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Senate VA/HUD Appropriations Subcommittee Focuses
on NSF FY 02 Budget Request
June 6, 2001
On Wednesday June 6, 2001, the Senate VA/HUD Appropriations
Subcommittee convened a hearing on the NSF FY 02 Budget
Request. NSF Director Rita Colwell, National Science
Board Chair Eamon Kelly, and NSF Inspector General
Christine Boesz testified. Senator Barbara Mikulski,
wielding the gavel as the new Subcommittee Chair,
(D-MD) and Ranking Member Senator Christopher Bond
(R-MO) opened the session by affirming the bipartisan
spirit of the subcommittee and their intent to double
the NSF budget in five years. Both felt that the FY
02 request was inadequate, but cautioned that additional
funding would require increased attention to management
and oversight. This theme of accountability was also
evident by Boesz's appearance, the first time an NSF
Inspector General had been invited to testify at an
appropriations hearing.
During her testimony, Colwell detailed the $4.47 billion
FY 02 request-a 1.3% increase over last year. Kelly
stressed the importance of sound investments in science
and engineering for strengthening the American economy.
In the concluding testimony, Boesz noted that the
IG's office will be paying particular attention to
basic award administration, management of large infrastructure
projects, and cost sharing.
Mikulski started the questions session by criticizing
the decrease in funding for research and asking Colwell,
"Is this (budget) what you really wanted or what you
got?" Colwell responded that this is a transition
year budget and it provides increases in key areas,
such as graduate student stipends, mathematics research,
and the initiation of Math and Science Partnerships,
part of President Bush's K-12 education plan. As Mikulski
pressed on, Kelly added that the request substantially
underfunds research, but both he and Colwell were
dedicated to future budget increases. Mikulski was
also concerned that the Math and Science Partnerships
drew money away from other K-12 programs and was skeptical
"it would really make a difference." Colwell assured
her that the NSF would be implementing the best practices
from previous programs and that partnering higher
education with K-12 was a winning combination.
Bond's first comment was a call for clear-cut milestones
to track progress as the NSF budget increases in the
future. Colwell said advances in areas such as high-speed
terascale computing, plant genomics, understanding
the complexity of the environment, and nanotechnology
were of high priority. Kelly added that increasing
diversity in the science and engineering student population
and workforce was essential to the nation. Bond then
raised concern over the NSF merit review system, training
high tech workers and a lack of nuclear engineering
programs. He concluded by asserting that NSF should
not solely focus on the top research institutions
and criticized the flat funding for EPSCoR, Historically
Black Colleges and Universities, and Tribal Colleges
programs. Colwell replied that NSF supports many small
institutions, although Kelly noted that the current
budget does not make things easy. Bond responded that
"what the Administration has directed may be possible
for the legislature to undirect."
See also:
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