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Bills in Brief: US Science & Technology Policy News |
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bridges vol. 32, December 2011 / Bills in Brief US Science & Technology Policy News
 This bridges Bills in Brief is brought to you, in part, by the Science and Technology in Congress Newsletter, a publication of the AAAS Office of Government Relations, covering the latest science-related news on Capitol Hill.
- Science for the Super Committee
With the November 23 deadline past, the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (generally known as the "Super Committee") has been conducting hearings as it develops its plans for reducing the federal deficit by $1.5 trillion over ten years. In late October it received testimony from Douglas Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office, on the estimated cuts to defense and non-defense discretionary spending over ten years that would result from a sequestration. According to Elmendorf, if automatic procedures to cut spending were triggered by a sequestration, funding for defense would decrease by a total of $110 billion (or 16 percent), and non-defense spending would fall $99 billion (or 15 percent).
Read the full story here.
- House Committee Passes Bill Requiring Disclosure of Peer Reviewers
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has passed a bill requiring the disclosure of peer reviewers. H.R. 3433, the “Grant Reform and New Transparency Act of 2011” or the GRANT Act was introduced by Rep. James Lankford (R-OK) on November 16 and was passed by the committee the next day. Lankford is the chairman of the Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and Procurement Reform. Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) is an original cosponsor.
Read the full story by Richard M. Jones at FYI: The AIP Bulletin of Science Policy News.
- Senate Passes Medical Isotope Production Bill
Approximately 41,000 medical diagnostic imaging procedures are performed every day in the United States using a radioisotope produced by reactors in Canada and the Netherlands. Recent Senate passage of a bill has moved the US a step closer to the domestic production of this vital material.
On November 17 the Senate quickly passed S. 99, The American Medical Isotopes Production Act of 2011. The House approved a similar measure two years ago. S. 99 requires the Secretary of Energy to “establish a technology-neutral program … to evaluate and support projects for the production in the United States, without the use of highly enriched uranium, of significant quantities of molybdenum-99 for medical purposes.”
Read the full story by Richard M. Jones at FYI: The AIP Bulletin of Science Policy News.
- PCAST Briefed on National Nanotechnology Initiative
Members of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology were briefed last month on the implementation of the council’s recommendations regarding the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI). Federal agencies participating in the NNI, now in its tenth year, expend about $2 billion per year, having spent a cumulative $14 billion on nanotechnology R&D since its inception.
Read the full story by Richard M. Jones at FYI: The AIP Bulletin of Science Policy News.
- Minibus Moves on Down the Road
On November 1, the Senate voted 69–30 to approve a "minibus" package (H.R. 2112) that combined three appropriation bills for FY 2012: Agriculture (H.R.2112), Commerce, Justice, Science (S. 1572), and Transportation (S. 1596). On November 18 the bill was signed into public law.
Read the original story here.
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