WEEK OF JULY 15, 2024

What’s Ahead

The Frontier supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Lab.

ORNL

Senators Pitching $12 Billion AI Initiative at DOE

The Department of Energy’s ambitions to lead a major artificial intelligence R&D initiative have gained backing from Sens. Joe Manchin (I-WV) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who introduced legislation last week that proposes Congress provide DOE with $12 billion over five years for AI work. A portion of these funds would go toward creating at least eight AI R&D centers at DOE national labs, with each center having a minimum budget of $30 million a year. Manchin and Murkowski are influential voices in DOE policy, as they are current and former chairs, respectively, of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. However, the current top Republican on the committee, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), is not a cosponsor of the bill, which suggests he has reservations about the proposal.

Clock Starts on Long-Awaited Research Security Policy

The White House released guidance last week on how major research universities will be required to maintain research security programs mandated by National Security Presidential Memorandum-33. The guidance sets minimum standards for how universities handle matters such as cybersecurity, foreign travel reporting, and staff training on research security risks. The guidance also permits agencies to implement additional requirements, for instance in response to risks posed by “improper or illegal transfer of U.S. government-supported R&D to foreign countries of concern,” defined as China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

Agencies now must submit their implementation plans to the White House within six months and their final policies will take effect no later than six months after that. Universities will then be required to comply with the policies within 18 months of them going into effect. University groups have generally welcomed the guidance as an improvement over the draft version released in February 2023 but note that there remain many questions over how the details will be implemented, especially given the latitude provided to agencies to add more requirements. The guidance will likely be a topic of discussion at the National Science, Technology, and Security Roundtable’s capstone workshop this Tuesday and Wednesday.

NASA Policy Bill Advances in House

The House Science Committee unanimously approved legislation last week that would broadly update policy for NASA, sending it on to the full House for consideration. The bill largely reaffirms the committee’s support for current NASA initiatives, including in the Science Mission Directorate. It states NASA “shall” pursue the Mars Sample Return mission but contingent on “the availability of appropriations,” an acknowledgment that the mission’s fate will ultimately be determined through the budget process. It also directs NASA not to take any action to reduce operations of the Chandra X-ray Observatory until the agency completes a paradigm change review, which is expected to be complete soon, and the next triennial review of extended Astrophysics Division missions, the last of which occurred in 2022. NASA has proposed to quickly ramp down funding for Chandra due to budget constraints, sparking a campaign among astronomers to save the telescope.

Also On Our Radar

Science ministers from the G7 countries have pledged to further cooperation on research security, large research infrastructures, engagement with Africa, ocean monitoring, and emerging technologies such as fusion energy.
Prospective bidders in the competition to manage Jefferson Lab will receive details on the process at a Department of Energy webinar on Thursday.
The National Science Foundation’s governing board will meet next week.