Recent Science Policy Developments
RITA COLWELL CONFIRMED AS NEW NSF DIRECTOR: Last Friday, the Senate confirmed Rita Colwell as director of the National Science Foundation. Colwell has a Ph.D. in marine microbiology from the University of Washington. She will be sworn-in within the next few weeks.
NEW OSTP DIRECTOR: The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, chaired by John McCain (R-AZ), has scheduled a confirmation hearing on June 2 for Neal Lane to be Science Advisor to the President and Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
HOUSE BUDGET ACTION: When the House returns from the Memorial Day recess it will consider its version of the Budget Resolution. After several false starts, House Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich (R-Ohio) agreed to leave last year’s spending caps in place. Kasich proposes large, but non-binding cuts in future years in domestic discretionary programs.
SENATE NSF AUTHORIZATION: On May 12, the Senate, by a vote of 99-0, passed an NSF authorization bill for FY 1998-2000. The Senate would authorize $3.506 billion for NSF in FY 1998, $3.773 billion in FY 1999, and $3.886 billion in 2000. Because funds have already been appropriated for FY 1998 (NSF received $3.429 billion), the FY 1998 authorization is moot except to note that the Senate approved an amount slightly larger than was appropriated. (Authorization bills are intended to approve programs and set spending limits, but appropriations bills, because they provide the actual funds, can stray from the guidelines set by authorizers.) The authorization for FY 1999 is comparable to President Clinton’s request. The House passed its own, similar version of the bill last year. There is some indication that the House might accept the Senate version without need for a conference.
SENATE NIST AUTHORIZATION: Progress has also been made on a FY 1998-2000 authorization bill for NIST. The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, on April 30, passed a bill authorizing amounts equal to the FY 1998 appropriations for NIST’s core laboratory activities, construction and maintenance, and the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) and Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP.) For FY 1999, the Senate bill would authorize $287.7 million for NIST’s labs, compared to the President’s request of $291.6 million. It would authorize $204.0 million - less than the FY 1999 request - for ATP, but more than the request for the other two main accounts: $114.4 million for MEP and $67.0 million for the construction account. The authorizations for FY 2000 are: Labs $296.3 million; construction: $56.7 million; ATP: $210.1 million; and MEP: $114.4 million. A House bill passed last year would authorize significantly less for ATP in FY 1999.
DEFENSE NUCLEAR WASTE: Energy Secretary Federico Pena informed Congress on May 13 that New Mexico’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is prepared to begin accepting low-level radioactive waste from DOE’s nuclear weapons production sites. Although the EPA has certified that the site meets federal requirements, environmentalists and state officials are still raising legal obstacles to the opening of the underground site.
