On April 24, the National Science Board (NSB) released a press statement responding to the Frontiers in Innovation, Research, Science, and Technology (FIRST) Act (H.R. 4186), which is currently making its way through the House of Representatives. The FIRST Act would reauthorize funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), which were previously authorized through the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act that expired in 2013. According to the presidentially-appointed NSB, which oversees NSF, the FIRST Act “impose[s] significant new burdens on scientists that would not be offset by gains to the nation.”

NSB objects to multiple provisions in the authorization bill, including language dictating how NSF vets grant proposals and specific funding levels set for each of NSF’s research directorates. The board suggests that Congress’ level of detail in allocating funding, “impede[s] NSF’s flexibility to deploy its funds to support the best ideas.” Under the FIRST Act, Congress could establish funding priorities that neglect certain research areas, such as the geosciences and social and behavioral sciences. NSB maintains that NSF should focus on rewarding exciting, quality research proposals across the sciences. 

Under the America COMPETES Act, Congress authorized a lump sum to NSF, which NSF then allocated to its Directorates. The FIRST Act details the authorizations for each of NSF’s Directorates and singles out the Geosciences Directorate for a 3 percent cut and the Social, Behavioral, and Economics Directorate for a 22 percent cut from FY2014 levels, while increasing funding for the other Directorates.

Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX), chair of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, responded that the bill aims to increase accountability for how taxpayer dollars are spent. Smith argues that “basic research in the physical sciences drives economic growth, produces new technologies and creates jobs… [and] to regain America’s scientific edge the Committee will adjust priorities for taxpayer-supported research.” He deemed recent changes to NSF internal policy to address those accountability concerns as “too little too late.”

The FIRST bill was approved by the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee’s research panel on March 13 and is expected to be considered by the full committee sometime in May.

Sources: American Association for the Advancement of Science, ScienceInsider, National Science Foundation

Updated 5/5/14