Betty Hamburg Award for Science Diplomacy, which recognizes members of the scientific or foreign policy community who have made outstanding contributions to promoting science cooperation between societies. Nominations are due June 30.
Research Partnership Roundtable Seeks Program Officer
The National Academies is hiring a senior program officer for the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable, which aims to facilitate dialogue across sectors on critical science and technology issues. Applicants should have a master’s degree and at least six years of related experience, preferably including experience within a federal agency involved in science policy, research, or national security.
Know of an upcoming science policy event either inside or outside the Beltway? Email us at fyi@aip.org.
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