Washington — Two years ago, the National Academies sounded the alarm in a widely cited report, “Rising Above the Gathering Storm,” that America was slipping behind other countries in science and technology. On Tuesday leaders from academe and business will meet here to try to refocus Congress’s attention on the report’s many recommendations that require lawmakers’ action.

One expected topic of discussion on Tuesday is a lobbying effort already under way to persuade Congress to increase federal spending for physical-sciences research significantly this year. The money could be squeezed into a broader supplemental-appropriations bill that legislators are expected to consider in the coming weeks to finance the Iraq war.

Congress provided only minimal increases for the National Science Foundation and the Energy Department’s Office of Science for the 2008 fiscal year, which ends in September, even though much-bigger raises had been authorized by the America Competes Act, which was enacted last year to improve economic competitiveness.

Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives, has reportedly expressed support for redressing that situation in the forthcoming spending bill. The proposal remains on the table, even though she also has promised a tight rein on nonmilitary spending. President Bush has threatened to veto the bill if it contains spending unrelated to the war.

The lobbying effort has included a letter of support to House leaders from 31 members of both parties and a separate letter to the president from more than 200 universities and corporations. —Jeffrey Brainard