What you can do

  • If you are attending the AAAS Annual Meeting in Austin, TX, this week, join us on Saturday evening (February 17) for the 8th Annual Science Policy Shindig.
  • Participate in the February 27 Internet Day of Action, aimed at getting #OneMoreVote to pass a Senate resolution restoring Net Neutrality.
  • Join FreePress and the National Digital Inclusion Alliance in taking action to stop the FCC from curtailing its Lifeline program, a source of support for phone and Internet service for low-income households.
  • Sign up for this year's March for Science, on April 14. No satellite march near you? Start one!

Budget deal raises spending caps, but FY18 appropriations still to be determined

On February 9, President Trump signed the Bipartisan Budget Act, which ended an overnight government shutdown, raised the debt ceiling,increased spending caps, and includes a continuing resolution to fund the government through March 23. The bill ends sequestration for FY18 and FY19 by raising the spending caps by a combined $165 billion for defense programs and $131 billion for non-defense programs. However specific appropriations, including funding for scientific research, will be voted on later (despite the passage of this bill, the Republican Congress has still not passed a federal budget for FY18, which began on October 1). The budget deal has been controversial among both Senate Democrats, who advocated increasing non-defense and defense spending by the same amounts, and Republicans, who are divided over increasing the federal deficit in the wake of the recently passed tax cuts.

Trump's FY19 budget proposes cuts at DOE and elsewhere

On February 12, the Trump administration released its proposed budget for FY19. The administration also released a separate addendum, which was prepared at the last minute in response to the increased spending caps included in the recently passed Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (see above). The budget proposes deep cuts to important scientific programs, though many are reversed by the the proposal in the addendum, which would restore National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health funding to FY17 levels, and add funding to education, job training, housing, and anti-addiction programs. However, the proposal would still cut over 65% from Department of Energy renewable energy and efficiency programs and 25% from advanced nuclear energy research, as well as reduce funding to social services like Medicare and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. It would also eliminate Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) climate research, and several NASA programs, including support for the International Space Station. Military and anti-immigration funding would be significantly increased, while social programs are targeted for steep cuts to cover some of the deficit increase created by the the Republicans' 2017 tax bill.

The President's budget is just a proposal, and the final budget, which is prepared by Congress, may bear little resemblance to it. FY19 will begin on October 1, 2018, but it has been over 20 years since Congress passed a budget before the beginning of the new fiscal year (and Congress still has not passed its budget for the current year, FY18).

Science and technology in the State of the Union address

Science and technology policy were notably absent from President Trump's January 30 State of the Union address, which also lacked any substantive remarks about a range of other important topics, including education and innovation. Instead, Trump concentrated on immigration, manufacturing, defense, and the recently passed tax bill. Referring to the profit repatriation language in the tax bill, Trump claimed that "Apple has just announced it plans to invest a total of $350 billion in America." However, the Apple press release makes clear that the $350 billion figure includes pre-planned investments and financial manipulations intended to benefit from the one-time low tax rate, and the true impact of the tax bill on Apple investments may be no higher than $37 billion. Trump also claimed to have ended "the war on beautiful, clean coal", though experimental clean-coal technologies have so far been too unreliable and expensive to implement, and market forces explain the increasing prominence of natural gas and renewables. Trump's statement that the U.S. is an "exporter of energy to the world" was also misleading. The U.S. has long been an energy exporter, but is still not a net energy exporter -- though energy exports grew with respect to imports during the Obama administration.

Senate hearing reviews AICA progress

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a January 30 hearing on the first-year progress made under the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act (AICA). AICA was passed, during the last month of the Obama administration, in a bipartisan effort to resolve previous partisan disagreements that stalled attempted reauthorization of the America COMPETES Act. Directors France Córdova of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Walter Copan of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) outlined their agencies' progress in infrastructure development, cybersecurity, STEM education, public-private partnerships, and other basic and applied research areas prioritized by AICA. The previous COMPETES Act authorized major budget increases for both NSF and NIST; AICA authorizes only a 4% increase. However, since China is rapidly approaching the U.S. in many measures of research and innovation, the Senate committee has taken an interest in both funding levels and performance metrics.

House Science Committee holds hearing on glyphosate-cancer controversy

On February 6, the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee held a full hearing examining a 2015 monograph issued by the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which receives some of its funding from the National Institutes of Health. The monograph classified the common herbicide glyphosate as a probable (Group 2A) human carcinogen, based on an extensive review of both human studies and animal research. After an October 2017 Reuters article claimed that IARC had edited out negative results -- a claim later rebutted by IARC -- committee chair Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) and IARC director Dr. Christopher Wild exchanged letters, with Smith demanding more details and Wild explaining the process by which IARC working groups consider evidence and avoid conflicts of interest. The disputed results came from a journal article whose second author, a Monsanto scientist, has admitted to ghost-writing the article under the first author's name; these results, however, are actually included in the IARC monograph, along with a note that they were insufficiently detailed for evaluation.

House passes five science and technology bills

On Tuesday, February 13, the House passed five science and technology bills: the Department of Energy Research Infrastructure Act of 2018 (H.R. 4376); the Accelerating American Leadership in Science Act of 2018 (H.R. 4377); the Nuclear Energy Research Infrastructure Act of 2018 (H.R. 4378); the Low-Dose Radiation Research Act of 2018 (H.R. 4675) and the Building Blocks of STEM Act (H.R. 3397). The first four bills authorize the Department of Energy to upgrade or construct equipment for research project; the fifth directs the National Science Foundation to carry out research on early-childhood STEM education.

Quick takes

  • After only six months in office, Brenda Fitzgerald resigned as CDC director due to conflicts of interest with her personal investments in tobacco, pharmaceutical, and health insurance companies. Anne Schuchat has been named acting director.
  • Last year, the White House apparently interviewed at least three candidates, whose identities were not released, to head the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). However, the director's post remains vacant.
  • OSTP is also soliciting public comments on a national strategic plan for advanced manufacturing.
  • On February 4, the White House withdrew its nomination of Kathleen Hartnett White to lead the Council on Environmental Quality. White had been a controversial nominee because of her lack of science expertise and rejection of climate science.
  • A Right to Repair bill cleared its committee in the Washington state legislature; advocates are seeking public support for passage. The bill requires tech manufacturers to share service information and sell parts to owners and repair shops.
  • The Trump administration floated a plan to nationalize 5G wireless networks, for security and national competitiveness reasons. There was strong pushback from industry and the FCC.
  • In a legal dispute over a since-retracted paper, a California judge granted CrossFit's request to reveal the names of peer reviewers.
  • A California judge ruled, with a bit of humor, that Tinder's pricing structure is age discriminatory.

Highlights from partner organizations

  • The March for Science has launched a Community Grant Program to support local science advocacy, education, training, and mentorship. The deadline to apply is March 15, 2018
  • Applications are due tomorrow (Friday, February 16) for the the Science for Public Good Fund from the Union of Concerned Scientists, which provides awards of $1,000 for advocacy to defend the role of science in public policy, especially at the local level.

Have comments or something to add? Contact the RISE Stronger Science & Technology Policy Working Group at [email protected].

Want to learn more? Check us out online at risestronger.org/groups/rise-science-technology, and sign up for the RISE S&T Newsletter at tinyletter.com/rise-science-tech.