NIST’s Advanced Technology Program Close to Death in the House

On June 28, the NIST Advanced Technology Program (ATP) was dealt a double blow by the House, from which it is unlikely to recover. On that day, the House Commerce Appropriations Subcommittee voted to phase out the program, and the House Science Committee did not include the ATP when it passed authorizing legislation for NIST’s core laboratory programs. The ATP, a program by which NIST provides cost-shared grants to industry for the early stages of technology development, is criticized by many Republicans as “corporate welfare.”

In addition to the research performed in its own labs, NIST also has two major extramural programs, the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), a series of centers to disseminate manufacturing know-how to small and medium companies, and the ATP. According to reports, the appropriations subcommittee provided a total of $404 million for NIST, terminating the ATP, but providing some funding for the MEP. (The current-year NIST appropriation of $853.8 million includes $265.0 million for laboratory research, $64.7 million for facilities repair and construction, $430.4 million for ATP, and $90.6 million for MEP.)

The Science Committee considered the bill for NIST laboratories as part of a string of authorization bills, in a mark-up session that ran until midnight. The legislation, H.R. 1870, would authorize (or set ceilings of) $338.0 million for NIST’s core programs in FY 1996, with $272.2 million going to laboratory research (including physics research), and $65.5 million to construction.

On June 15, the Science Subcommittee on Technology authorized NIST’s extramural programs in a separate bill (H.R. 1871) from the core programs, and only for “such sums as may be appropriated.” This tactic caused much furor during the subcommittee mark-up (see FYI #82.) Only the core programs bill was on the June 28 roster for consideration by the full Science Committee, and minority members charged that this would allow the ATP and MEP, opposed by committee chairman Robert Walker (R-PA), to “die a quiet death.”

The Democrats, led by George Brown (D-CA), John Tanner (D-TN), and Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), raised this charge again in Wednesday’s full committee mark-up. As in the subcommittee, they offered amendments to combine both the intramural and extramural activities into one bill, and as in the subcommittee, the amendments failed on largely party-line votes. However, arguing that “this has not been a sham process,” Walker denied allegations that by bringing only the laboratory bill to the full committee, he was ignoring the other NIST bill. He conceded that there was “a possibility” that the other could be brought up before the committee, particularly as the appropriators had provided funding for the MEP. Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) stood up for the MEP, arguing that it was a good program and Members should not “write its obituary yet.”

The appropriations bill, as yet unnumbered, is scheduled to go before the full House Appropriations Committee on July 10. The authorization bill, H.R. 1870, has not been scheduled for a House floor vote yet.