The Week of January 4, 2021 – FYI: Science Policy News

Trump Signs FY21 Spending and Energy R&D Legislation

On Dec. 22, President Trump disrupted plans to enact spending for fiscal year 2021 when he released a video attacking the legislative package Congress had just passed by wide, bipartisan margins. However, he reversed course and signed it into law on Dec. 27. Spending levels are now set for all federal agencies through Sep. 30. Funding will remain at or near current levels for most science agencies, the most notable exception being the National Nuclear Security Administration budget, which will increase 18% to nearly $20 billion to support efforts to modernize the U.S. nuclear stockpile. Also notable, the Defense Departments early-stage Science and Technology accounts are collectively increasing 5% to $16.9 billion, departing from the cuts put forward in the Houses and Senates original proposals. For further details, see the FYI Federal Science Budget Tracker and the explanatory statements accompanying the package.

Alongside its spending provisions, the package incorporates an array of other legislative priorities, including the Energy Act, a major energy policy update reconciling bills the House and Senate advanced earlier in the year. Among many other provisions, the act establishes new R&D and technology demonstration programs in areas such as energy storage, industrial carbon emission reduction, and fusion energy. It also recommends Congress multiply the Department of Energys budgets for carbon management and nuclear energy technologies and includes a provision mandating a phasedown in the use of hydrofluorocarbons, a potent class of greenhouse gases. The overall package also provides the first pandemic-response funding Congress has passed since last spring. The emergency spending includes $23 billion in general relief funding for higher education institutions but none directed toward addressing disruptions to research, as had been proposed in the Research Investment to Secure the Economy (RISE) Act.

On Dec. 23, Trump fulfilled threats he had been making for weeks to veto the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021. On Dec. 28, the House voted 322 to 87 to override the veto, and the Senate did the same on Jan. 1 with a vote of 81 to 13, making the legislation law. Congress ability to muster the two-thirds majorities needed to defy Trump stems from the priority congressional leaders ascribe to the annual defense policy update, which has now been successfully enacted 60 years in a row. Among numerous other provisions bearing on science and technology, this years act lays groundwork for future efforts to bolster and secure the national security innovation base, and it establishes major national initiatives in artificial intelligence and microelectronics R&D and production. It also establishes government-wide disclosure requirements for science agency grantees, gives the Defense Department more input into the National Nuclear Security Administrations budget request, and adds new requirements to prepare for climate-related national security threats.

Winding down its activities in the final days of the Trump administration, the National Space Council released a planetary protection strategy last week for preventing potential biological cross-contamination during deep space exploration. The strategy is a step toward implementing an item of the National Space Policy released last month, which calls for developing national and international planetary protection guidelines. The strategy sets out six goals aimed at avoiding forward contamination of other planetary bodies and backward contamination of the Earth, taking into account issues arising from the growth of the commercial space industry. Among its action items, the strategy calls for developing a safe return approval framework for planetary samples within the next year. The National Space Council was established by the Trump administration and its future under the Biden administration remains undetermined. The councils executive secretary Scott Pace stepped down on Jan. 1, returning to his prior role as director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University.

The Snowmass summer study meeting, a key component of the U.S. particle physics communitys strategic planning process, has been postponed by one year to summer 2022. The Snowmass Steering Group announced the decision Dec. 23 after concerns about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the planning process were raised at last months High Energy Physics Advisory Panel meeting. Citing discussions with the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation, the steering group states it learned that some important scientific milestones will arrive later than anticipated and concluded a delay would enable the planning process to be fully informed by the anticipated progress in our field as those milestones are met over the coming year. The group also suggests the delay will enable people who have been particularly impacted by the pandemic to participate more fully in the process. A revised schedule for the process is expected to be released by the end of January and DOE has indicated it will push back the next Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel exercise to accommodate the new timeline.

On Jan. 4, the National Institute of Standards and Technology published proposed changes to regulations that implement the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, which grants patent rights to certain institutions for inventions they produce using federal funds. Among the most significant updates, NIST proposes to clarify that the governments authority to override such patents, known as march-in rights, cannot be used solely on the basis of price considerations. Though no agency has exercised the authority, some lawmakers and advocacy groups have periodically called for the National Institutes of Health to use march-in rights to lower the price of prescription drugs developed with NIH support, including former Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA), who is President-elect Bidens pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. However, NIH officials and the acts original sponsors, former Sens. Bob Dole (R-KS) and Birch Bayh (D-IN), have argued the authority only permits the government to override patents under specific circumstances, such as when the patent holder has failed to commercialize an invention.

On Dec. 31, President Trump extended through March 2021 two proclamations that together suspend the issuance of new green cards and various nonimmigrant visas. The nonimmigrant visa restrictions, first issued in June 2020, have been widely criticized by universities and businesses, in part for halting the H-1B program, which provides temporary visas to high-skilled workers. Implementation of the original proclamations H-1B visa freeze has been partially blocked by a district court in California since October 2020. President-elect Bidens transition team has not commented on whether he plans to reverse the order before its expiration.

The Department of Energy announced on Dec. 22 that it has selected Battelle Savannah River Alliance (BRSA) to manage Savannah River National Lab. Located at DOEs Savannah River Site in South Carolina, which was heavily contaminated by Cold War nuclear weapons production activities, the lab is overseen by DOEs Office of Environmental Management and focuses on R&D related to environmental remediation, nuclear waste management, nuclear nonproliferation, and renewable energy development. BRSA is a consortium that is led by Battelle, a nonprofit corporation that currently manages seven other DOE laboratories, and includes five university subcontractors: Clemson University, Georgia Tech, South Carolina State University, the University of Georgia, and the University of South Carolina. The five year base contract can be extended up to five years with an estimated value of $3.8 billion for the full period. The lab was previously managed by a consortium of companies under a broader contract covering the entire Savannah River Site.

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The Week of January 4, 2021 - FYI: Science Policy News