Washington — Congress is nearing approval of a spending bill that would provide $400-million in new money for scientific research this year and reverse all layoffs at federal energy laboratories, ensuring continued access by academic scientists for their studies.
In addition, the measure would triple spending this year for a program, the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarships, that trains undergraduates to teach mathematics and science in schools.
The bill, which would also expand tuition benefits for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is part of a larger measure to finance those military operations. The House of Representatives approved it on Thursday night.
Of the $400-million for science, $62.5-million would go to the Department of Energy’s Office of Science to avoid the termination of government researchers and technicians at the agency’s facilities, such as the Fermilab National Acceleratory Laboratory, in Illinois, where 59 workers have already accepted severance packages. University officials had lobbied to prevent those cutbacks, arguing that they would damage academic studies conducted there.
As for the remaining money, $150-million would go to the National Institutes of Health and $62.5-million each would go to the National Science Foundation and NASA. The spending would be allocated for the 2008 fiscal year, which ends in September.
Of the NSF’s share, $20-million would be set aside for the agency’s Noyce scholarship program, which helps pay college costs for undergraduates who agree to teach math and science after earning their degrees. The program’s budget is only $11-million this year, although Congress has authorized it to receive up to $115-million.
Still, each share of the $400-million represents a small fraction of each agency’s budget. And even with the increases, all of the agencies’ budgets would not keep pace with inflation this year.
Nevertheless, the spending proposal was welcome news not only to physicists but also to other scientists who have been chafing under tight budgets at federal science agencies in recent years. University officials and some lawmakers had complained that Congress was reneging on promises made in the America Competes Act, a law enacted last year that authorized big increases in federal spending on the physical sciences and on science education to enhance America’s global economic competitiveness.
The Senate is expected to vote next week on the spending measure for this year, called a supplemental appropriations bill, and President Bush has said he will sign it. —Jeffrey Brainard
