| |
What’s Ahead
House Appropriators Proposing Another Boost to DOE Science
House appropriators are beginning their consideration of fiscal year 2019 spending legislation for the science agencies this week, with the bill for the Department of Energy first in line. The House Energy-Water Appropriations Subcommittee will meet Monday to consider amendments and vote to advance its draft bill to the full committee. Released over the weekend, the bill proposes a $340 million, or 5 percent, increase to the topline of the DOE Office of Science. It also includes increases for the Office of Nuclear Energy and Fossil Energy R&D of 12 percent and 8 percent, respectively, while rolling back funding for Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy by 10 percent and the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy by 8 percent from the levels recently enacted. See FYI’s Federal Science Budget Tracker for more details.
…and Considering NSF, NASA, NOAA, NIST Spending Bill
The Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations Subcommittee will meet Wednesday to consider its draft spending bill, which funds NASA, the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The bill has not yet been released. Subcommittee Chair John Culberson (R-TX) had indicated he might hold a hearing on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope on that date, but he is moving forward without waiting for JWST’s independent review board to weigh in on that mission’s recent delays. Appropriators have less room to allocate increases this budget cycle, as the statutory limit on total nondefense discretionary spending for fiscal year 2019 is 3 percent above last year, significantly lower than the double-digit percentage spending increase Congress approved for fiscal year 2018.
House Science Committee to Review DOE Budget
Energy Secretary Rick Perry will return to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to testify before the House Science Committee on the Trump administration’s fiscal year 2019 budget request for the Department of Energy. The committee does not appropriate funds, as that responsibility lies with the appropriations committees, but it is responsible for authorizing and overseeing DOE’s nondefense R&D programs. Committee Chair Lamar Smith (R-TX) penned an op-ed last week that makes a full-throated pitch for full U.S. support for ITER, an international fusion facility under construction in France. He argues that underfunding ITER would “ jeopardize American leadership in fusion science” and says the U.S. must contribute at least $50 million in cash and $163 million of in-kind contributions in fiscal year 2019 to “ maintain the scheduled U.S. contribution.” In the final spending bill for fiscal year 2018, Congress provided DOE $122 million to support in-kind contributions.
NSF and Air Force Establishing New Research Partnership
On Wednesday, National Science Foundation Director France Córdova and Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson will sign a letter of intent to establish a new partnership between the two agencies on “scientific research to bolster national security.” Secretary Wilson has previously emphasized the importance of strengthening partnerships between Air Force researchers, universities, and industry partners to remain at the forefront of science and technology. The event will be webcast.
Defense Policy Bill Continues Journey Through House
On Wednesday, the House Armed Services Committee will consider its version of the this year’s National Defense Authorization Act, an annual bill that updates policy for the Department of Defense and the National Nuclear Security Administration. Subcommittees approved components of the legislation in late April, and the committee has since released a summary of the full bill, which says it “places emphasis on policy and programs to advance artificial Intelligence, machine learning, quantum computing, and other critical national security technologies.” One controversial issue that will be debated during the marathon bill markup session is whether to authorize development of the new low-yield nuclear warhead called for in the Trump administration’s Nuclear Posture Review. Republican committee leaders support the proposal while Democrats oppose it. The Senate Armed Services Committee is scheduled to take up its version of the bill later this month.
Defense Science Nominees to Face Confirmation Hearing
The Senate Armed Services Committee is holding a hearing on Thursday to consider five nominations, including Lisa Porter to be deputy under secretary of defense for research and engineering and Charles Verdon to be deputy administrator for defense programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration. Porter currently leads the laboratory programs at In-Q-Tel, a nonprofit venture capital firm that invests in technologies for the intelligence community. If confirmed, she will work with Under Secretary of Defense Mike Griffin as he seeks to jumpstart innovation at the Department of Defense. Verdon currently heads the Weapons and Complex Integration Directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. At NNSA he would be responsible for research and other activities related to its Stockpile Stewardship Program for nuclear weapons. There do not appear to be major obstacles to either Porter’s or Verdon’s confirmation.
National Academies Reproducibility Study Turns to Climate
The National Academies committee studying reproducibility and replicability in science will be holding a short virtual meeting on Wednesday dedicated exclusively to climate science. The committee will hear from climate scientists Gavin Schmidt, Michael Evans, Andrea Dutton, and Rich Loft, who will discuss such questions as how the climate science community has understood reproducibility and replicability issues in recent years, as well as how paleoclimatic data are used to test climate models and estimate uncertainties. These issues have taken on increased prominence in science policy, with House Science Committee Chair Lamar Smith (R-TX) questioning the scientific credibility of climate research, arguing that long-range predictions are inherently unreproducible because they cannot be directly tested. In addition, EPA recently cited a “replication crisis” in science as justification for a proposed rule that would require data and models used in certain scientific studies to be made publicly available before the agency could use them in developing regulations.
NASA Administrator Bridenstine to Speak at Humans to Mars Summit
On Wednesday, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine is scheduled to deliver a keynote speech at the Humans to Mars Summit, which will take place Tuesday through Thursday at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. It will be one of Bridenstine’s first public appearances since taking the helm of the agency last month. Although the summit will focus on human space exploration, NASA Chief Scientist Jim Green will speak on a Tuesday panel focused on international collaboration on Mars science. Also scheduled to appear at the summit are NASA Science Mission Directorate Head Thomas Zurbuchen, Reps. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) and Bill Posey (R-FL), and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who chairs the Senate Science, Space, and Competitiveness Subcommittee, alongside a large cast of space luminaries. The summit will be webcast.
Bipartisan Policy Center to Highlight Value of Federal Science Funding
The Bipartisan Policy Center and The Science Coalition are co-hosting a public briefing in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday focused on how federal investment in scientific research and innovation helps the U.S. maintain a competitive edge in the world. Eric Fanning, president and CEO of the Aerospace Industries Association is the keynote speaker, and the panel discussion to follow will include National Science Board Chair Maria Zuber and Michael Telson, vice president for energy programs at General Atomics.
Groups Head for the Hill to Advocate for Science
Several science caucuses and coalitions are hosting events on Capitol Hill this week. On Wednesday, the Coalition for the National Science Funding is hosting its annual exhibition and reception event, with over 35 booths showcasing examples of National Science Foundation-funded research. Meanwhile, members from dozens of science and engineering organizations will be meeting with congressional staff throughout the day on Wednesday as part of the annual “STEM on Hill” congressional visits day. On Monday, the Hazards Caucus Alliance is hosting a congressional briefing entitled “Sizing Up Sinkholes: S&T to Mitigate Karst Hazards.” And on Wednesday, the Planetary Science Caucus is convening its first meeting and an exhibition on space exploration at the Library of Congress, featuring The Planetary Society CEO Bill Nye.
|
|
In Case You Missed It National Science Board Elects New Leadership
 |
| Newly elected National Science Board Chair Diane Souvaine, left, and Vice Chair Ellen Ochoa. (Image credits - NSF/Sandy Schaeffer and NASA) |
Last week, the 25-member governing board of the National Science Foundation elected Diane Souvaine and Ellen Ochoa to lead the board for the 2018 to 2020 term. Souvaine, a Tufts University computer science professor, will take over as chair from Maria Zuber, who is departing the board. Souvaine has served on the board for 10 years, including as vice chair for the past two, and co-chaired its task force on mid-scale research. Ochoa, who is stepping down as director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center this month, will become vice chair. After earning a bachelor’s degree in physics and graduate degrees in electrical engineering, Ochoa worked as an engineer at Sandia National Laboratories and NASA Ames Research Center before becoming the first Hispanic female astronaut. The White House has not announced replacements for the eight outgoing board members, whose six-year terms expire on May 10. These appointments are made by the president but are not subject to Senate confirmation.
US Still Considering China Visa Restrictions
As a high-level U.S. delegation headed to China last week to negotiate a way to defuse an escalating trade conflict, the New York Times reported that the Trump administration is “considering strict measures to block Chinese citizens from performing sensitive research at American universities and research institutes over fears they may be acquiring intellectual secrets.” News reports from earlier this year indicated that the administration had been contemplating such restrictions, but the latest article indicates that the internal discussions are ongoing and adds details on the potential scope of the measures. Among the possible restrictions are a clamp down on visas granted to certain Chinese citizens and an expansion of existing export controls designed to prevent the transfer of sensitive technologies and know-how. Reacting to the news, American Association for the Advancement of Science CEO Rush Holt urged the administration to work with the scientific community to craft a solution that does not unduly impede the flow of Chinese students and scholars, remarking, “Where specific and confirmed espionage is occurring, action must be taken, but obstructing scientific exchange based on non-specific concerns that could be applied to broad swaths of people is ill-conceived and damaging to American interests.”
Space Studies Board Pushes Back on Decadal Survey Delay
At a meeting of the National Academies Space Studies Board on May 2, board members pressed NASA Science Mission Directorate Head Thomas Zurbuchen on his suggestion that the next astronomy and astrophysics decadal survey (Astro2020) could be pushed back to accommodate the recently announced delay in the James Webb Space Telescope, which will now launch no earlier than 2020, and the debate about the scope of the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope. Sharing a sentiment expressed by other board members, Princeton astrophysicist Adam Burrows said there is a “ great enthusiasm for getting on with the job and getting the decadal out” in the astrophysics community, adding that while arguments can be make for delaying, such arguments are usually “ wrong.” While acknowledging the community is in the driver’s seat, Zurbuchen again urged the board to consider a delay, saying “ half of the decade is basically allocated” already and “ some of the big strategic missions have not cleared the queue,” leaving “ very little free energy for the rest of the decade.” He warned that a decadal survey without vision or “ forward-leaning character” will not be be able to make a decadal impact.
GAO Review Reports Worsening NASA Project Performance
The Government Accountability Office released its annual assessment of NASA’s largest projects on May 1. It finds the agency’s control over costs and schedules has deteriorated following a multi-year period of improving performance, with the severest problems revolving around NASA’s human exploration activities. Separately, on May 2, NASA’s Office of Inspector General announced it will audit the management of the in-development mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa. Congress has directed NASA to simultaneously develop its flagship Europa Clipper mission and a second mission to land on Europa’s surface, both on an aggressive timetable. This has led to concerns about the Planetary Science Division’s ability to effectively manage an increasingly large and complex mission portfolio.
€100 Billion Proposed for Next EU Flagship R&D Program
On May 2, the European Commission announced it is proposing to allocate €100 billion ($120 billion) for the next EU R&D framework program, which will run from 2021 to 2027. The proposed budget represents a substantial increase over the current €77 billion ($88 billion) Horizon 2020 research program. However, the proposal falls short of the recommendation to double funding for Horizon 2020’s successor program included in a high-level advisory group report released last year. The full proposal is expected sometime in the next month.
NASA InSight on Way to Mars
NASA successfully launched Mars InSight on May 5 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. InSight is the first interplanetary mission to launch from the U.S. West Coast. It will arrive at Mars this November, joining five other U.S. missions already in progress there. Once it lands, it will use specialized instrumentation to study the planet’s internal geology. A pair of CubeSats that launched on the same rocket will test experimental miniature spacecraft capabilities during the journey to the Red Planet. The mission, called Mars Cube One (MarCO), represents the first time that NASA has deployed CubeSats beyond Earth’s orbit.
 |
| The week before the launch of InSight, Vice President Mike Pence visited NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. During a tour of JPL’s “Mars Yard,” an outdoor test facility that simulates the surface of the Red Planet, Pence operated a robot used to test the mobility of Mars rovers. (Image credit - NASA / Bill Ingalls) |
|
|
Events This Week
Acoustical Society of America: 175th Annual Meeting (continues through Friday)
Hyatt Regency Minneapolis (Minneapolis, MN)
Webcast available
Explore Mars Inc.: Humans to Mars Summit (continues through Thursday)
George Washington University (730 21st St. NW, DC)
Webcast available
|
|
Opportunities NIST Seeking Input on Improving Technology Transfer
The National Institute of Standards and Technology is seeking public input on ways to update current federal practices and policies to better facilitate the commercialization of technologies developed with federal support. The request is part of a cross-agency priority initiative, led by the Commerce Department and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, to improve federal technology transfer. Based on the feedback received, the administration will potentially seek legislative changes. NIST is holding four stakeholder engagement events across the U.S. as part of the initiative. Written submissions are due by July 30.
EPA Seeking Comment on Controversial Open Science Proposal
The Environmental Protection Agency is requesting public comment on a proposed rule that would require data and models underlying certain scientific studies to be made publicly available before the agency could use the studies in developing regulations. The proposal is modeled on the controversial “Honest and Open New EPA Science Treatment (HONEST) Act,” although it is narrower in scope, only applying only to pollutant exposure data and models underlying “pivotal” regulatory science. Submissions are due May 30.
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.
|
|
Around the Web
News and views currently in circulation. Links do not imply endorsement.
White House
Congress
Political Engagement
Science, Society, and the Economy
Education and Workforce
Research Management
Labs and Facilities
Energy
Space
Weather, Climate, and Environment
Defense
Biomedical
International Affairs
|
|
|
| |
| |
|