FY 22 APPROPRIATIONS NEWS
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Biden Unveils $6 Trillion Spending Plan
President Biden’s $6 trillion budget proposal unveiled Friday charts his vision of an expansive federal government role in the economy and the lives of Americans, with big increases in spending on infrastructure, public health and education along with tax hikes on corporations and the wealthy. The Biden administration is seeking $1.52 trillion for the military and domestic programs in fiscal year 2022, which begins Oct. 1, an 8.6% increase from the $1.4 trillion enacted last year, excluding emergency measures to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. The proposal would shift more federal resources from the military, which would see a 1.6% rise in spending next year, to domestic programs such as scientific research and renewable energy, which would get 16.5% more funding under the president’s plan in 2022. ( The Wall Street Journal - May 28, 2021)
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Biden Details Plans for Science and Humanities
President Biden detailed his ambitious plans for science and technology, and his more modest plans for the humanities, in his detailed budget proposal released Friday. Most of his education plans were released in April, when he proposed billions more in spending on Pell Grants and support for minority-serving colleges. In the plan released last week, Biden proposed $52 billion for the National Institutes of Health for the 2022 fiscal year, which is a 21 percent increase over what Congress allocated for 2021. The agency would use the additional funding on its spending on research related to COVID-19. The budget would also add to the funds used to study "health disparities" among racial groups. Biden requested $10.2 billion for the National Science Foundation, which is a $1.7 billion —or 20 percent —increase from the 2021 funding level. Biden proposed $177.55 million for the National Endowment for the Humanities for fiscal year 2022. The request is a 6 percent increase over NEH’s FY 2021 appropriation. Notably absent from the budget is any cancellation of student loan debt . . . . ( Inside Higher Ed - June 1, 2021)
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Biden Backs New NSF Tech Directorate, but Senate Balks
President Joe Biden today released a proposed 2022 budget for the National Science Foundation (NSF) that calls for a new technology directorate as part of a 20% overall increase for the agency, to $10.2 billion. But hours before in Congress, a group of Republican lawmakers temporarily blocked a bipartisan bill championed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D–NY) that would have added the Senate’s backing to the idea. Biden’s $6 trillion spending plan for all government agencies includes $1.2 billion in 2022 to help NSF move research more quickly into the marketplace. Charged with that goal, NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan wants to give the agency a seventh research directorate, to be called Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP), and has proposed it be given an initial budget of $865 million in 2022. Unlike NSF’s existing directorates, which have divisions focused on individual disciplines, TIP would be organized around activities aimed at getting more bang for NSF’s research and training bucks. ( Science Magazine - May 28, 2021)
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Eyeing China, Biden Defense Budget Boosts Research and Cuts Procurement
U.S. President Joe Biden’s first budget request for the Department of Defense slashes procurement by $8 billion, whacking scores of legacy weapons and systems as a way to deliver a $5.5 billion boost for the development and testing of cutting-edge technologies that could deter China. The $715 billion Pentagon request for fiscal 2022, which was sent to Congress Friday, represents an $11 billion increase and trails the rate of inflation. A big chunk is what Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has called the “largest ever” request for research, development, test and evaluation funding. The White House has proposed $112 billion in that area, a 5 percent increase. ( DefenseNews - May 29, 2021)
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NASA Requests $24.8 Billion in 2022, Proposes to Cancel SOFIA Again
NASA released its fiscal year 2022 budget request May 28, asking for $24.8 billion to support a number of new and existing science and exploration programs but also proposing once again to cancel an airborne astronomical observatory. The detailed budget request of $24.801 billion is slightly higher than the $24.7 billion in an initial “skinny” budget request published April 9. That request included only highlights of the overall proposal, such as additional science and space technology funding. The request is more than $1.5 billion above the $23.272 billion the agency received for fiscal year 2021. The $7.93 billion for NASA’s science programs is the largest ever . . . eclipsing the $7.3 billion the agency received in 2021. ( SpaceNews - May 28, 2021)
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Senate Punts Schumer Science and Tech Bill to June
Senate leaders struck a deal Friday to punt consideration of the bipartisan science research and development package until after the upcoming recess in exchange for a vote related to the creation of a national commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The deal was announced by Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer following a long night of objections by Republican senators to the size and scope of the research and development bill, which would authorize more than $100 billion for numerous agencies within the federal government to counter China’s quest to dominate technologies of the future. On Friday morning, Schumer said he expected the bill to pass by the end of the day. But its prospects dimmed after GOP senators, including Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah, picked up where Ron Johnson of Wisconsin began late Thursday, with a litany of concerns about the bill’s content and the manner in which the Senate had amended it. ( Roll Call - May 28, 2021)
***See also, the following related news item:
- Universities Fight Scrutiny of Foreign Funding in Senate China Bill - Politico - May 27, 2021
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Senate Confirms Eric Lander to Lead White House Science Shop
The U.S. Senate today confirmed mathematician and geneticist Eric Lander as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Lander will also serve as President Joe Biden’s science adviser and hold a seat in Biden’s Cabinet. Lander, 64, has long held prominent roles in U.S. research and science policy. He was president and founding director of the Broad Institute, which is jointly run by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology for 8 years under former President Barack Obama, where he worked closely with Obama science adviser John Holdren, and interacted with Biden, who was vice president. Lander also co-led the public Human Genome Project to the completion of a first draft in 2001. ( Science Magazine - May 28, 2021)
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Congressional Science Panel Pushes for More Energy Research
Last month, the Biden administration proposed boosting the budget for the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) basic research wing, the Office of Science, by 5.7% to $7.4 billion for fiscal year 2022. Members of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology think the agency, the single largest U.S. funder of the physical sciences, needs a lot more. And tomorrow the panel will unveil a bipartisan bill that would authorize spending $8.7 billion next year—and nearly $11 billion by 2026. However, Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson (D–TX), who chairs the House science committee, questioned whether the proposed boost would be enough to enable the office to follow through on the programs and projects it has already begun—such as the U.S. contribution to ITER, the massive international fusion reactor under construction in southern France. ( Science Magazine - May 27, 2021)
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College Athletes Would Gain Right to Unionize Under New Bill
Democrats in Congress are looking to change the college sports landscape with new legislation that would classify college athletes as employees of their institutions and give them the power to bargain collectively. Senators Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, and Bernie Sanders, the Independent from Vermont, introduced the College Athlete Right to Organize Act in the Senate, and Representative Jamaal Bowman, a Democrat from New York, is taking the lead on companion legislation in the House. The legislation would amend the National Labor Relations Act to define athletes as employees of their colleges if they receive compensation for their participation in intercollegiate sports, whether that compensation is in the form of grant-in-aid or any other form. Both public and private colleges would be defined as employers within the context of intercollegiate sports. ( Inside Higher Ed - May 28, 2021)
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