WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 2, 2024

What’s Ahead

Storm clouds over the Capitol — Storm clouds gather over the U.S. Capitol.

Architect of the Capitol

Full Plate Awaits Congress After Summer Recess

Congress has a short window to pass spending legislation before government funding runs out at the end of September, and the approaching November election may inject fresh political challenges into the process. Both chambers are slated to return to work Sept. 9, one day before the next presidential debate. Legislators will likely resort to passing stop-gap measures to buy time to reconcile differences between the House and Senate proposals. Congress has passed an average of five such measures annually since 1997, according to an analysis by the Bipartisan Policy Center.

The House Appropriations Committee advanced all 12 of its 2025 appropriations bills in mid-July, five of which went on to narrowly pass the House. Shortly before leaving on recess, however, Republican leaders canceled floor votes on the remaining bills after members of their conference said they would oppose them, including the one covering the Department of Energy – an indicator of the difficulty of reaching agreement on spending bills in the fractious House. Meanwhile, the Senate Appropriations Committee advanced all of its 2025 appropriations bills except the one covering the Department of Homeland Security before going on recess, but the Senate has yet to consider any on the floor.

The House and Senate are also preparing to reconcile their versions of the annual National Defense Authorization Act, which have some key differences concerning science policy. The House passed its version in mid-June, while the Senate advanced its version out of committee but has not yet scheduled it for a floor vote. The White House has objected to provisions in the House bill that would restrict recipients of defense research funds from collaborating with certain foreign institutions, impose new post-employment restrictions on researchers who work with the Department of Defense, and forbid Chinese and Russian citizens from visiting national security labs and nuclear weapons production facilities of DOE.

Lawmakers may attempt to attach various science-related bills to the NDAA during the final negotiations, as it is one of the few bills that Congress makes a point of passing each year. Among them are bills focused on artificial intelligence, a top priority of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). These include a batch of nine bipartisan bills on AI that the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee advanced at the end of July, including measures to authorize new AI research initiatives at DOE, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

NIH Shares Process for Mitigating Foreign Interference Risks

The National Institutes of Health has rolled out a process for reviewing grant applications for signs of potential “foreign interference” as part of agency efforts to provide more transparency into its internal assessment practices. The process, described as a decision matrix, outlines activities by applicants that can lead to the agency requesting additional information from applicants, implementing risk mitigation measures, or rejecting the application. Indication of ongoing participation in a foreign talent recruitment program deemed “malign,” such as the Chinese government’s Thousand Talents Plan, will result in automatic disqualification of the grant application if identified, as required by the CHIPS and Science Act. Activities that can trigger mitigation measures include receipt of foreign funding from countries of concern and affiliation with institutions in countries of concern. Whether NIH mandates or recommends mitigation measures and requests additional information from the principal investigator’s institution depends on whether the activities occurred within the last five years and whether the activities were correctly disclosed.

In conjunction with the matrix’s release in August, NIH Director Monica Bertagnolli issued a statement acknowledging that past government efforts to protect against foreign interference from countries of concern, particularly China, have had the “unintended consequence of creating a difficult climate for our valued Asian American, Asian immigrant and Asian research colleagues who may feel targeted and alienated.” She stressed, however, that the agency values international collaboration and is committed to not discriminating against researchers based on their national origin or identity. As of this June, NIH has investigated 258 cases of potential foreign interference since 2018, a majority of which involved Asian scientists, according to agency data.

NIH is not the first agency to share how it assesses grant applications for signs of foreign interference in research. The Department of Defense implemented its own matrix in June 2023 and the National Science Foundation announced this June that it will begin piloting a “decision tree” approach for sensitive research areas, starting in fiscal year 2025 with quantum research. The Department of Energy is also currently developing risk matrices and was recently urged to solicit external feedback on its process by a group of research associations, including the American Physical Society. (APS is an AIP Member Society.)

Quantum Cryptographic Standards Ready for Use

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is urging IT administrators to employ its newly released encryption tools designed to withstand attacks by quantum computers. The three tools, unveiled in August, are the first global standards for post-quantum cryptography, according to the White House, and are designed for general encryption across public networks and for digital signatures. Two of the new standards are based on structured lattices and the other on hash functions, making them more difficult for quantum computers to break than current algorithms that multiply large prime numbers. Meanwhile, the agency is evaluating two other sets of algorithms that could one day serve as backups in case an attack defeats the main standards. The new standards are the culmination of an eight-year effort managed by NIST. Their release starts the clock on a series of actions required by a 2022 executive order on quantum cryptography, including that the secretary of commerce release within 90 days a proposed timeline for moving as many systems as possible off quantum-vulnerable cryptography over the next decade.

Also On Our Radar

The National Science Foundation has selected David Berkowitz to head the agency’s Mathematics and Physical Sciences Directorate starting Sept. 9. Berkowitz previously led NSF’s chemistry division.
In late August, NSF awarded $104 million for four new engineering research centers focused on biotechnology, manufacturing, robotics, and sustainability and $72 million for four centers focused on pandemic prediction and prevention. NSF also awarded $39 million to expand the number of universities working on quantum research through the ExpandQISE program.
The National Academies has just published a report that recommends the U.S. pursue a whole-of-government STEM talent strategy to develop domestic talent and retain foreign-born talent.
To mark the second anniversary of the CHIPS and Science Act’s signing, in August the White House released a summary of implementation progress, focusing on the billions of dollars the act has directed toward semiconductor manufacturing and research.