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1\30 FYI No 11- Boehlert on S&T Prospects
Part 1 of 2

FYI
The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Science Policy News
Number 11: January 30, 2003

Chairman Boehlert Looks Back and Ahead at S&T

House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) addressed 
the University Research Associates' Annual Council of Presidents 
Meeting and Policy Forum this morning.  Boehlert is a strong supporter 
of science, and is characteristically candid in his remarks.  
Selections from his speech follow:

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION AUTHORIZATION ACT:

"In December, with some fanfare, the President signed into law the 
bill to put the National Science Foundation on a track to double its 
budget over the next five years.

"And that law not only points the way toward more generous funding 
across most fields of science and engineering, the law requires NSF to 
develop a more transparent process for funding major research 
facilities, and it establishes new education programs at both the K-12 
and undergraduate levels to improve math and science education and to 
interest more students in those fields.

"It's a landmark measure that few in 2001 thought we could see through 
to fruition - truth be told, I had some skepticism myself.  But we 
worked up until the very last minute - quite literally; it was the 
very last bill to pass the House last year at a little after 3 a.m."

"REASONABLY GOOD" S&T BUDGET OUTLOOK:

"The poet Philip Larkin once wrote, 'Always looking to the future, we 
pick up bad habits of anticipation.'  It's hard not to have that sober 
thought in mind as one prepares to lay out an agenda for the coming 
year, with a war looming and our fiscal straits tightening.

"But despite our challenges, and, in some ways because of them, the 
outlook for research and development programs in the coming year seems 
reasonably good.

"Now I should hasten to add that I'm making that statement at a
particularly awkward time.  As you are no doubt painfully aware, the
President will release his budget proposal for fiscal 2004 on Monday, 
while Congress has yet to complete work on any civilian appropriation 
for fiscal 2003."

"In fact, it will be a challenge even figuring out how to read the '04
budget proposal because the Administration has had no choice but to 
use the President's '03 request as the program baseline.  But those 
baseline numbers should be hopelessly out of date by the end of next 
week, if we can stick to our latest deadline, February 7th, when the 
latest Continuing Resolution expires.  The latest indications are that 
that deadline is now a true goal and real possibility."

"In addition to confounding federal agencies and those who work with 
them, the stalemate over appropriations is a symptom of a larger 
breakdown in our lawmaking process.  Increasing ideological rigidity 
and partisan gamesmanship, along with an electorate that is, 
paradoxically, both evenly divided and widely disengaged, have 
conspired to make it harder and harder to conduct the mundane but 
essential business of Congress.  It's hard to predict when this state 
of affairs is likely to improve.

"But it's worth noting how science funding has largely stayed out of 
the partisan and ideological crossfire.  I certainly could not get 
away with claiming to this audience that we are entering another 
'golden age' of science funding, particularly in the physical 
sciences, but, again, the overall picture is far from bleak.

"The passage of our NSF bill, while not guaranteeing linear growth, is 
a sign that both Congress and the Administration have come to 
understand that broadly based increases in science spending are 
overdue.  And while the appropriators are trimming their initial 2003 
spending measures, they are trying to keep spending for NSF as high as 
possible.  Moreover, the rumors about the President's NSF proposal for 
2004 are quite promising - at least in percentage terms, which may 
turn out to be the key figure given the faulty baselines."

S&T IMPLICATIONS OF DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY:

"The creation of the Department of Homeland Security could also 
presage increased research funding across a wide range of sciences.

"The President's proposal to create the new Department did not have a 
well articulated R&D focus or discrete unit with R&D responsibilities.  
That was a conspicuous gap because, as I never tire of pointing out, 
the war against terrorism will be won as much in the laboratory as on 
the battlefield.  But led by the Science Committee, Congress created a 
Science and Technology Directorate, headed by an undersecretary, and 
including a Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency 
(HSARPA).

"And the Administration came around pretty quickly to endorsing this 
R&D structure and has named a top-notch nominee, Chuck McQueary, who 
spent much of his career at Bell Labs, to be the new undersecretary.  
I had the pleasure of meeting with Dr. McQueary yesterday.

"It's too early to tell exactly what the new Department's R&D agenda 
will be or the extent to which it will be carried out at federal 
laboratories or at universities - although both will play a role.  
And, frankly, the Administration has been frustratingly closed-mouthed 
so far about how it is making decisions about how to structure science 
at the Department, but, one way or another that will change as the 
year goes on.

"But what seems beyond a doubt is that the new focus on homeland 
security will pump additional money into a wide range of science and 
engineering fields and into the Department of Energy, in particular, 
while posing questions that will require new, interdisciplinary 
solutions."

"POSITIVE SIGNS" FOR THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES:

"There are other positive signs for the physical sciences, as well.  
For example, the Administration continues to highlight nanotechnology 
as one of its priority, interagency science initiatives - a wise 
decision.  The Science Committee is working on legislation we hope to 
introduce in the next week or two and report out of Committee in late 
March.  Our bill would give the initiative a statutory basis and 
clearer funding expectations, and strengthen its interagency 
coordination and interdisciplinary focus.  Our counterparts on the 
Senate Commerce Committee are engaged in a similar effort, and the 
Administration is interested in seeing a bill signed into law this 
year.

"Interestingly, nanotechnology may be one of the few cases where the
biological aspect of a technology is being relatively underfunded by 
the federal government right now.  The Department of Energy, the 
agency that is usually the focus of this meeting, is a major player in 
the nanotechnology field and our bill will only underscore that 
further."

(continued)

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