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| FYI: Science Policy News from AIP |
| THIS WEEK |
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| What’s Ahead |
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| NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan pictured testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee in 2022. The duo is appearing before the same committee again this week. (Senate Appropriations Committee) |
House Seeks 6% Overall Cut to Non-Defense Programs
The House Appropriations Committee is meeting Thursday to approve its plans to propose a 6% cut to non-defense spending and a 1% increase to defense spending for fiscal year 2025. Committee Chair Tom Cole (R–OK) announced the toplines last week as well as preliminary budget allocations for the panel’s 12 subcommittees that together draft the federal discretionary budget. He also released the committee’s schedule for advancing the spending bills. The subcommittee that funds NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the Commerce Department plans to advance its spending proposals on June 12, and the subcommittee for the Department of Energy plans to advance its proposals on June 28. Reacting to the allocations, Democrats on the committee stated they will not support anything less than a 1% increase to non-defense spending.
Meanwhile, leaders of various science agencies will testify this week on their budget request for fiscal year 2025. The heads of NASA and the National Science Foundation will appear together on Thursday before the Senate Appropriations Committee, which will also hear from leaders of the Department of Energy on Wednesday and the National Institutes of Health on Thursday. The head of the National Institute of Standards and Technology will appear before the House Science Committee on Wednesday, following a hearing last week focused on NSF. At that event, the former chair of NSF’s board, Dan Reed, testified that a 6% cut to NSF would be “devastating” to the agency, coming on the heels of the 8% cut it received for the current fiscal year.
Annual Defense Policy Bill Advancing in the House
The House Armed Services Committee will meet Wednesday to advance its draft of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025, legislation that Congress passes annually to update policy for the Department of Defense and National Nuclear Security Administration. The committee has already released subcommittee drafts of its proposals for NNSA and for DOD R&D programs, as well as the “chairman’s mark” that covers both areas. The committee often adds contentious proposals via amendments before it advances the legislation to the full House for consideration. In recent years, these additions have included various research security measures, though they are often moderated or removed from the legislation in final negotiations.
Biden Science Advisors to Discuss the ‘National Purpose of Research’
The future of the U.S. research enterprise will be the focus of a meeting Wednesday of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. David Goldston, the director of MIT’s Washington Office, and Lisa Margonelli, editor-in-chief of the magazine Issues in Science and Technology will present on “the national purpose of research.” PCAST will then hear presentations on “emerging research models at universities” from Willie May, vice president for research and economic development at Morgan State University; Karen Plaut, vice president for research at Purdue University; and Arun Majumdar, dean of the sustainability school at Stanford University.
NASA Scientists to Discuss Telescope Project Strategies
Nobel laureate John Mather and NASA Astrophysics Division head Mark Clampin will discuss challenges and strategies in building pathbreaking space telescopes at a free public event on June 5 at AIP’s new office in Washington, DC. Mather won a share of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the spacecraft that made the first detailed observations of the cosmic microwave background, and from 1995 to 2023 he was the senior project scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. RSVPs are required as space at the event will be limited. A livestream will be available.
Also on Our Radar
- The scientific publisher consortium CHORUS is hosting a webinar on opportunities and challenges associated with the use of persistent identifiers in scholarly research. (Wednesday)
- A workshop to inform NSF’s new Research on Research Security program will be held this week at Rice University’s Baker Institute. The opening keynote by NSF’s chief research security officer will be streamed online. The program will fund academic research to identify the scale of research security threats and assess the efficacy of risk mitigation efforts such as export control training, overseas travel restrictions, and cybersecurity. (Thu-Fri)
- Registration is open for the inaugural “State of the Science” address by the president of the National Academy of Sciences. (June 26)
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| In Case You Missed It |
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| Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speaks at a May 15 press conference on artificial intelligence policy. (Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call) |
Senate AI Blueprint Proposes ‘Emergency’ R&D Surge
A bipartisan quartet of senators led by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) released a blueprint for artificial intelligence policy last week that proposes Congress use “emergency” appropriations to ramp up federal non-defense spending on AI R&D to at least $32 billion per year. This matches the level proposed in 2021 by the National Security Commission on AI, which estimated that federal agencies spent about $1 billion on such R&D in fiscal year 2020 and proposed that Congress double that figure each year over five years. Beyond funding a cross-government AI R&D initiative, the blueprint proposes that some of the money go to broader priorities such as implementing the CHIPS and Science Act and addressing the large backlog of infrastructure maintenance at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
In a speech on the Senate floor, Schumer said he expects various committees will soon advance legislation focused on AI. “We need our committees to continue the bipartisan momentum of the AI Gang, to achieve the hope of passing legislation by the end of the year. We don’t expect every piece of AI to be addressed, every problem that’s in our roadmap to be addressed. Some will lend themselves to move more quickly than others, and we’re not going to hold back on some that are ready because others are not yet ready,” he said.
Lawmakers Question Optics Society for Using Anonymous Donations from Huawei
The House Science Committee is questioning Optica, a professional society focused on optical science, for agreeing to let the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei anonymously finance a prize competition that supports early-career researchers. Committee leaders sent a letter to Optica CEO Liz Rogan last week probing the society’s decision to not disclose the company’s involvement in the competition to the public or to applicants, citing a May 2 article published by Bloomberg that revealed the arrangement. The annual competition was launched in 2022 by the society’s charitable arm, the Optica Foundation, and provides $100,000 in seed funding to ten early-career professionals who are using optical sciences to address global challenges related to the environment, health, and telecommunications. Science Committee Chair Frank Lucas (R-OK) and Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) argue in the letter that Optica’s conduct is troubling given that the U.S. government has banned the sale of Huawei products on national security grounds and has restricted exports to the company. They also argue that the non-disclosure of Huawei’s involvement compromised the ability of U.S. awardees to comply with a recent law mandating that federal grantees must disclose foreign sources of support for their research.
Rogan defended the arrangement in a statement excerpted by Bloomberg, saying that it is not unusual for donors to want to remain anonymous, and a Huawei spokesperson told Bloomberg the company wanted its involvement to be private to avoid the competition being perceived as promotional. Rogan also noted the arrangement was reviewed by outside legal counsel and that Huawei is publicly identified as a donor in the foundation’s annual report. An export controls expert contacted by Bloomberg noted the government’s current restrictions on Huawei likely do not apply to the competition because Huawei did not receive any special access to the research results in exchange for the donation. Asked by FYI for clarification on her statement to Bloomberg, Rogan noted that she also told the publication that text in the arrangement with Huawei concerning confidentiality and the option to remain anonymous is “standard boiler plate language used in our contracts.” Asked for comment on the committee letter, Rogan stated, “We are collecting all the requested information and supporting materials and will respond to the congressional inquiry in a timely fashion.” (Optica is an AIP Member Society and Rogan is on AIP’s Board of Directors.)
NSF Introduces Grad Mentoring Requirement
Effective May 20, institutions applying for funding from the National Science Foundation are required to have detailed policies for graduate student mentorship. Applications must also include plans for training graduate students and principal investigators are required to include and update annually an individualized mentorship plan for all graduate and postdoctoral students involved in NSF-funded grants. “The old days of ‘look to the left look to the right, one of the three of you won’t be here when graduation comes around’ — those days are gone,” said Sylvia Butterfield, deputy assistant director of NSF’s STEM Education Directorate, at a webinar last month about the new requirements. “Future STEM talent is a valuable national resource and we cannot squander the opportunity to prepare that talent to persist in STEM,” she said.
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| Upcoming Events |
All events are Eastern Time, unless otherwise noted. Listings do not imply endorsement. Events beyond this week are listed on our website.
Monday, May 20
Tuesday, May 21
Wednesday, May 22
Federal Demonstration Partnership: May meeting
(continues through Friday)
Thursday, May 23
Friday, May 24
No events.
Monday, May 27
Memorial Day.
Know of an upcoming science policy event either inside or outside the Beltway? Email us at fyi@aip.org.
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