A Senate GOP appropriator said today Congress will make a serious effort to double funding for the National Science Foundation by 2011 and increase money for the National Institute for Standards and Technology and the Energy Department's Office of Science, as part of a broader attempt to increase American competitiveness. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, speaking at a conference on U.S. competitiveness, said she is hopeful the Senate Appropriations Committee will embrace many of those budget increases, which were authorized by the American Competes Act and signed into law last year. A "strong bipartisan effort" to achieve that boost, led by Hutchison and a fellow appropriator, Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, is gaining steam, she told a National Academies' convocation. "This is where the rubber is going to hit the road," she said, also noting House support. The daylong meeting examined progress in bolstering math, science and research funding since the 2006 release of the influential report, "Rising Above The Gathering Storm."
Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., co-chairman of the Congressional Research Caucus, painted a less optimistic picture. The increases lawmakers authorized have not been realized by the Bush administration's annual budget requests or appropriations bills passed by Congress, he said. "We're not on track," he said. "If you can spend three-quarters of a trillion dollars on a war without asking any questions, surely you can find $5 [billion] or $10 billion for the NSF." Holt added that while building a top-notch U.S. science and engineering workforce is an important goal, what the nation needs more is "a population, an electorate and elected officials who will support those scientists."
House Science Chairman Bart Gordon built on that theme and suggested that Congress may add $900 million to the upcoming Iraq war supplemental funding bill to augment budgets of key research agencies. A letter backing that effort, which the Tennessee Democrat drafted, has received the support of hundreds of organizations, universities and businesses with a stake in science and technology. "Going through this exercise with the supplemental gives us a chance to get ready for [FY09] appropriations," he said.
Meanwhile, Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., a member of the House Appropriations Committee, pointed out that the number of scientists graduating from U.S. universities is lagging compared to China and India; that American students' math scores are suffering; that U.S. companies are spending more money on litigation than on research and development; and that the number of Nobel Prize-winners who hail from the United States is down. Alexander addressed the summit, offering a preview of a May 9 speech at Tennessee's Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Alexander said he will call for a new Manhattan Project, "but instead of ending a war, the goal will be clean energy independence."
This article appeared in the Saturday, May 3, 2008 edition of National Journal Daily.
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