Senate Appropriations Committee Report Language: NSF

Whenever a committee sends a bill to the floor it provides a report explaining the committee’s rationale for its actions. This report is not binding, but does provide important guidance to the federal department or agency.

The Senate Appropriations Committee recently filed its report on H.R. 2684, the VA, HUD,Independent Agencies Appropriations Bill for FY 2000. Selections from the report pertaining to the NSF follow.

Please note the following: The report language is lengthy. In order to fit within the format of FYI, only those programs followed by FYI are included. Much of the language has been omitted, and, in the interest of space, paragraphs have been combined. Large divisions within the budget are marked with **** ****. Titles have been included to guide readers. The full committee report may be accessed at the following Library of Congress site: http://rs9.loc.gov/home/thomas.html The Senate Report language is found at: S.Rpt. 106-161 under Committee Information: Committee Reports. Readers are urged to consult the full report.

****RESEARCH AND RELATED ACTIVITIES****

FUNDING: “The Committee recommends an appropriation of $3,007,300,000 for research and related activities. This amount is $237,300,000 above the fiscal year 1999 enacted level and $3,300,000 more than the budget request. The Committee recommendation also includes $55,000,000 for the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, which is transferred from the Education and Human Resources account.”

NATIONAL GOALS, GPRA: “The Committee commends the agency for establishing national goals in the areas of information technology, biocomplexity, and education. The Committee also applauds NSF’s recent efforts to provide a budget justification for fiscal year 2000 that meets the requirements of the Government Performance and Results Act.”

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: “While the Committee has been a consistent strong supporter of NSF’s role in advancing computer and information science engineering research and development,the Committee has numerous concerns about the administration’s information technology initiative dubbed ‘Information Technology for the 21st Century’ or IT\2\.” " The Committee is concerned about creating a major new structure within NSF when the agency already has existing structures that can be used to boost information technology research.” “The Committee is also concerned about investing in research and development activities that the private sector may be involved in.” “Lastly, the Committee is concerned about NSF’s ability to administer a major multiagency initiative.” “While the Committee does not have any significant concerns about NSF’s ability to manage its current activities and believes that NSF’s financial operations are sound, the Committee believes that NSF needs to review carefully its current management structure, staff resources, and support needs such as travel funds before embarking on major new initiatives such as IT\2\. Given the budget constraints and the Committee’s concerns about the information technology initiative, no funding is provided for IT\2\ in fiscal year 2000. The Committee, however, remains very supportive of NSF’s current basic research efforts in the information technology area and recommends an additional $100,000,000 to enhance NSF’s computer and information science and engineering activities consistent with the PITAC [President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee] recommendations in its February 1999 report.” Later,the report states: “The Committee is also concerned about the impact of information technology on society and the economy.”

GRANT SIZE - INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: “The Committee also supports NSF funding of longer term and larger sized grants than what is typically funded. Many investigators have complained about the size of NSF research grants and the administrative burden associated with grant applications. Further, PITAC has raised concerns that ‘promising long-term research is being passed over in order to meet the goals of short-term technology development.’ Therefore, the Committee expects NSF to address these concerns by using at least 25 percent of these additional funds for grants that are of a minimum of 3 years in duration and a minimum funding level of $750,000 per grant and to focus these grants on long-term research and technology development.”

DISTRIBUTION OF NSF FUNDS: “As discussed in previous years, the Committee is concerned about how NSF funds are distributed to universities and colleges, as well as to various areas of the country. A recent NSF survey of Federal research and development funds indicated that the top 50 recipients of university-based research received about 60 percent of all available Federal research dollars. These large institutions also received a large amount of federal funds to manage research and development centers for various Federal agencies.” “Accordingly, the Committee has included a provision to create a focal point for support and outreach to institutions that do not normally fall in the top 50 in federal research and development support. This new office, which will include the highly successful Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), is to focus on increasing the Foundation’s competitive, merit-based support and outreach to these smaller institutions. The Committee expects NSF to build on its current programmatic and outreach efforts to improve the participation of these institutions and states. The Committee expects the Foundation to submit a detailed proposal for the innovation partnership activity as part of the fiscal year 2000 operating plan. To startup this new office, the Committee has provided $10,000,000 to this new entity and $55,000,000 to the EPSCoR program. The Committee also supports the co-funding proposal of the Foundation in which the EPSCoR funding is leveraged with an additional $10,000,000 to $15,000,000 from within the disciplinary research programs of the Foundation.”

ARCTIC RESEARCH: “The Committee remains committed to the U.S. Arctic Research Program and recommends $25,000,000 for arctic logistics needs.”

OCEANOGRAPHY: “The Committee strongly supports NSF’s participation in the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP). The Committee recommends that up to $5,000,000 be made available for NOPP-related activities for fiscal year 2000. The Committee also recommends that NSF and other NOPP partner agencies continue to provide an appropriate level of operational support for meritorious ocean science research projects, including NOPP-related activities.”

ASTRONOMY: “The Committee continues to be a strong supporter of NSF’s astronomical sciences research program and supports the Administration’s budget requests of $32,500,000 for the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and $29,700,000 for the National Optical Astronomy Observatories (NOAO). The Committee supports NSF’s proposal to use the NRAO funds to enhance support for operations and maintenance and development of new instrumentation at the Very Large Array and the Very Long Baseline Array in New Mexico and to continue the construction of the Greenbank Telescope in West Virginia. The Committee also supports NSF’s plans to use the requested NOAO funds for the National Solar Observatory at Sacramento Peak, New Mexico.”

MERIT REVIEW: “The Committee remains concerned about NSF’s merit-review process and directs NSF to provide $750,000 to the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) to carry out a review of the merit-review process. The Committee further directs NAPA to consult with the Committee in establishing the parameters of this review. NSF is directed to cooperate fully with NAPA to meet these parameters.”

****MAJOR RESEARCH EQUIPMENT****

“The Committee recommends an appropriation of $70,000,000 for major research equipment. This amount is $20,000,000 less than the fiscal year 1999 enacted level and $15,000,000 below the budget request. The Committee has provided the request for the continued polar support aircraft upgrades and south pole station modernization efforts. The Committee has also provided funding for the Large Hadron Collider and the Millimeter Array. The Committee has also provided $21,000,000 for Terascale Computing Systems and $7,700,000 for the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation.”

****EDUCATION AND HUMAN RESOURCES****

FUNDING: “The Committee recommends an appropriation of $688,600,000 for education and human resources (EHR). This amount is $26,600,000 more than the fiscal year 1999 level and $10,600,000 more than the budget request. The Committee also notes that NSF expects to receive an additional $30,000,000 from the H 1B Visa account which will further supplement its EHR activities.”

UNDER-REPRESENTATION: “The Committee is troubled by the latest NSF report on women, minorities, and persons with disabilities in science and engineering. While the report cites some significant progress in some areas such as women receiving engineering doctoral degrees, there continues to be a concern with minority women in science and engineering fields. The Committee encourages NSF to address these problems.”Other NSF programs assisting minority students were then cited.

INFORMAL SCIENCE EDUCATION: “The Committee also strongly supports the informal science education (ISE) program.” " The Committee supports NSF’s continued support for this program and its fiscal year 2000 focus on increasing access to informal learning opportunities in inner cities and rural areas that have not been exposed to science and technology. The Committee continues its support for this program by providing $50,000,000 and urges NSF to expand its program to underserved areas.”

****SCIENTIFIC CONDUCT****

“The Committee recommends an appropriation of $5,550,000 for the Office of Inspector General in fiscal year 2000. This amount is $350,000 more than the fiscal year 1999 enacted level and $100,000 more than the budget request. The Committee is providing these additional funds to support the work of the Office of Inspector General in the areas of cost-sharing, indirect costs, and misconduct in scientific research.”