federal research funding redux
TRANSCRIPT
n e w s o f t h e w e e k
FEDERAL RESEARCH FUNDING REDUX Senate is the forum for a renewed push on doubling civilian R&D budget
H ardly a month ago, a Senate bill that would have doubled the civilian research and development
budget over 10 years was declared dead. Introduced initially by Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas), S. 1305 was done in by its competing against a number of other urgent social priorities for the small pot of new money available under stringent congressional budget caps. In addition, it had only a pittance of political support, drawing a mere 19 cosponsors in nine months.
Last week, however, the corpse stirred, blinked its eyes, and found itself with a new number—S. 2217—and new possibilities. It also was wearing a new suit of clothes in the form of provisions aimed at measuring the effectiveness of federal research programs. The new measure, however, calls for doubling research spending from the current $37.7 billion to a shade under $68 billion, not in 10 years but in 12.
In the end, it may meet Frist (left) and the same fate as S. 1305, t0 double R&D
but R&D supporters— about 100 science and engineering societies that joined last fall to endorse S. 1305—have two influential senators to thank for the revival. They are Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), fathers of the new bill, which is certain to have as cosponsors Gramm and the other 18 senators who backed the original bill. With a smiling and approving Gramm at his side last week, Frist said he hopes to bring in another 20 or so new supporters.
Frist and Rockefeller never liked S. 1305 and refused to cosponsor it. They said it didn't have a chance of enactment because it was an authorization bill that needed the approval of too many committees. They characterized it as an expression of faith in the benefits of R&D rather
than a compelling rationale for federal support of R&D programs.
The doubling numbers are the simple part of the new bill, which like S. 1305 is only an authorization bill, or essentially an expression of sentiment. Where it breaks new ground is in the "guiding principles" it sets—a level of spending never to fall below 2.1% of the overall federal budget. The annual funding figures were arrived at by estimating a 3% annual inflation rise and adding another 2.5% to the figures for a total annual increase of 5.5%.
Frist and Rockefeller also put high pri-
Rockefeller put their weight behind push funding.
ority on planning and accountability. Under their bill, the President would have to submit to congress, along with his annual budget proposal, a summary of all federal R&D programs, strategic plans for those programs, and various other types of analyses of research funding mechanisms. The bill also would have the National Academy of Sciences develop methods for evaluating the success and failure of federal R&D programs.
Frist plans to have his subcommittee mark up the bill by the end of next month, then schedule it for floor debate after Congress returns from its August recess. No similar bill yet exists in the House, although Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) recently endorsed the idea of doubling R&D funding over eight years.
Joining Frist and other senators during the announcement ceremony were Francis L. Lawrence, president of Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J., who represented the university community; D. Allan Bromley, science adviser under former President George Bush; and American Chemical Society Board Chair Joan E. Shields.
Shields, in her remarks, gave the eulogy for S. 1305. "Its mission achieved," she said, "like a rocket booster, S. 1305 now gently falls to the side, and the effort to provide sustained research funding moves to the next phase. . . . We are now presented with a wonderful opportunity to work hand-in-hand with distinguished members of Congress in advancing the cause of research."
Wil Lepkowski
NSF settles minority fellowship suit The National Science Foundation will pay $95,400 in damages and attorneys' fees to settle, not litigate, a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of its Minority Graduate Research Fellowship program. The case was filed late last year by Travis Kidd, a white mathematics graduate student at Clemson University, Clem-son, S.C. (C&EN, Dec. 22, 1997, page 11). Kidd charged that the program illegally discriminated against him solely because of his race.
The NSF program reserves 150 of the 1,000 fellowships that it awards each year for members of minority groups underrepresented in the sciences and engineering. It provides an annual stipend of $14,400 per year for up to three years of graduate study to blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Alaskan natives. In 1995, 4,618 Ph.D. degrees in the physical sciences were awarded in the U.S., according to NSF data, with just 140 going to members of minority groups.
News of the settlement came as "a real blow," says George Campbell Jr., president of the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME). "It's particularly egregious that the government can't do something to address this issue, because the numbers are so startling." NACME is the largest private source of scholarship money for minority engineering students.
"We are talking about groups that make up nearly 30% of the college-age
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