The United States of Resistance is a weekly industry newsletter sharing the top news from across the resistance. Please share with others! Sign up | Archived Newsletters Resistance Spotlight: It Starts Today Last fall, the Republicans won 241 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Democrats won 194. You might think that this means that the Democratic party fought and won in 194 districts and fought and lost in 241. But y...

Read More

Net Neutrality Day of Action this Wednesday, July 12To protest Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposals to allow Internet providers to throttle Internet speeds based on content, some of the world's most heavily trafficked Internet sites are taking part in this Wednesday's Internet-Wide Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality. Participants, including Google, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Dropbox, and Spotify, will encourage their users to contact the FCC and their members of Congress directly to voice their opposition to the erosion of a free and open Internet. In January 2012, Internet companies rallied users against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its Senate counterpart the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), and support for the legislation effectively vanished.Trump plans halt to Immigrant Entrepreneur RuleThe Trump administration will take steps to delay, and ultimately rescind, an Obama administration rule allowing foreign entrepreneurs to come to the US to start companies. Ca...

Read More

Appropriations bills advance in House; Republicans reject largest Trump cuts to science but make plenty of their ownThe first appropriations bills for next year's budget (FY18) began coming out of House appropriations subcommittees last week, including bills that cover several of the scientific agencies. For the most part, House appropriators are ignoring President Trump's most egregious requests for deep budget cuts, with spending at agencies mostly held at roughly the same levels at the current year (FY17). However, House Republicans have made cuts to some key scientific programs and to scientific budgets overall (see below). Also, appropriations bills covering the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Environmental Protection Agency, among others, have not been released yet, and some these are likely to be more contested.After passing their subcommittees, these appropriations bills will still have to be passed by the full House. The Senate will also have its versions, which...

Read More

Much of the attention last week was again on efforts to rush Trumpcare through the Senate, though after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its analysis estimating that the bill would cause 22 million more Americans to become uninsured, Republicans have scrapped their plans to try to pass the bill before July 4th. Here's what has been happening in science and technology policy in the meantime. EPA axes 38 science advisers, cancels panel meetings It emerged last week that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will not renew the appointments of 38 members of the Board of Scientific Counselors (BOSC) whose first term will expire in August. The BOSC advises the EPA's Office of Research and Development on scientific research. The office's leader, Acting Assistant Administrator Robert Kavlock, delivered the news in emails to BOSC members last week. These 38, combined with the nine advisors dismissed in May, mean that only 11 advisors remain, with no committee cha...

Read More

While much attention this week is on Senate Republicans' secretive efforts to draft health care legislation that could take health insurance from millions of Americans (and which will apparently be revealed this Thursday), here is what has been happening this week in science and technology policy."Tech Week" begins at White HouseOn Monday, June 19, CEOs from several major technology companies were at the White House for a series of private brainstorming sessions, followed by a public event. This inaugural meeting of the American Technology Council kicks off what is being billed as "Tech Week" at the White House. The week features just two events, and it is unclear what policy outcomes, if any, will result from the meetings. On Monday, there was general agreement on the non-controversial need to update government IT infrastructure. However, despite major concerns in the technology community, the attendees failed to press Trump on his most controversial policies, including the US with...

Read More

Trump continues to leave science posts unfilledWhether by default or design, the Trump administration's attitude toward science and technology vacillates between indifference and outright hostility. As a case in point, a recent Washington Post analysis finds that as of June 6, President Trump has announced nominees for only seven of the 46 high-level science and technology posts that require Senate confirmation, ensuring that the vast majority of key positions will remain vacant for the foreseeable future. The President lacks ready access to scientific advice, as the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) remains understaffed and without a director, and the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) remains empty. This lack of S&T advice has real-world consequences, such as Trump's recently announced decision to withdraw the US from the Paris climate accord, dramatic proposed cuts to scientific programs, and a host of other worrying developments.US...

Read More

Trump to Withdraw US From Paris Climate AccordOn Thursday, June 1, President Donald Trump announced his intention to withdraw the US from the Paris climate accord, the world's first comprehensive climate agreement. The pact is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance the ability of nations to adapt to climate change. As of today, 195 UNFCCC members have signed the agreement, and 148 have ratified it. President Trump dubiously claimed that the accord was economically unfair to American workers and would hurt competitiveness, as he grossly misrepresented the US's commitment to the Paris agreement and relied on arguments that were misleading, inaccurate, and untruthful. Trump purported to pull out of the international deal in order to focus on creating manufacturing jobs in America, but, due to growth in the renewable energy sector, his move may actually cost the US jobs.Paris Withdrawal Decisi...

Read More

Trump's FY18 Budget Would Severely Cut Scientific ProgramsOn Tuesday, May 23, the Trump administration released its full budget proposal for FY18, which calls for draconian cuts to domestic spending, including to scientific programs. Although Congress is unlikely to include many of these cuts in its final FY18 budget, Trump's budget proposal indicates how little value the administration places on science and the programs that protect our health, environment, and wellbeing. Read more about the proposed cuts to scientific programs here.Trump Proposes Unprecedented Cut to NSFTrump's FY18 budget proposal would cut $776 million (11%) from the National Science Foundation (NSF), marking the first time that a sitting president has proposed cutting the budget of the NSF in the 67 years it has been in existence. The number of Graduate Research Fellowships would be cut in half, to just 1,000 per year. The Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), which provides support f...

Read More

Trump Proposes Deep Cuts to Science BudgetsOn Tuesday, May 23, the Trump administration released its full budget proposal for FY18. Like the President's initial proposal, released on March 16, the full budget proposal calls for draconian cuts to domestic spending, including to scientific programs:$7.7 billion (22%) cut to the National Institutes of Health (NIH)$3.1 billion (18%) cut to non-nuclear security programs at the Department of Energy (DOE)$2.6 billion (31%) cut to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)$776 million (11%) cut to the National Science Foundation (NSF)Elimination of the Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy (ARPA-E)Elimination of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) grant and education programsSee more analysis: Science, STAT, Quartz, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Hill.Ultimately, though, it is the responsibility of Congress to set the US budget, and much of Trump's budget proposal has little chance of being enacted. This pr...

Read More

The United States of Resistance is a weekly industry newsletter sharing the top news from across the resistance. Please share with others! Sign up | Archived Newsletters Ladies & Gents, We have a special counsel! And that's the way the cookie crumbled...seems to be an appropriate way to kick off this week's United States of Resistance digest. Your demands worked. We now have a s...

Read More