House votes to hold most science spending to 2010 levels

Science : The three federal agencies that support the vast majority of academic research in the US—NSF, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Energy’s Office of Science—would receive no more money in 2011 than in 2010 under a spending bill that narrowly passed the US House of Representatives on Wednesday. The House’s vote would hold discretionary spending to 2010 levels and is $46 billion below what President Obama had requested for 2011. The House bill contains a few winners for the research community, however, including space science at NASA, the new Advanced Research Projects AgencyâEnergy (ARPAâE) at the Department of Energy, and competitive agriculture research. The Senate is working on a different version that would provide small increases for the three federal agencies that were overlooked in the House bill.