Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space

In the Senate, most authorizing legislation for physics-related programs is drafted by the Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space of the Senate Commerce Committee. While in the Senate, this subcommittee has jurisdiction over most of the federal civilian science and technology programs, its counterpart in the House is a full committee, the Science Committee. The House Science Committee has four separate subcommittees to oversee different areas of science and technology, which will be described in future FYIs.

Congress deals primarily with two types of bills, authorization and appropriations. Authorizing legislation gives a federal department or agency permission to spend money and sets policy direction; appropriations provide the actual money. In theory, major agencies and programs should be authorized before having funds appropriated for them, but in reality, many programs receive funding that have not been recently authorized.

COMMERCE, SCIENCE AND TRANSPORTATION 508 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg, Washington, DC 20510 202-224-5115 John McCain (R-Ariz.) -- Chairman; http://www.senate.gov/~mccain/ Ernest Hollings (D-CS) -- Ranking Member; http://www.senate.gov/~hollings/ SUBCOMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SPACE 428 Hart Senate Office Bldg, Washington, DC 20510 202-224-8172 REPUBLICANS Chairman:Bill Frist (Tenn.); http://www.senate.gov/~frist/ Conrad Burns (Mont.); http://www.senate.gov/~burns/ Kay Bailey Hutchison (Texas); http://www.senate.gov/~hutchison/ Ted Stevens (Alaska); http://www.senate.gov/~stevens/ Spencer Abraham (Mich.); http://www.senate.gov/~abraham/ DEMOCRATS Ranking Member: John D. Rockefeller IV (W.Va.); http://www.senate.gov/~rockefeller/ John Kerry (Mass.); http://www.senate.gov/~kerry/ Richard H. Bryan (Nev.); http://www.senate.gov/~bryan Byron L. Dorgan (N.D.); http://www.senate.gov/~dorgan/ Two members of the Science, Technology, and Space Subcommittee, chairman Bill Frist and ranking minority member John Rockefeller, were instrumental recently in developing the Senate Science and Technology Caucus, along with fellow Senators Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) and Pete Domenici (R-NM.) The Caucus, at its first meeting on February 11, hosted a panel of experts from government, industry and academia to explore the role of the federal government in supporting science and technology. The panelists largely concurred that the U.S. has a competitive advantage because the government funds long-term, high-risk fundamental research at universities and government labs. Most also agreed that to promote efficiency in this era of tight budgets, the three sectors - industry, academia and government - would have to cooperate and share their strengths, and government was viewed as an effective catalyst for such collaborations. Panelists warned, however, against a “one size fits all” approach to cooperative partnerships.