FYI: Science Policy News
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WEEK OF NOV 25, 2024
What’s Ahead

Sens. Joe Manchin and Mike Lee exchanging the gavel for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), second from right, will chair the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in the next Congress.

Office of Sen. Lee

New committee leaders coming into focus

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) announced last week that he will chair the Energy and Natural Resources Committee starting next year, while Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) will serve as ranking member. The new leaders are taking over from Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV), who is retiring, and Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), who is moving into a leadership role in the Republican caucus. The committee oversees the Departments of Energy and Interior, including presidential nominees for posts in each department.

Several other committees have also announced new leadership. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) will chair the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) will chair the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, which oversees the National Institutes of Health. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is in line to chair the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, which oversees NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the Commerce Department. On the House side, continued Republican control means much of the committee leadership can remain the same. However, Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK) is stepping down as chair of the House Science Committee after serving as its top Republican for three consecutive terms. His successor may be Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX), who has chaired the panel’s space subcommittee since 2015.

AI and quantum legislation advancing in Senate

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee advanced amended versions of the DOE Quantum Leadership Act and the DOE AI Act last week, which aim to expand the department’s portfolios in each subject. The AI bill would direct DOE to establish a network of AI research clusters based at national labs and use AI to accelerate work across mission areas via DOE’s FASST Initiative, among other actions. However, the amended version does not recommend a funding target for these efforts, whereas the original version proposed DOE receive $2.4 billion annually. Meanwhile, the House Science Committee’s version of the bill, advanced in September, would recommend DOE receive $300 million annually over the next five years for AI work. The new version of the Senate bill also adds a provision that would update DOE’s procedures for screening foreign nationals before they can access DOE national labs if they are from countries deemed to be “engaging in competitive behavior that directly threatens U.S. national security.” Committee members may look to add the bills to this year’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act, which might be the last major legislation enacted before the new Congress convenes next year.

Trump makes picks for budget, commerce, education, and health roles

President-elect Donald Trump has continued rapidly assembling his executive line-up, announcing picks to lead the White House Office of Management and Budget, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Education, and more in the last week. Trump has selected Russell Vought to resume the role of OMB director, which he held from 2020 to 2021. Vought contributed prominently to the conservative blueprint Project 2025, laying out a vision to reshape the executive branch. In the report, he proposes rolling back government-led climate initiatives and policies promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion across science agencies.

Businessman Howard Lutnick is Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Commerce, which includes the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Trump also selected Brendan Carr, a Republican member of the Federal Communications Commission who authored the FCC chapter in Project 2025, to chair the agency, and Linda McMahon, co-founder of the America First Policy Institute and former chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment, to lead the Department of Education.

Trump has been quick to pick public health leaders, selecting doctor and former Rep. Dave Weldon (R-FL) to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, doctor Marty Makary to head the Food and Drug Administration, and doctor Janette Nesheiwat to be surgeon general. Trump has not yet selected a director for the National Institutes of Health, but doctor and economist Jay Bhattacharya is reportedly a top candidate. All would report to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

All of these picks are subject to Senate approval, where Republicans will hold a 53-47 seat majority in the next Congress.

Commerce aims to commit CHIPS money before Trump returns

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in an interview last week that she is trying to allocate all the semiconductor manufacturing and research funds appropriated by the CHIPS and Science Act before President Joe Biden leaves office. To that end, the Commerce Department just finalized a $1.5 billion grant to support the construction and expansion of semiconductor manufacturing facilities in New York and Vermont operated by GlobalFoundries and a $6.6 billion grant to the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company to support fab construction in Phoenix, Arizona. The department also announced it has entered negotiations with the Semiconductor Research Corporation for a $285 million grant to establish a new Manufacturing USA institute in Durham, North Carolina, focused on digital twins for semiconductor design and manufacturing.

Also on our radar

  • Chinese President Xi Jinping objected to the “small yard, high fence” approach the U.S. has taken on restricting exports of semiconductors and other advanced technologies during a joint meeting with President Joe Biden on Nov. 16. Biden defended the approach, and the two leaders also discussed areas of cooperation, including AI-related risks, climate change, and “people-to-people exchanges.” They also agreed that AI should not be used to control nuclear weapons.
  • The inaugural meeting of the International Network of AI Safety Institutes was held last week in San Francisco. The network consists of 10 countries and aims to standardize AI safety regulations and promote international collaboration on AI research.
  • DOE announced awards last week totaling $2.2 billion for two regional hubs for clean hydrogen production in the Gulf Coast and Midwest, respectively. The Gulf Coast hub will focus on fuel for electric trucks, industrial processes, ammonia production, petrochemical production, and marine fuel. The Midwest hub will focus on decarbonizing manufacturing, steel and glass production, power generation, refining, and heavy-duty transportation.
  • DOE also announced $31 million in awards last week to build research capacity, infrastructure, and expertise at academic institutions through the Funding for Accelerated, Inclusive Research (FAIR) program. Most of the awardees are emerging research institutions, HBCUs, and/or and other minority-serving institutions.
  • Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) won reelection last week in a hotly contested race. Kaptur is the top Democrat on the Energy-Water Appropriations Subcommittee, which drafts spending legislation for DOE.

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In Case You Missed It

A Pew Research Center survey finds that sharp partisan divides remain over trust in science despite a slight overall increase since last year among U.S. adults.

Think tanks with Trump ties have put forth proposals to prioritize basic research, roll back climate science, and cut research ties with China.

Upcoming Events

All events are Eastern Time unless otherwise noted. Listings do not imply endorsement. Events beyond this week are listed on our website.

November 25 - December 1

No events.

Monday, December 2

Heritage Foundation: The implications of an Iranian nuclear bomb
10:30 - 11.45 am

Brookings: Leveraging artificial intelligence to tackle climate change
1:00 - 3:00 pm

Tuesday, December 3

National Academies: Research agenda for reducing the climate impact of aviation-induced cloudiness and persistent contrails from commercial aviation, meeting 9 (continues Wednesday)

NOAA: Ocean Research Advisory Panel meeting (continues Wednesday)

NNSA: Advisory Committee for Nuclear Security closed meeting
8:30 am - 5:00 pm

Commerce Department: Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Advisory Committee meeting
9:30 am - 12:00 pm

NIH: Novel and Exceptional Technology and Research Advisory Committee meeting
11:00 am - 12:00 pm

CSIS: Protecting intellectual property for national security
3:30 - 4:15 pm

Wednesday, December 4

NRC: Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards meeting (continues through Friday)

National Academies: Committee on Planetary Protection fall meeting (continues Thursday)

NSF: National Science Board meeting (continues Thursday)

NASA: National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Advisory Board meeting (continues Thursday)

USGS: National Geospatial Advisory Committee meeting
1:00 - 5:00 pm

NSB/STAC: New currency of power: The future of US science and technology
5:30 - 7:30 pm

National Science Policy Network: Science Policy Pitch Competition
7:00 - 9:00 pm

Thursday, December 5

DOE/NSF: High Energy Physics Advisory Panel meeting (continues Friday)

CSIS: Examining PRC activities in the Arctic
9:30 - 10:15 am

National Academies: The next decade of discovery in solar and space physics, report release
11:00 am - 12:30 pm

Friday, December 6

Hoover Institution: Emerging technology and economy
10:00 am PT

PSW Science: Advanced accelerators for particle physics with Brookhaven National Lab Director JoAnne Hewett
8:00 pm

Know of an upcoming science policy event either inside or outside the Beltway? Email us at fyi@aip.org.

Opportunities

Deadlines indicated in parentheses. Newly added opportunities are marked with a diamond.

Job Openings

Retraction Watch: Managing editor and staff reporter (ongoing)
National Academies: Senior program officer, Committee on Science, Technology, and Law (ongoing)
DOE: International relations specialist (Nov. 25)
NIH: Lead health science policy analyst (Nov. 26)
Science: Associate news editor (Nov. 30)
AIP: Congressional fellowship (Dec. 1)
DOE: Director, Office of Nuclear Physics (Dec. 2)
NSF: Deputy director, Division of Electrical, Communications, and Cyber Systems (Dec. 6)
IEEE: Congressional fellowship (Dec. 9)
IEEE: Engineering and diplomacy fellowship at the State Department (Dec. 9)
Optica: Congressional fellowship (Jan. 3)
FYI: Science policy internship (Jan. 5)
STPI: Science policy fellowship (Jan. 6)
AGU: Congressional fellowship (Jan. 15)

Solicitations

NIH: Feedback on NIH public access compliance monitoring process for institutions (ongoing)
FAS: Call for policy ideas for new administration, Day One Project (ongoing)
NIST: RFI on safety considerations for chemical and/or biological AI models (Dec. 3)
National Academies: Solicitation of experts for study on DOE’s implementation of Justice40 programs (Dec. 6)
NIST: RFI on implementation of the National Standards Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technology (Dec. 9)
NSF: RFC on ethical, social, safety considerations of the merit review process (extended to Dec. 13)
NRC: RFC on standards for protection against radiation (Dec. 16)
NOAA: Solicitation of members for new Climate Services Advisory Committee (Dec. 20)
BIS: RFC on proposed revisions to space-related export controls (extended to Dec. 23)
BIS: RFC on interim final rule revising space-related export controls (Dec. 23)
Oak Ridge National Lab: Quantum Computing User Program RFI (Jan. 10)
NSF: RFC on revisions to NSF infrastructure guide (Jan. 17)

Know of an opportunity for scientists to engage in science policy? Email us at fyi@aip.org.

Around the Web

News and views currently in circulation. Links do not imply endorsement.

White House

E&E News: Trump team barred from agencies amid legal standoff
E&E News: Trump allies want to resurrect ‘red teams’ to question climate science
Wall Street Journal: The DOGE plan to reform government (perspective by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy)
Inside Higher Education: What’s at stake for science as Trump returns
E&E News: White House rules boss steps up guardrails for AI
MIT: OSTP director Arati Prabhakar offers a vision for US science success

Congress

SpaceNews: Senators ask Pentagon and DOJ to investigate Putin-Musk calls
Stat: Sen. Rand Paul plans to investigate COVID-19 origins
E&E News: Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) holds hotly contested battleground district
Science: Elected to the House, veteran high school science teacher urges ‘evidence-based’ decision-making
E&E News: Legislation backing radiation victims gets fresh push
E&E News: Bipartisan bill aims to expand carbon removal subsidies
New York Times: The clean energy boom in Republican districts
House Energy and Commerce Committee: Republicans press Gladstone Institutes for information regarding internal antisemitism

Science, Society, and the Economy

DCSA: Targeting US technologies: A report of threats to cleared industry (report)
Wall Street Journal: How science lost America’s trust and surrendered health policy to skeptics
Financial Times: The new Republican war on science (perspective by Anjana Ahuja)
Science: Like ‘old Twitter’: The scientific community finds a new home on Bluesky
Science: Scientists as political advocates (perspective by Agustín Fuentes)
Nature: How a silly science prize changed my career
Chronicle of Higher Education: How geology shaped American culture (perspective by Jacob Mikanowski)
National Academies: AI and the future of work (report)

Education and Workforce

Chronicle of Higher Education: Texas governor orders new restrictions on colleges’ ties to China and other ‘adversarial’ countries
NPR: Foreign nationals propel US science. Visa limits under Trump could change that
Wall Street Journal: Christopher Rufo has Trump’s ear and wants to end DEI for good
Chronicle of Higher Education: Is Boston University blaming a new union contract for its freeze on social science PhD admissions?
Issues in Science and Technology: Including union perspectives in R&D is essential to building effective, equitable technology and public trust (perspective by Amanda Ballantyne, et al.)
Nature: I had three children during my PhD: here’s what I learned (perspective by Cecilie Traberg)
Science: An institution-level analysis of gender gaps in STEM over time (paper by Joseph Cimpian and Jo King)
Stanford University: Faculty Senate upholds 2020 Scott Atlas censure

Research Management

Wall Street Journal: Embattled superconductivity scientist Ranga Dias is out
The Economist: Scientific publishers are producing more papers than ever
Retraction Watch: Mega journal Cureus kicks out organizations critics called paper mills
NSF OIG: Management challenges for the NSF in fiscal year 2025 (report)
NIH: Preparing for 2025 application and review changes – tips and resources
PNAS: It’s time to rethink the role of limited submissions in research funding (paper by Jennifer Gardner, et al.)
GAO: Small business research programs: Agencies identified foreign risks, but some due diligence programs lack clear procedures (report)
American Physical Society: Science requires openness (perspective by A. R. P. Rau)
GAO: DOE contracting: Actions needed to strengthen certain acquisition planning processes (report)

Labs and Facilities

Science: China poised to turn on one of world’s most powerful sources of x-ray light
Chemical & Engineering News: Will tariffs raise the price of lab instruments?
DOE: DOE awards $88.8M contract to build Stable Isotope Production and Research Facility at ORNL
Oak Ridge National Lab: Record-breaking run on Frontier sets new bar for simulating the universe in the exascale era
Lawrence Livermore National Lab: NNSA researchers break the molecular-dynamics timescale barrier with world’s largest chip

Computing and Communications

Reuters: US government commission pushes Manhattan Project-style AI initiative
Nature: AI’s computing gap: Academics lack access to powerful chips needed for research
Wall Street Journal: The next AI battle: Who can get the most Nvidia chips in one place
IEEE Spectrum: AI alone isn’t ready for chip design (perspective by Somdeb Majumdar, et al.)
MIT Technology Review: How OpenAI stress-tests its large language models
Financial Times: How AI is powering a robotics revolution
Nature: Quantum computing: Physics–AI collaboration quashes quantum errors
ChinaTalk: China’s quantum gamble (perspective by Elias Huber)

Space

Planetary Radio: What does the US election mean for NASA? (audio)
NPR: Development of Elon Musk’s rocket to Mars will likely take off under Trump
SpaceNews: Don’t let Trump and Musk gut NASA (perspective by Peter Juul)
SpaceNews: Space station developers weigh in on NASA’s continuous presence rethink
SpaceNews: The case for a continuous human presence in space (perspective by Manwei Chan)
NASA: NASA ocean world explorers have to swim before they can fly
Science: Portraits of the universe (book review)
Nature: Does South Korea have what it takes to become a leading space nation?

Weather, Climate, and Environment

Science: EPA braces for massive upheaval under Trump
E&E News: Scientists scramble to save climate data from Trump — again
E&E News: US climate officials race to ink a deal that Trump could spurn
Politico: Coalition to boost climate efforts moves ahead without US
MIT: Reality check on technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the air
Scientific American: Could ocean engineering pull carbon from the atmosphere as a last resort against climate change? (perspective by Jaime Palter)
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: Can they control the weather? How the secretive history of weather weapons fuels conspiracy theories (perspective by Justin Key Canfil)
Science: In search of natural riches, China plans $1 billion geoscience survey
Nature: ‘Forever’ chemicals can be destroyed with clever chemistry — now test these techniques outside the lab (editorial)
Chemical & Engineering News: ARPA-E to fund chemical capture from wastewater

Energy

E&E News: Trump’s DOE pick scorns renewables, but not all of them
IAEA: Nuclear power in the COP29 spotlight as countries and companies eye climate solutions
Power: Nuclear fuel: The unseen barrier ahead
Science|Business: Fusion is needed for European autonomy, says new industry body
IEEE Spectrum: French startup aims to make fuel out of thin air

Defense

National Academies: Strategic report on R&D in biotechnology for defense innovation (report)
American Nuclear Society: Reports: Israel destroyed active nuclear weapons research facility in Iran
New York Times: Iran declares it is doing more nuclear enrichment after IAEA rebuke
IEEE Spectrum: New fastest supercomputer will simulate nuke testing
DOD: Nuclear forensics workshop convenes in DC

Biomedical

Nature: Why a teenager’s bird-flu infection is ringing alarm bells for scientists
Stat: I’m a vaccine activist — and I’m optimistic about the future right now (perspective by Caitlin Gilmet)
Nature: AI could pose pandemic-scale biosecurity risks. Here’s how to make it safer (perspective by Jaspreet Pannu, et al.)
The Guardian: The world has responded too slowly to the new mpox outbreak – here’s what it needs to do now (perspective by Mona Nemer)
The Conversation: Public health surveillance, from social media to sewage, spots disease outbreaks early to stop them fast (perspective by John Duah)
Nature: A ‘Wikipedia for cells’: researchers get an updated look at the Human Cell Atlas, and it’s remarkable (editorial)

International Affairs

Nature: Half of the top 20 science cities are now in China — and regional city growth is the key
Nature: How ‘Made in China 2025’ helped supercharge scientific development in China’s cities
Research Professional: China increases share of highly cited researchers as US declines
Science|Business: Europe overtakes Asia on deep tech investment
SpaceNews: Europe weighs impact of Trump administration on space cooperation
Research Professional: R&I sector ‘grateful’ for small Horizon Europe budget boost
Research Professional: Cara highlights crisis in Ukraine’s universities, 1,000 days into war

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