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What’s Ahead
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| Excavation work is ramping up at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota to create a space for a massive neutrino detector that will be the centerpiece of the flagship LBNF/DUNE project. (Image credit – Matt Kapust / Sanford Underground Research Facility) |
DOE Particle Physics Program Gets a Checkup
At a meeting on Thursday and Friday, the federal government’s High Energy Physics Advisory Panel is discussing a new independent assessment of the Department of Energy’s HEP program. The last such assessment in 2016 raised acute concerns about how rising spending on facilities projects and major experiments had squeezed the share of the program budget devoted to research, which is an issue that has remained pressing even as the overall HEP budget has increased markedly. Another critical matter is the progress of the flagship Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility and Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment project, which is currently working toward establishing a firm cost and schedule baseline. This year, DOE has contemplated reducing the project’s initial scope in view of cost increases related to excavation of the project site and shortfalls in securing partner commitments. Fermilab announced this month that the project’s excavation contract has now been awarded, and Chris Mossey, the lead for the U.S. portion of the project, will offer a more general update Friday afternoon. Other subjects on the meeting agenda include preparations for next summer’s “Snowmass” strategic planning meeting, DOE efforts in quantum information science and artificial intelligence, and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the HEP community.
Geoscientists Gather Virtually for AGU Meeting
The American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting begins this week as an entirely virtual event that will stretch through Dec. 17. Many events at the meeting are focused on science policy, including several keynotes and plenaries. Two sessions will focus on the post-election outlook for the U.S. scientific enterprise, including a Tuesday panel with John Podesta, who led President Obama’s transition team in 2008, and National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt. The meeting’s town hall events include sessions on the recently released decadal survey for the National Science Foundation’s Earth Sciences Division, the in-progress survey for planetary science and astrobiology, and the upcoming Fifth National Climate Assessment. Preparations for the assessment have attracted scrutiny after the Trump administration replaced the career official overseeing the assessment earlier this month with climatologist David Legates, who dismisses concerns around anthropogenic climate change.
Congress Faces Key Appropriations Decisions
Congress returns from the Thanksgiving break this week with 12 days left to forge a final agreement on fiscal year 2021 appropriations or else pass another stopgap bill before current funding expires. Top appropriators from the House and Senate reached a deal last week on how to allocate funding among the 12 bills that fund the federal government, enabling agency-level disagreements to be ironed out, but they have not indicated whether they have resolved the higher-level dispute over pandemic relief spending. Meanwhile, jockeying for influential positions on the appropriations committees in the next Congress continues. This week, House Democrats plan to pick a successor to House Appropriations Committee Chair Nita Lowey (D-NY), who is retiring. The next most-senior committee member is Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), who currently leads the appropriations subcommittee for the Department of Energy, but she is regarded as less likely to land the job than Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), who is the lead appropriator for the National Institutes of Health, or Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), the lead appropriator for the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction activities.
House to Vote on Ocean and Landslide Monitoring Bills
On Thursday, the House is scheduled to vote on an amended version of the Coordinated Ocean Observations and Research Act, which would update direction for the Integrated Ocean Observing System and define functions of the National Water Center. The House will also vote on an amended version of the National Landslide Preparedness Act, which would update policy for the U.S. Geological Survey’s landslide hazards research and 3D elevation mapping programs. The amended bills are very similar to versions the Senate passed earlier this year, suggesting that the current Congress could send them to the president’s desk before it adjourns in January.
Biden Shifts Transition to Full Speed, Picks Budget Director
President-elect Biden’s transition team has begun meeting with agency officials across the government following last week’s ascertainment by the General Services Administration that he is the apparent winner of the election. In parallel, Biden has also moved ahead with announcements of White House staff appointments and his planned nominees for key administration posts requiring Senate confirmation. This week, Biden is expected to formally announce picks for top economic policy positions, including Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, as director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. The office is responsible for formulating the president’s annual budget request and, in science policy, it plays a key role in deciding what agency-led projects and initiatives the administration will back. On fiscal policy, Tanden has criticized Republican admonitions about budget deficits, arguing that Democrats should not feel obliged to cut spending to counter the effects of tax cuts enacted during Republican administrations. A spokesperson for Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) has asserted that Senate Republicans will not vote to confirm her.
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In Case You Missed It
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| Then-Secretary of State John Kerry visits an Antarctic research station in 2015 as part of a trip to learn about the effects of climate change. (Image credit – State Department) |
John Kerry to Serve as Climate Envoy in Biden Administration
President-elect Biden announced last week that John Kerry will serve in his administration as a special presidential envoy for climate and a member of the National Security Council. The former Democratic senator and 2004 presidential nominee made climate change a major priority when he served as secretary of state from 2013 to 2017, including as the leading U.S. representative at the 2015 Paris climate conference. Since leaving office, Kerry has continued to advocate on the subject and has called for the U.S. to recommit to Mission Innovation, an initiative announced in conjunction with the Paris conference through which the U.S. and 19 other countries each pledged to double their spending on clean energy R&D over five years. Kerry also endorsed a recent report urging the U.S. to roughly triple federal funding for energy innovation to $25 billion per year by 2025. While Kerry will spearhead action on the international aspects of climate policy, starting with the U.S. reentry to the Paris agreement, Biden is expected to appoint a separate White House coordinator for domestic climate policy sometime in the weeks ahead.
Top Iranian Nuclear Physicist Assassinated
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, believed to be a leading figure in Iran’s efforts to develop a nuclear weapon, was assassinated in a car ambush on Nov. 27. Fakhrizadeh’s death follows a decade after up to four Iranian nuclear scientists were also reported to have been killed in a series of suspected assassinations. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has alleged the latest attack was orchestrated by the Israeli government and said the country would retaliate “in a proper time.” Unnamed intelligence sources and an American official who spoke to the New York Times also suggested the attack was orchestrated by Israel, while Israeli officials have not formally commented on the matter. Some observers have suggested the assassination may have been intended to complicate President-elect Joe Biden’s plans to revive the 2015 nuclear limitation agreement the Obama administration negotiated with Iran. President Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and reimposed stringent economic sanctions, leading Iran to resume uranium enrichment activities that exceed the limits of the agreement. In an article published this spring, Biden wrote that if Iran returned to compliance with the agreement, as president he would rejoin the deal and work to “strengthen and extend it” in coordination with other countries.
Trump Fills Out National Science Board With Two Final Picks
The White House announced last week that President Trump intends to appoint two new members to the National Science Board: University of California, Los Angeles astronomer Matthew Malkan and mechanical engineer Scott Stanley, co-founder of Techno Planet, an aerospace engineering firm. NSB oversees the National Science Foundation and its members are appointed for six-year terms that are not subject to Senate confirmation. The new appointments will be Trump’s last to the board, as it is now at its full complement of 24 members for the first time since eight members concluded their terms in May. The board will next convene on Dec. 9 for its quarterly meeting.
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Events This Week Monday, November 30
Tuesday, December 1
Wednesday, December 2
Thursday, December 3
Friday, December 4
Monday, December 7
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Opportunities White House Fellowship Program Accepting Applications
The White House is accepting applications for its annual fellowship program, which places early-career individuals in roles across the government that support top-ranking officials. Applicants must be U.S. citizens and have completed their undergraduate degree. Submissions are due Jan. 6.
DOE Seeking High Energy Physics Program Manager
The Department of Energy is hiring a physicist to support strategic planning and communications activities in its Office of High Energy Physics. Responsibilities of the position include preparing narrative portions of the office’s budget, communicating with stakeholder groups, and assisting with strategic planning for U.S. particle physics. Applications are due Dec. 3.
NASA Hiring Goddard Heliophysics Division Director
NASA is hiring a director for the Heliophysics Science Division at its Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The division consists of five laboratories that span solar physics, heliophysics, geospace physics, and space weather. Applicants must have demonstrated experience developing and implementing new heliophysics mission concepts. Applications are due Dec. 16.
Know of an upcoming science policy event either inside or outside the Beltway? Email us at fyi@aip.org.
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