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WASHINGTON NEWS LONG HOT SUMMER WITH NO SPENDING ACTION Congress is heading off for its six-week political convention recess without resolving key budget issues and will have to face an omnibus spending bill when the House and Senate reconvene in September. Fiscal year 2005 begins October 1, and lawmakers want to adjourn early in October for election campaigns. Democrats blamed Republicans for stalling and Republicans blamed Democrats for refusing to accept overall spending limits in a pattern that was supposed to be eased by a revamping of the Congressional budget process in 1974. In the past three decades, the 13 appropriations bills needed to fund the government have been passed on time in only a handful of years. HOUSE PASSES BILLS ON “COMPETITIVENESS AGENDA” House Republicans have been grouping bills for floor consideration in a series of “theme weeks” this year. The first week in July was set aside for the “competitiveness agenda,” and several pieces of legislation of interest to the materials community were passed. The bills, all reported out of the House Science Committee, “would spur innovation, increase U.S. competitiveness, and mitigate environmental problems that cost the economy millions of dollars annually,” according to Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY). The High-Performance Computing Revitalization Act (H.R. 4218) and the Department of Energy High-End Computing Revitalization Act (H.R.4516) were both sponsored by Reps. Judy Biggert (R-IL) and Lincoln Davis (D-TN). H.R. 4218 would strengthen U.S. supercomputing capabilities by requiring the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy to ensure U.S. researchers access to high-performance computers, and by increasing interagency coordination of supercomputing programs. The bill has been endorsed by the Bush Administration. H.R. 4516 also would further U.S. computing capabilities by establishing a research and development program within DOE to develop more advanced computers and by authorizing DOE to establish supercomputer user facilities that would be available for use by U.S. researchers on a competitive, peer-reviewed basis. The House also passed H.R. 3890, a bill sponsored by Rep. Melissa Hart (R-PA) to reauthorize the Steel and Aluminum Energy Conservation and Technology Competitiveness Act of 1998. The programs authorized by the Act have resulted in the development of a “roadmap” by DOE and the steel industry which identifies research projects for which they are willing to cost share. Project awards are made, and the research is generally conducted at universities and national laboratories, although some research may also be carried out onsite at participating companies’ facilities. To ensure that the benefits are realized domestically, the Act limits company participation to those companies “substantially involved in the United States domestic production, processing, or use” of steel, aluminum, or copper. H.R.3890 adds language to the original act specifically authorizing research to target greenhouse gas reductions. After passage of the bill, Rep. Hart said, “I am pleased that my colleagues in the House of Representatives have agreed with me that we must give every advantage possible to our steel industry by continuing to fund research that reduces energy consumption and pollution and boosts competitiveness. My bill recognizes that the steel industry isn’t looking for handouts from taxpayers, rather, the role of government in this case should be to create the type of climate manufacturing and metals businesses need to succeed.” NSF HIGHLIGHTS RECORD FEDERAL SUPPORT FOR SCIENCE & ENGINEERING IN ACADEMIA Latest statistics from the National Science Foundation Survey of Federal Science and Engineering Support to Universities, Colleges, and Nonprofit Institutions show that federal agencies obligated a new high of $24.4 billion for academic science and engineering activities in FY 2002, an increase of $1.9 billion (more than 8 percent) over FY 2001 levels. The report shows that the Department of Health and Human Services (largely the National Institutes of Health) accounted for 59 percent of all federal FY 2002 academic S&E obligations. Together with the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense, HHS provided 84 percent of total federal academic S&E funding. NASA, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Energy provided most of the remaining academic S&E total. Of these three agencies, only NASA increased its FY 2002 levels (10 percent); in current dollars, Agriculture support was down over 9 percent, and DOE was down 4 percent. For further details, including a list of receiving institutions, see http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/infbrief/nsf04324/start.htm GRAD STUDENT ENROLLMENT AND POST-DOCS REACH NEW PEAK, BUT FOREIGN STUDENT ENROLLMENT DECLINES The National Science Foundation reports that 455,400 students were enrolled in science and engineering graduate programs in fall 2002, surpassing the previous peak reached in 1993 by 6 percent. The number of post-doctoral appointments in academic institutions also reached a new high at 32,100 in 2002, up 6 percent from 2001. The numbers represent the first national data on graduate S&E enrollment sine the 9/11 terrorist attacks and shed light on the fate of foreign students on temporary visas. While graduate enrollment of foreign students in S&E fields increased by 8 percent, full-time, first-time graduate enrollment of foreign students in these fields declined by about 2,100 (7.9 percent) in 2002. The largest decline was in computer sciences (almost 15 percent). In contrast, first-time S&E graduate enrollment increased almost 14 percent for U.S. citizens and permanent residents. Other topics covered in the report, “Graduate Enrollment in Science and Engineering Fields Reaches a New Peak; First-Time Enrollment of Foreign Students Declines,” include trend data since 1992 for graduate enrollment by citizenship, enrollment status, sex, race/ethnicity, and S&E field, and for post-docs by citizenship. See http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/infbrief/nsf04326/start.htm
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