Science and the Democratically Controlled 110^th Congress. (March 9, 2007)

     The Journal Science reports the two-month-old Democratically controlled US congress is putting forward what appear to be serious proposals to significantly bolster scientific research:

Different Ways to Compete

When it comes to improving U.S. innovation, some legislators are thinking big whereas others say that small is better. This week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) led a bipartisan coalition of senators endorsing the America COMPETES Act, a sprawling bill drawn from the recommendations of a 2005 National Academies report on how to strengthen the U.S. scientific enterprise (Science, 21 October 2005, p. 423). The proposal would authorize a doubling of funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of Science and support a raft of programs to train more scientists and improve science and math education at all grade levels. Reid said he plans a floor vote on the bill, whose provisions would cost $16 billion over 4 years, sometime next month.

 

Meanwhile, the House Science and Technology Committee last week approved a measure to expand early career and graduate training programs at NSF and DOE and monitor the need for research instrumentation across the government. The bill (H.R. 363) addresses a tiny slice of what the Senate legislation covers, but the panel's chair, Representative Bart Gordon (D-TN), believes that narrowly focused legislation stands a better chance of passage by Congress.

One of the matters that ought to be of concern to any federal Australian government is that large investments in scientific research in the US and Europe will act as a magnet for Australian researchers unless we are prepared to produce an environment to entice them to stay/return as well as attracting good overseas people to "think of Australia becoming home".