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March 19th, 2012, by Abby Benson  

Week in Review, or Budget Resolve

With the House in recess last week, work continued behind the scenes to draft the FY 2013 budget resolution which is expected to be marked up this week.  CQ reports that this budget resolution will likely come in about $20 less than the top-line number agreed to in the Budget Control Act and currently being used in the Senate. The resolution may also may include provisions aimed at limiting the impact of sequestration, the automatic spending cuts scheduled to begin in January of 2013 that would result in just under $100 billion in defense and non-defense discretionary spending reductions. Any effort to address sequestration through this budget resolution or subsequent legislation will likely come down to a tug-of-war between protection of defense spending vs. protection of entitlements.

Also of Note

Defense. Wired reported that Regina Dugan, head of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), will be leaving that agency for a position with Google. DARPA, part of the Department of Defense (DoD), conducts high-risk, high-reward research.

Education. The Director of NASA, Charles Bolden, joined the President’s Jobs Council to announce STAY WITH IT, the “first student outreach campaign connecting engineering students with experienced engineers, role models and peers to motivate them to stay in their field of study and graduate with an engineering degree.”

Health. Over 900 organizations, including several higher education associations, wrote to House and Senate Appropriations leaders, asking them to “provide the largest possible FY 2013 302(b) allocation to the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee (Labor-HHS-Ed) within the discretionary cap established by the BCA.” The “302 (b)” allocation is the term for what each appropriations subcommittee gets to appropriate as their piece of the entire budget pie (called the 302(a)). The Labor-HHS-Ed appropriations subcommittees fund the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Innovation. Politico reported on efforts by Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS) to push for support of The Startup Act (S.965), a bill co-sponsored by Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) aimed at removing barriers to entrepreneurship. The bill, introduced last December, includes provisions related to taxes, immigration, regulations, and commercialization of university research. The commercialization provisions have caused concern at some research universities, as they would existing research dollars to support grants to universities that allow faculty members to use technology transfer offices at institutions other than their home institution.

Research. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a 30-day extension to the comment period for on its Advanced Notice of Proposed Guidance (ANPG) regarding reforms to circular A-21 and other circulars governing cost recovery associated with federal grants.

Robotics.  The President’s Scientific Advisor, John Holdren, attended the opening of the Naval Research Lab’s new Laboratory for Autonomous Systems Research (LASR). This new lab will support “cutting-edge research in robotics and autonomous systems of interest to the Navy, the Marine Corps, and the Department of Defense, such as unmanned underwater vehicles, autonomous firefighting robots, and sensor networks.”

Transportation. The Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU) sent a letter to House and Senate leadership expressing support for university transportation centers that are included in the ongoing reauthorization of the surface transportation bill. The Senate passed their version of the bill (S.1813) last week, which included language authorizing these research centers administered by the Department of Transportation (DOT).

In Print

In his piece in The Scientist entitled Slipping from the Top, Jef Aksts reported on a recent panel discussion during which Francis Collins, Director of the NIH, and Subra Suresh, Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), were among the panelists discussing concerns over the U.S. losing its science and technology edge.

The Albany Times Union reported in its piece, Medical Researchers Up in Arms About Delayed Cures and Shuttered Labs as Obama Proposes Flat Research Grant Budget, on concerns over the FY 2013 proposed budget for the NIH and efforts to mount a petition through the White House to bring attention to the matter.

ScienceInsider reported on recent polling conducted by Research!America finding that “nearly 60% believe that a country other than the United States will lead the world in science and technology by that time.”

Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News reports on the NIH committee looking at the use of chimpanzees in biomedical research.

Kenneth Chang writes in the New York Times piece “Life on Mars? Funds to Find Answer Fade” about proposed cuts to the NASA Mars program in the FY 2013 budget.

The American Institute of Physics’s AIP blog provides summaries of several recent hearings on the FY 2013 budget requests for the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST), the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), and the NSF.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics issued an info brief finding that R&D Spending Suffered a Rare Decline in 2009, but Outpaced the Overall Economy.

What’s on Deck

Tuesday (3/20)

  • The Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a subcommittee hearing on cybersecurity research and development in review of the Defense Authorization Request for Fiscal Year 2013 and the Future Years Defense Program.
  • The House Appropriations Committee will hold subcommittee hearings on the FY 2013 budget requests for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Department of Energy Office of Science, and the National institutes of Health (NIH).
  • The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee will hold a subcommittee hearing on An Overview of the Office of Commercial Space Transportation Budget for FY 2013.

Wednesday (3/21)

  • The Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a subcommittee hearing on military space programs in review of the Defense Authorization Request for Fiscal Year 2013 and the Future Years Defense Program.
  • The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on the FY 2013 budget request for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
  • The House Appropriations Committee will hold subcommittee hearings on the FY 2013 budget requests for Department of Agriculture (USDA) Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics and NASA.

Thursday (3/22)

  • The DOE will hold a “twitter conversation” on women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.
  • The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold a hearing on the FY 2013 budget request for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

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