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BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
10
JUNE
2015
House Science Committee
Approves America Competes
Reauthorization Bill
On April 15, Science, Space, and Technology
Committee Chairman
Lamar Smith
(R-TX) intro-
duced the America COMPETES Reauthorization
Act of 2015, which would reauthorize the Na-
tional Science Foundation (NSF), the Department
of Energy (DOE) Office of Science, and National
Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST)
for FY 2016 and 2017. The full Science, Space,
and Technology Committee approved the bill on
a party line vote on Wednesday, April 22.
While the bill authorizes small increases for some
research, it includes several provisions that the
Biophysical Society finds troubling. Specifically,
the bill funds NSF by directorate rather than as
a whole, allowing Congress to direct funding to
areas of science that it finds most worthy. In the
case if this reauthorization bill, it significantly
cuts funding for social and behavioral science and
geophysical science research at the NSF. The bill
also requires NSF to explain how each individual
grant funded by the agency is in the national
interest. At the Department of Energy, funding is
to the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable
Energy (EERE) would be cut significantly.
The Coalition for National Science Funding and
the Energy Sciences Committee, both coalitions of
which the Society is a member, released statements
opposing the bill. The Society also sent a letter to
the Chairman Smith and Ranking Member
Eddie
Bernice Johnson
(D-TX) opposing the bill.
The bill was approved by the full House on May
20. There is currently no timeline for this bill or
similar legislation to be introduced in the Senate.
Society Expresses Concern
about Restrictions on Federal
Employee Travel
On Tuesday, April 21, the BPS joined 125 other
organizations in sending a letter to Congress
expressing concerns about the impact of Admin-
istration regulations and legislative initiatives
related to government travel on the science and
engineering enterprise and the pace of innovation.
The signatories on the letter collectively represent
hundreds of thousands of scientists, engineers, and
mathematicians—many of whom work for the
federal government—across a broad spectrum of
disciplines. The letter follows up a report by the
General Accountability Office (GAO) that found
the restrictions on travel have negatively impacted
the federal scientific workforce and a Washington
Post article on that report. Current policies are
reducing government scientists’ and engineers’
participation in scientific and technical confer-
ences while the administrative cost of oversee-
ing these activities has increased significantly. In
addition, government employees now must wait
3-9 months to get approval to attend a meeting,
rather than a few weeks. The letter explains that
these delays prevent many government scientists
and engineers from accepting key speaking roles
and lead to increased travel costs associated with
last-minute bookings. Further, the reductions in
Public Affairs
“
Specifically, the bill funds NSF by
directorate rather than as a whole,
allowing Congress to direct funding to
areas of science that it finds
most worthy.
”
“
...government employees now must
wait 3-9 months to get approval to
attend a meeting rather than a
few weeks .
”