March 13, 2014
Paul Basken, Chronicle of Higher Education
A Congressional panel on Thursday approved legislation that would
flatten the budget of the National Science Foundation and revive past
attempts to tie the agency’s spending on research to a definable
economic payback.
The measure, a policy-setting bill for the NSF and the National
Institute of Standards and Technology, would give the NSF a budget in
the 2015 fiscal year of $7.28-billion, about 1.5 percent beyond its
current level of $7.17-billion. President Obama, in his 2015 budget proposed this month, suggested $7.3-billion, while House Democrats are seeking $7.52-billion.
Yet in a sign of future compromise before the bill reaches the
Democratic-controlled Senate, the Republican majority on the House
Science Subcommittee on Research and Technology accepted nine separate
Democratic amendments, including a partial retreat from plans to
severely cut the NSF’s budget for social-science research. Read more
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