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FYI
The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Science Policy News
Number 86: July 2, 2003

Senate Nanotechnology Bill Heads to the Floor

Continuing on the fast track, the Senate Commerce Committee has
passed a bill to authorize $4.7 billion in nanotechnology research.
Passage by the full Senate seems assured, as the bill language was
proposed by Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and George Allen (R-VA), the
principal movers of this legislation, and Committee Chairman John
McCain (R-AZ) and Ranking Member Ernest Hollings (D-SC).  In early
May, the House overwhelmingly approved similar legislation.

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation passed
this legislation, S. 189, by a voice vote on June 19, and sent it to
the full Senate.  This bill parallels H.R. 766, a Science Committee
bill that was passed by a vote of 405-19 on the House floor on May 7.

Both versions of this bill authorize an expanded role for the
federal government in nanotechnology research.  There are some
differences in the two bills that will have to be resolved   The
House bill authorizes (e.g., establishes new programs, sets funding
caps) for three years while the Senate authorization is for five
years.  But the amounts of money authorized for NSF (the lead
agency), DOE, NASA, NIST and EPA in FY 2004, 2005 and 2006 in each
bill are almost identical.  The Senate bill includes funding levels
for NIH,  Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security,
and  Department of Agriculture, while the House bill did not since
these departments are not under the jurisdiction of the Science
Committee.   Neither bill dealt directly with the Defense Department
which has a significant nanotechnology program; the Senate bill
calls for including the activities of the defense program in
"interagency coordination."

Each bill takes a somewhat different approach to how the federal
nanotechnology research program would be administered at the top.
The House wants a new interagency committee, while the Senate bill
prefers the existing National Science and Technology Council, a
White House level interagency coordinating structure.  The House
bill authorizes studies on nanotechnology manufacturing and "safe
nanotechnology," while the Senate bill establishes two centers.

A significant difference between the two bills is the House
authorization for "Science and Technology Graduate Scholarship
Programs."  More than 20% of the House bill language was devoted to
this program, where the Senate Commerce Committee's bill did not
include such a provision.

During House debate on the nanotechnology bill the only dissenting
voices were from Members wanting a formal mechanism for researching
societal implications of nanotechnology (see
http://www.aip.org/enews/fyi/2003/064.html.)   Science Committee
Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) prefers that such study be more
ingrained throughout the research process than housed in a separate
body.  The Senate bill authorizes $5 million for an American
Nanotechnology Preparedness Center "to encourage, conduct,
coordinate, commission, collect, and disseminate research on the
educational, legal, workforce, societal, and ethical issues related
to nanotechnology."  Sentiment on the House floor was that this
societal assessment mechanism that the Senate wants would be
resolved in a forthcoming conference between the House and Senate,
along with, it would appear, the graduate scholarship program that
the House wants.

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Richard M. Jones
Media and Government Relations Division
The American Institute of Physics
fyi{at}aip.org    http://www.aip.org/gov
(301) 209-3094
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