Washington — As the Obama administration fights for its economic-stimulus plan in Congress, supporters of university research are trying to ensure they don’t lose out in a compromise.
The Senate is working today on a stimulus plan estimated to cost more than $900-billion, or about $100-billion more than the House version. Some members of the Senate feel their package is too costly, and they want to eliminate some of its spending plans.
But the House version, while cheaper over all, contains about $1-billion more for scientific research and development than does the Senate bill, according to an analysis by the Alliance for Science and Technology Research in America.
And the fear, said Peter Harsha, director of government affairs at the Computing Research Association, an advocacy group with members in industry and on campuses, is that the Senate may bring its total stimulus package closer in price to the House version by cutting out even more money for scientific research.
Lobbyists for scientific research are now pressing lawmakers to “make sure that the Senate leaves science out of that dropping portion,” Mr. Harsha said.
President Obama made his own plea for scientific research today, by visiting the Energy Department headquarters, where he talked about the advantage of devoting federal resources to pushing technological innovation, especially in ways that would give the country “a cleaner and more energy-independent future.”
Mr. Obama, however, avoided taking sides between the House and Senate versions, saying, “No plan is perfect.” Over all, the president said, lawmakers are in the same ballpark on the amount of money they plan to spend on the economic-stimulus bill, and they should work quickly to resolve disagreements over the details.
“The scale and the scope of this plan is the right one,” Mr. Obama told an audience of about 200 people at the department offices, including Energy Secretary Steven Chu. “Our approach to energy is the right one. It’s what America needs right now, and we need to move forward today.” —Paul Basken
