The House Committee on Science and Technology has announced its membership and subcommittee chairs for the 110th Congress. The committee membership includes 24 Democrats and 20 Republicans with one vacancy on the minority membership. The subcommittee structure is slightly different with this Congress in that the some subcommittee names have been changed to more accurately reflect their jurisdictions and a Subcommittee on Investigation and Oversight has been added. The complete list of committee members as well as the subcommittees memberships is available here.
Subcommittee on Energy & Environment
Chairman Nick Lampson (D-TX)
Ranking Member Bob Inglis (R-SC)
Subcommittee on Technology & Innovation
Chairman David Wu (D-OR)
Ranking Member Phil Gingrey (R-GA)
Subcommittee on Research & Science Education
Chairman Brian Baird (D-WA)
Ranking Member Vern Ehlers (R-MI)
Subcommittee on Space & Aeronautics
Chairman Mark Udall (D-CO)
Ranking Member Ken Calvert (R-CA)
Subcommittee on Investigations & Oversight
Chairman Brad Miller (D-NC)
Ranking Member F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-WI)
On January 23, 2007, In American Competitiveness Initiative, Funding, FY07 Appropriations, Policy, By MelissaNorr
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, along with Majority Leader Harry Reid, gave the State of Our Union speech last week at the National Press Club. Pelosi’s portion of the speech covered many topics including innovation. Highlights:
Essential to our children’s future is the economic security of their families now. Preparing for the 21st century means bolstering our commitment to keep our nation number one. In our Innovation Agenda, unveiled more than a year ago here at the Press Club, House Democrats made a commitment to competitiveness. We will provide our nation with the tools necessary to unleash the next generation of growth and jobs.
In his State of the Union address last year, President Bush spoke of keeping America competitive. With Democrats in the majority, we must work together with our Republican colleagues to do so – nothing less than America’s economic leadership and our national security is at stake.
Innovation and economic growth begins in America’s classrooms. To create a new generation of innovators, we must fund No Child Left Behind so that we can encourage science and math education, taught by the most qualified and effective teachers.
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Innovation also requires federal grants to our universities, which have long been the spark for great breakthroughs: from the Internet, to biosciences, to fiber optics, to nanotechnology.
We must commit to doubling federal funding for basic research and development in the physical sciences and modernize and expand the research and development tax credit. And we will bring broadband access to every American within five years, creating millions of jobs.
These investments, and initiatives to support a thriving small business environment, will allow us to pursue the long-term, trailblazing research that gives rise to new advances, spawns new industries, and creates good jobs here at home.
We hope this means that basic science research agencies like NSF will receive the President’s proposed increases for the FY07 budget in the forthcoming CR and further increases in future budgets.
The full text of the speech can be found here.
On January 18, 2007, In American Competitiveness Initiative, Funding, FY07 Appropriations, By MelissaNorr
NSF has released some data on the impact of a “continuing resolution” on the agency for FY 2007, something we have discussed previously in this space. It confirms essentially what we expected: programs will have reduced funding for FY 2007 or be put on hold and award rates and award size will decline signficantly. Some examples:
- Overall budget would be $4.175 billion, $400 million below the Adminstration’s request and $168 million below the FY 2004 budget in constant dollars ($4.343 billion);
- Will reduce the number of new grants by 10% and the funding rate by 20%
- Reductions in programs will include: International Polar Year, Petascale Supercomputer Acquisitions ($50 million for the Office of Cyber Infrastructure’s Petascale Computing system), Explosives and Related Threats, Science of Science and Innovation Policy, and Engineering Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation
- New starts that would potentially be on hold are the Alaska Region Research Vessel, National Ecological Observatory Network, and Ocean Observatories Initiative
- Administrative costs have risen by $8 million from FY06 to FY07 and offsets in services and infrastructure will be required
Dr. Arden Bement, Director of NSF, posted a letter regarding the CR impacts online. The letter states:
The outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year remains highly uncertain, with one possibility being an extension of funding at the current level. While we are acutely aware of the tight constraints on the available budgetary resources, NSF is continuing to issue program announcements and solicitations as previously planned.
It is likely, however, that NSF may be unable to fund a number of activities planned for this fiscal year. We believe it is important for NSFs grantee community to be aware of this uncertainty, as a number of activities may be affected later in the fiscal year.
Stay tuned and we will update you on the CR status and impacts to agencies as we learn more.
From the CCC Blog
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