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http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2013/07/senate-panel-
Senate appropriators yesterday expressed their satisfaction with the status
quo at the National Science Foundation (NSF).
In a bipartisan vote, the Senate Appropriations Committee endorsed a 7.9%
increase for the agency that would boost its 2014 budget to $7.426 billion.
In doing so, it also questioned the value of various initiatives launched by
its former director as well as the wisdom of assigning new responsibilities
to NSF's education directorate under a proposed shakeup of all federal
science education programs.
Congress is a long way from completing action on the budget for fiscal year
2014, which begins on 1 October. But the Senate spending bill, if adopted,
would boost NSF's current budget of $6.884 billion by $542 million.
The Senate total is $430 million more than the amount approved on Wednesday
by the equivalent spending panel in the U.S. House of Representatives. The
fact that the Senate was more generous was not a surprise, as it had nearly
$5 billion more than the House to distribute to all the agencies covered by
the $52 billion spending bill. But what was impressive was that NSF received
nearly 10% of that additional allocation, reflecting the high regard for
the agency's work by the chairwoman of the panel, Senator Barbara Mikulski (
D-MD).
Mikulski made clear what she likes best about NSF in a report accompanying
the spending bill: "Unfettered basic research selected in a merit-reviewed,
competitive process [which] generates new ideas that become new products and
new companies." But not everything NSF does serves that goal, the report
points out. In particular, the panel is worried that the proposed rapid
growth of seven initiatives launched by its former director, Subra Suresh,
could impinge on what it calls "NSF's core programs." That category includes
bread-and-butter grants to individuals from discipline-based directorates
as well as funding for expensive new facilities and other scientific
infrastructure.
Noting that even its generous allocation fell $200 million below the
president's request for the agency, the spending panel suggested that NSF
officials trim the budgets of the so-called OneNSF initiative to bolster
other programs. Those initiatives include support for risky, cross-
disciplinary research projects, training future science entrepreneurs, and
fostering international collaborations. Suresh came to NSF in October 2010
and began the new programs with great fanfare. But he left this spring to
become president of Carnegie Mellon University, and their fate is uncertain.
The spending panel was also skeptical of the administration's plan to make
NSF the lead agency for graduate training programs in the STEM (science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields at all federal agencies. "
NSF is well-suited to handle undergraduate and graduate fellowships,
internships, and specific grants [relating to] its current mission and, if
there are general needs across Government, NSF could similarly serve as a
clearinghouse for such students," the report states. "However, moving all
graduate-related fellowships and scholarships to NSF is not optimal to meet
the long-term, specific STEM workforce needs of the entire Government."
It was equally dubious about the administration's proposal to make the
Smithsonian Institution the lead agency for informal science education
programs across the government. Accordingly, it rejected the 22% cut that
NSF has proposed for its informal STEM learning programs and allocated $61.4
million, the same amount the agency spent in 2012.
Senate appropriators yesterday expressed their satisfaction with the status
quo at the National Science Foundation (NSF).
In a bipartisan vote, the Senate Appropriations Committee endorsed a 7.9%
increase for the agency that would boost its 2014 budget to $7.426 billion.
In doing so, it also questioned the value of various initiatives launched by
its former director as well as the wisdom of assigning new responsibilities
to NSF's education directorate under a proposed shakeup of all federal
science education programs.
Congress is a long way from completing action on the budget for fiscal year
2014, which begins on 1 October. But the Senate spending bill, if adopted,
would boost NSF's current budget of $6.884 billion by $542 million.
The Senate total is $430 million more than the amount approved on Wednesday
by the equivalent spending panel in the U.S. House of Representatives. The
fact that the Senate was more generous was not a surprise, as it had nearly
$5 billion more than the House to distribute to all the agencies covered by
the $52 billion spending bill. But what was impressive was that NSF received
nearly 10% of that additional allocation, reflecting the high regard for
the agency's work by the chairwoman of the panel, Senator Barbara Mikulski (
D-MD).
Mikulski made clear what she likes best about NSF in a report accompanying
the spending bill: "Unfettered basic research selected in a merit-reviewed,
competitive process [which] generates new ideas that become new products and
new companies." But not everything NSF does serves that goal, the report
points out. In particular, the panel is worried that the proposed rapid
growth of seven initiatives launched by its former director, Subra Suresh,
could impinge on what it calls "NSF's core programs." That category includes
bread-and-butter grants to individuals from discipline-based directorates
as well as funding for expensive new facilities and other scientific
infrastructure.
Noting that even its generous allocation fell $200 million below the
president's request for the agency, the spending panel suggested that NSF
officials trim the budgets of the so-called OneNSF initiative to bolster
other programs. Those initiatives include support for risky, cross-
disciplinary research projects, training future science entrepreneurs, and
fostering international collaborations. Suresh came to NSF in October 2010
and began the new programs with great fanfare. But he left this spring to
become president of Carnegie Mellon University, and their fate is uncertain.
The spending panel was also skeptical of the administration's plan to make
NSF the lead agency for graduate training programs in the STEM (science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields at all federal agencies. "
NSF is well-suited to handle undergraduate and graduate fellowships,
internships, and specific grants [relating to] its current mission and, if
there are general needs across Government, NSF could similarly serve as a
clearinghouse for such students," the report states. "However, moving all
graduate-related fellowships and scholarships to NSF is not optimal to meet
the long-term, specific STEM workforce needs of the entire Government."
It was equally dubious about the administration's proposal to make the
Smithsonian Institution the lead agency for informal science education
programs across the government. Accordingly, it rejected the 22% cut that
NSF has proposed for its informal STEM learning programs and allocated $61.4
million, the same amount the agency spent in 2012.
