NIST

At a hearing last week, both Republican and Democratic members of the House Science Committee praised federally supported work in materials research. They also offered contrasting views on how the federal government should structure its support for R&D and technology commercialization.

The House’s draft Commerce, Justice, and Science spending bill resembles last year’s version, rejecting or softening many of the cuts proposed in President Trump’s budget request for fiscal year 2018.

At a meeting this month, top officials at the National Institute of Standards and Technology provided insight into how they are grappling with the possibility of deep budget cuts while also seeking to better situate the measurement science and standards agency for the future.

House and Senate appropriators questioned Department of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on cuts to NOAA and NIST in their fiscal year 2018 budget requests, including those to weather research and prediction, coastal research, education, and manufacturing programs.

President Trump’s fiscal year 2018 budget requests a 23 percent cut for the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The proposed cuts fall hardest on NIST’s manufacturing programs, while its primary research account would see a 13 percent decrease.

The final appropriations agreement for fiscal year 2017 cuts the budget of the National Institute of Standards and Technology by 1 percent, attributable to a $10 million rollback in the agency’s construction budget. The rest of the NIST budget remains essentially the same as before.

President Trump has asked Congress to impose an $18 billion cut in non-defense spending in its appropriations legislation for fiscal year 2017. According to a leaked document, the White House has suggested that about $3 billion be taken from R&D programs. Several key congressional appropriators have said it is too late in the fiscal year to consider such large cuts.

The chairman’s plans include reforming the use of science in EPA rulemaking, prioritizing basic research at the Department of Energy, promoting STEM education, overseeing cybersecurity investigations, and adjusting NASA’s mission portfolio.

Among his final actions in office over the past month, President Obama signed three major research-related bills into law: the 21^st Century Cures Act, the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act, and the National Defense Authorization Act.

In what one senator called an “overtime victory for science in the closing days of 2016,” the House passed the Senate’s “American Innovation and Competitiveness Act,” a bipartisan successor to the America COMPETES Acts of 2007 and 2010. President Obama is expected to sign it into law.