Academic Funding

Full Senate Panel Approves $7.5B NSF Budget for 2017 Academic Funding
Mississippi Republican Thad Cochrane is the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Full Senate Panel Approves $7.5B NSF Budget for 2017

April 21, 2016 1461

Thad Cochrane

Mississippi Republican Thad Cochrane is the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee today approved a $7.51 billion budget for the National Science Foundation in the coming fiscal year, part of a larger package of appropriations covered in the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2017.

The bill is essentially the same as that passed Tuesday by the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) subcommittee of the full Appropriations Committee, which Social Science Space reported in greater detail here. The $56.3 billion CJS appropriation is $563 million above the current year’s budget and $1.6 billion more than what President Barack Obama had requested (although it’s actually $183 million below the president’s budget request, explained committee chair Thad Cochran, when some accounting adjustments are factored in).

The action is only a waystop for National Science Foundation (NSF) budget, since the House of Representatives has yet to act on its version of the bill (and may not be in danger of doing so soon), and differences between the bills would need to be worked out and approved in both legislative chambers before the final version is presented to the president to approve. At this point, the path has been relatively free of obstacles; the ranking Democrat on the committee, Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, noted this bill and another on transportation funding were free of “poison pills riders” that would invite a presidential veto.

A report that accompanies the bill does raise one concern for the social and behavioral science community, however. In language that explains that the committee supports the agency’s peer review process for deciding on what research its experts feel should be funded, the legislators added, “As part of the peer review process, NSF should include criteria that evaluates how a proposal will advance our Nation’s national security and economic interests, as well as promote the progress of science and innovation in the United States.” This ‘national interest’ clause echoes a bill currently in the House of Representatives that has drawn a skeptical response from scientists (and officials in the White House) who fear that the provision will be used down the line to stymie funding for basic research where the payoff isn’t instantaneous.

The NSF is by far the largest government funding for academic social and behavioral science research in the United States, and so the social science community pays particular attention to the fate of its budget. The amount the Appropriations Committee approved is roughly the same as the amount enacted for the current fiscal year.

It is less than the amount requested by the NSF itself through the president’s budget request. NSF had requested $8 billion, although $400 million of that was a special extra request for research funding that was unlikely to pass. While this Senate budget as a result is less than requested, it also doesn’t include efforts to impose discipline-based spending constraints on NSF that were seen in the House version of last year’s bill. Those constraints would have limited spending for social and behavioral science and for geosciences.

Also of interest to social scientists, the CJS bill would fund the Bureau of the Census at $1.5 billion, which is $148 million more than what was enacted in the current fiscal year but below President Obama’s request for $1.63 billion to start gearing up for the next decennial survey in 2020.


Related Articles

Social, Behavioral Scientists Eligible to Apply for NSF S-STEM Grants
Investment
December 3, 2021

Social, Behavioral Scientists Eligible to Apply for NSF S-STEM Grants

Read Now
With COVID and Climate Change Showing Social Science’s Value, Why Cut it Now?
Impact
September 3, 2021

With COVID and Climate Change Showing Social Science’s Value, Why Cut it Now?

Read Now
Testing-the-Waters Policy With Hypothetical Investment: Evidence From Equity Crowdfunding
News
September 9, 2020

Testing-the-Waters Policy With Hypothetical Investment: Evidence From Equity Crowdfunding

Read Now
Compendium of Research Funders’ Impact Requirements
Academic Funding
April 23, 2020

Compendium of Research Funders’ Impact Requirements

Read Now
Congress Seeks Immediate Research Ideas for Stimulus Legislation

Congress Seeks Immediate Research Ideas for Stimulus Legislation

mmittee of the U.S. House of Representatives wants to make sure that all sciences continue to play a role in fighting the coronavirus, and asks for ideas on how the next economic stimulus package in the United States can support research.

Read Now
Ken Prewitt Wants to Retrofit The Social Sciences

Ken Prewitt Wants to Retrofit The Social Sciences

“In a world facing many complex, formidable problems,” Kenneth Prewitt asks, “how can the social sciences become a decisive force for human […]

Read Now
NYU’s Social Science for Impact Forum

NYU’s Social Science for Impact Forum

Each year, NYU researchers analyze New York State Medicaid, New York City Department of Education, and New York City subsidized housing data to discover new patterns of family experiences and outcomes and inform new approaches to fighting poverty, reducing inequality, and expanding opportunity in our communities.

Read Now
0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments