House science committee passes controversial science policy bill
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.027966
Science : Yesterday the Science, Space, and Technology Committee of the US House of Representatives passed a controversial bill setting policy for such organizations as NSF and NIST. Called the Frontiers in Innovation, Research, Science, and Technology (FIRST) Act, the bill will now move on to a vote in the full House. The bill had faced strong opposition by Democrats, who proposed 13 amendments to fix what the party considered to be serious flaws, including cuts to social and behavioral sciences and alterations to NSF’s grant-making processes. However, all 13 amendments were rejected by the Republican majority. In a strategic move, Democrats withdrew one amendment, which would have raised NSF’s spending limit for 2015; they hope to tackle that issue with the upcoming appropriations bill already before the House.
