Washington and Social Science: The Shutdown and the Damage Done
In January, the 116th Congress was sworn in for its first session. After a month-long partial government shutdown, Congress enacted a continuing resolution to keep federal government agencies funded until February 15. Congress also enacted the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act to provide for retroactive pay for federal employees affected by the government shutdown. The House approved several “mini-bus” appropriations bills and other spending bills to fully fund through September 30 the agencies affected by the partial government shutdown, but these were not taken up in the Senate. The House also approved a $12 billion disaster assistance supplemental appropriations bill and the Federal Civilian Workforce Pay Raise Fairness Act. The Senate also approved an amendment to the Strengthening America’s Security in the Middle East Act that calls for President Trump to refrain from drawing down troops in Syria and Afghanistan.
Federal Government Open For Business… At Least Until February 15
After a month-long partial government shutdown that began on December 22, 2018, congressional leaders reached a deal with President Trump to re-open the government temporarily for three weeks. Once the deal was announced, the House and Senate on January 25 quickly enacted a continuing resolution to fund, until February 15, the federal agencies impacted by the shutdown. Agencies like the National Science Foundation (NSF) were able to call their employees back to work the following Monday, January 28, and federal workers will soon be able to collect back-pay for the period covered by the shutdown.
Despite the deal to temporarily re-open the federal government, no progress has been made over the border wall funding stalemate. The president has indicated that another shutdown will happen if Congress does not provide the full $5.7 billion that he is requesting for the wall. He may also declare a “national emergency” and redirect funding from exiting appropriated accounts within the Department of Defense (including disaster assistance funds for Puerto Rico and Texas) to begin construction of the border wall.
Even if Congress and the president succeed in breaking the logjam and approve the remaining fiscal year 2019 appropriations bills, the new Congress will find itself significantly behind schedule in the fiscal year 2020 budget and appropriations cycle. The president’s budget, which is usually delivered to Congress in early February, will likely be delayed by a month, and perhaps longer if another partial shutdown occurs on February 16. House and Senate appropriations committees typically set deadlines for requests by this time in the year, but that process is not even close to starting because of the shutdown.
Congress must approve all 12 of the fiscal year 2020 appropriations bills before the end of fiscal year 2019, which is September 30, 2019… only eight months away!
Committee Rosters Set for 116th Congress
House and Senate Democratic and Republican Leadership completed the appointment of members to various Congressional Committees. Here are a list of the members of the key committees and subcommittees dealing with the NSF:
House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce-Justice-Science
Democrats
José Serrano, New York, Chairman
Matt Cartwright, Pennsylvania
Grace Meng, New York
Brenda Lawrence, Michigan
Charlie Crist, Florida
Ed Case, Hawaii
Marcy Kaptur, Ohio
Republicans
Robert Aderholt, Alabama, Ranking Member
Martha Roby, Alabama
Steve Palazzo, Mississippi
Tom Graves, Georgia
Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce-Justice-Science
Republicans
Jerry Moran, Kansas, Chairman
Lamar Alexander, Tennessee
Lisa Murkowski, Alaska
Susan Collins, Maine
Lindsey Graham, South Carolina
John Boozman, Arkansas
Shelley Moore Capito, West Virginia
John Kennedy, Louisiana
Marco Rubio, Florida
Democrats
Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire, Ranking Member
Patrick Leahy, Vermont
Dianne Feinstein, California
Jack Reed, Rhode Island
Christopher Coons, Delaware
Brian Schatz, Hawaii
Joe Manchin, West Virginia
Chris Van Hollen, Maryland
House Committee on Science, Space and Technology
Democrats
Eddie Bernice Johnson, Texas, Chair
Zoe Lofgren, California
Dan Lipinski* , Illinois
Suzanne Bonamici, Oregon
Ami Bera, California
Conor Lamb, Pennsylvania
Lizzie Fletcher, Texas
Haley Stevens*, Michigan
Kendra Horn, Oklahoma
Mikie Sherrill*, New Jersey
Brad Sherman*, California
Steve Cohen*, Tennessee
Jerry McNerney, California
Ed Perlmutter, Colorado
Paul Tonko*, New York
Bill Foster*, Illinois
Don Beyer, Virginia
Charlie Crist, Florida
Sean Casten, Illinois
Katie Hill, California
Ben McAdams*, Utah
Jennifer Wexton. Virginia
Republicans
Frank Lucas, Oklahoma, Ranking Member
Mo Brooks, Alabama
Bill Posey, Florida
Randy Weber, Texas
Brian Babin, Texas
Andy Biggs, Arizona
Roger Marshall, Kansas
Neal Dunn, Florida
Ralph Norman, South Carolina
Michael Cloud, Texas
Troy Balderson, Ohio
Pete Olson, Texas
Anthony Gonzalez, Ohio
Michael Waltz, Florida
Jim Baird, Indiana
Two vacancies
* Democratic Members of the Subcommittee on Research and Technology, chaired by Representative Haley Stevens (D-MI). Republican Subcommittee appointments have not yet been made.
Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
Republicans
Roger Wicker, Mississippi, Chairman
John Thune, South Dakota
Roy Blunt, Missouri
Ted Cruz*, Texas
Deb Fischer, Nebraska
Jerry Moran, Kansas
Dan Sullivan*, Arkansas
Cory Gardner*, Colorado
Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee
Shelley Moore Capito, West Virginia
Mike Lee, Utah
Ron Johnson*, Wisconsin
Todd Young, Indiana
Rick Scott*, Florida
Democrats
Maria Cantwell, Washington, Ranking Member
Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota
Richard Blumenthal*, Connecticut
Brian Schatz*, Hawaii
Ed Markey, Massachusetts
Tom Udall, New Mexico
Gary Peters*, Michigan
Tammy Baldwin*, Wisconsin
Tammy Duckworth, Illinois
Jon Tester, Montana
Kyrsten Sinema, Arizona
Jacky Rosen, Nevada
* Members of the Subcommittee on Science, Oceans, Fisheries and Weather, (Senator Gardner, chair, and Senator Tammy Baldwin, ranking member).
NSF Back in Business, but not “Business As Usual”
On January 28, NSF resumed operations after a month-long shutdown. But as an “Important Notice” issued on January 28 by NSF to the science and engineering community explains, operating under a continuing resolution does not mean “business as usual.” According to the “Resumption of Operations at the National Science Foundation” Important Notice, NSF during this period will focus on “processing the backlog of awards to universities and small businesses, rescheduling merit review panels that were cancelled, funding facilities and renewing oversight of those facilities, and funding graduate student and postdoctoral fellowships.” Long-term vision implementation will begin, but will be difficult to achieve if the agency experiences another shutdown in a few weeks. Additionally, more than 100 review panels—involving 2,000 proposals—were cancelled during the shutdown and require rescheduling.
As NSF’s notice demonstrates, federal agencies aren’t switches that can be turned on and off without major disruption. They function through the hard work of the director, research directorate and division heads, program officers, and other dedicated employees who serve the agency. Some of these individuals may not even return to their jobs after a shutdown of this duration.
Shutdowns also take a personal and human toll on members of the scientific community. As a January 23 letter from the Coalition for National Science Funding to the president and Congress stated, “Senior scientists are questioning how to pay their postdoctoral researchers, and some postdocs and fellows, many of whom are early in their careers, are not getting paid at all. Indeed, the shutdown is not only affecting the overall research enterprise but is taking a personal toll on those who are vital to its success.”
The notice also welcomes Dr. Kelvin Droegemeier as the new director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), who was confirmed in the last days of the 115th Congress (2017-2018). Like NSF, OSTP was closed during the partial shutdown.
In the News…
“Why the shutdown ended — and what to watch for now,” Washington Post (Monkey Cage) | January 26, 2019
“End of U.S. shutdown won’t mean return to business as usual for research agencies,”Science (Jeff Mervis) | January 3, 2019
“Samantha Power to receive 2019 Moynihan Prize in Social Science and Public Policy,”Harvard Law Today | January 24, 2019
“Few open-access journals meet requirements of Plan S, study says,” Science | January 31, 2019
Coalition for National Science Funding Letter regarding the partial government shutdown | January 23, 2019
Late Night Humor
Stephen Colbert: [Referencing the shutdown] “Things have gotten so bad that the IRS has added a new question to the tax form: ‘Would you like $3 of your Federal Tax to go to buying us a sandwich?'”
Seth Meyers: “Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to the White House today saying she will not allow President Trump to deliver the State of the Union address next week if the government is still shut down. Damn! If Trump really wants a strong wall on the Mexican border, he should build it out of Nancy Pelosi.”
