On May 2, 2006, the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee held a Science and Space Subcommittee hearing to address NSF’s FY2007 budget request, research priorities, and involvement in the President’s American Competitiveness Initiative.  Hearing witnesses were Arden Bement (NSF Director), Warren Washington (Chair, National Science Board), Alan Leshner (CEO, AAAS), and Jerome Odom (Executive Director, U. of South Carolina Foundations).  Subcommittee Chair Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) used the hearing as a forum in which she made clear her beliefs that NSF’s SBE sciences, while “interesting,” do not belong as NSF. 

Hutchison made her lack of support for at least one field, sociology, known at a 2005 hearing.  Her office was then educated by behavioral science advocates, and it seemed that the situation was resolved.  This new attack on our sciences stems from the new American Competitiveness Initiative, announced by the President during his latest State of the Union address.  This initiative, which we’ve been closely following and writing about in our e-newsletter, calls for a 10-year budget doubling at three agencies whose missions are linked in some way to the nation’s success in technology, research, and innovation.  NSF is one of these three agencies, which was initially very exciting for our sciences.  However, in the past weeks, it has become clear that some people intend for the extra funding to be dedicated solely to the physical and engineering sciences.  Luckily, Dr. Bement is not one of those people, and he has expressed an interest in including the SBE directorate in the budget doubling efforts.

Senator Hutchison, on the other hand, believes that the SBE sciences do NOT have a role in innovation and economic success.  She expressed this sentiment several times during the hearing, and although both Drs. Bement and Leshner defended our sciences, Hutchison remained unconvinced of the vital role that the social and behavioral sciences should play in the recent efforts towards increasing our competitiveness.  It should be noted that Hutchison did not target psychology, but instead focused her attention on sociology and political science.  Senator Sununu, however, followed up on Hutchison’s comments and did specifically mention psychology and neurosciences as research areas that should be handled by NIH. 

On May 16, Senator Hutchison proposed an amendment that would revise Section 307 of Senate Bill 2802, The American Innovation and Competitiveness Act.  The heart of her amendment was this passage: "The Director of the National Science Foundation shall ensure that the assessment of research awards and grant proposals submitted to the Foundation, and research activity initiated by the Foundation, include consideration of the degree to which such awards and activities contribute to the enhancement of the Nation's capabilities in the areas of physical science, technology, engineering, and mathematics." (Note the lack of language regarding behavioral, social, and biological sciences.) Senator Lautenberg (D-NJ), in response, proposed an amendment to delete the language in the Hutchison amendment. 

During the mark-up session of this bill, Hutchison and Lautenberg agreed to a modified amendment that included a change in the Hutchison wording noted above to say: "In addition to any other criteria, the Director of the National Science Foundation shall include consideration of the degree to which awards and research activities may assist in meeting critical national needs in innovation, competitiveness, the physical and natural sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics." This modified amendment also includes this language:  "Other research that underpins these areas or that enhances competitiveness or innovation in the United States shall be given priority..."  And finally, there is text stating "Nothing in this section shall be construed to restrict or bias the grant selection process against funding other areas of research deemed by the Foundation to be consistent with its mandate, nor to change the core mission of the Foundation." 
 

This modified amendment keeps the door open to all areas of science that the NSF deems relevant and important to fund. 

Webcasts and Documents
Here’s a link to the May 2 hearing website.  You can look at the official testimony submitted by the four witnesses and also view the hearing as a webcast.  If you watch the webcast, you will have to fast-forward it to the 12 minute and 20 second mark, at which point the hearing actually begins.
http://commerce.senate.gov/hearings/witnesslist.cfm?id=1866

Here’s an article that appeared in "Inside Higher Ed":
http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/05/03/nsf