AIBS Public Policy Report, Volume 22, Issue 14, July 6, 2021
- New AIBS Report on Biological Sciences in the President’s 2022 Budget Request
- Scientific Societies Urge Congress to Act Immediately on Climate Change
- AIBS Endorses Statement in Support of Research Using Human Fetal Tissue
- House Passes Bill to Expand NSF’s Mission, Budget
- House Begins Work on FY 2022 Spending Bills
- Invitation: Phase 2 of Global Consultation on Digital Extended Specimens
- Meet with Your Lawmakers This Summer and Help Inform Science Policy
- Short Takes
- OSTP Requests Input on Improving Federal Scientific Integrity Policies
- Biomedical Engineer to Lead NSF’s Engineering Directorate
- Experts Sought for PFAS Review Panel
- EPA Seeks Nominations for CASAC Particulate Matter Panel
- From the Federal Register
The AIBS Public Policy Report is distributed broadly by email every two weeks. Any interested party may self-subscribe to receive these free reports by email.
With proper attribution to AIBS, all material from these reports may be reproduced or forwarded. AIBS staff appreciates receiving copies of materials used. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, please contact the AIBS Director of Public Policy, Jyotsna Pandey, at 202-628-1500 x 225.
New AIBS Report on Biological Sciences in the President’s 2022 Budget Request
A new report by the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) Public Policy Office analyzes the President’s fiscal year (FY) 2022 budget request for biological sciences research and education.
The report summarizes proposed budget and program changes relevant to the biological sciences. The document analyzes the budget proposals for several federal agencies and programs, including National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Standards and Technology, United States Geological Survey, Department of Energy Office of Science, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Environmental Protection Agency, among others.
Read the report.
Scientific Societies Urge Congress to Act Immediately on Climate Change
The American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) has joined nearly 50 scientific societies and organizations in calling on Congress to lead with science to understand and address the effects of climate change.
“To reduce the risk of the most severe impacts of climate change, anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions must be substantially reduced,” the groups note. “Additionally, it is imperative we invest heavily in adaptation and mitigation strategies to improve resilience, including substantial infrastructure upgrades. Rapid action is necessary to avoid potentially disastrous consequences for health, biodiversity, food security, water availability, and national security.”
Read the letter.
AIBS Endorses Statement in Support of Research Using Human Fetal Tissue
The American Institute of Biological Sciences has joined 98 other scientific and medical organizations in endorsing a statement in support of continued use of human fetal tissue (HFT) in research.
The statement reads, in part: “While some have argued that advances in recent years have reduced the need for HFT, it remains a critical resource for biomedical research. HFT has unique and valuable properties that often cannot be replaced by other cell types. Cells from HFT are more flexible and less specialized than cells from adult tissue and can be more readily grown in culture. This is part of the reason why HFT is used to generate vaccines and to study infectious diseases like Covid-19, Zika, HIV, and other viruses. HFT also remains necessary for ongoing research to understand human development and its impact on disease. It is needed to validate model systems to study the progression of diseases and evaluate new therapeutics. Finally, HFT is essential for validating alternative research approaches.”
House Passes Bill to Expand NSF’s Mission, Budget
On June 28, 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 345-67 to pass the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the Future Act (H.R. 2225), which would more than double NSF’s budget over five years and create a new Directorate for Science and Engineering Solutions (SES) to enable translational research.
Introduced by House Science Committee Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) and Ranking Member Frank Lucas (R-OK) along with Subcommittee on Research and Technology Chairwoman Haley Stevens (D-MI) and Ranking Member Michael Waltz (R-FL), the legislation would increase NSF’s current annual budget from $8.5 billion to $17.9 billion in FY 2026, while the annual authorization for the new Directorate would increase from $1 billion in FY 2022 to $3.5 billion by FY 2026. Several scientific groups, including AIBS, have endorsed the measure.
Along with the NSF reauthorization bill, the House also passed the Department of Energy (DOE) Science for the Future Act (H.R. 3593), which would increase the authorized annual budget for the DOE Office of Science by 63 percent to $11.1 billion over the next five years. The science agency was funded at $7 billion in FY 2021.
Meanwhile, the Senate passed a broader authorization bill on June 8—the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (S. 1260), formerly referred to as the Endless Frontier Act. The Senate bill would authorize $52 billion for NSF’s existing activities, $29 billion for the new technology directorate, and $17 billion for DOE national labs over five years.
The competing authorization bills approved by the House and Senate will now need to be reconciled, a process that could potentially take several months. Even after a final reconciled bill is enacted into law, appropriators can decide to dole out less funding than the levels that are eventually authorized.
House Begins Work on FY 2022 Spending Bills
The House Appropriations Committee has approved topline fiscal year (FY) 2022 allocations to divide $1.5 trillion in discretionary spending between the twelve annual spending bills. The allocations are largely in alignment with the budget proposed by President Biden.
Overall, nondefense discretionary spending would increase by 16 percent, while defense spending would see a 2 percent increase. According to House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), the proposed increases would reverse “decades of disinvestment and devastation” for several domestic programs and would allow agencies to “confront the climate crisis with actions across the whole of government.”
The allocation for the Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS) Appropriations bill, which includes funding for the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, would increase by $9.5 billion compared to FY 2021 to $81 billion. The Energy and Water Development spending bill, which provides funding for the Department of Energy, would receive $53 billion (+$3.4 billion). The Labor-Health and Human Services-Education spending bill, which funds the National Institutes of Health, would get $237 billion (+$54 billion).
The Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies spending bill, the text for which was released by the Appropriations Committee on June 27, would grow by $6.2 billion to $43 billion. The bill would provide the Department of the Interior with a $2.3 billion funding boost in FY 2022. Overall, the Department would receive $15.6 billion, $240 million below the amount proposed by President Biden. Specific allocations in the bill are as follows:
- $1.6 billion for the U.S. Geological Survey, an increase of $327 million above FY 2021 and equal to the President’s budget request.
- $3.5 billion for National Park Service, an increase of $324 million above FY 2021 and $28 million below the President’s budget request.
- $1.9 billion for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, an increase of $301 million above the FY 2021 enacted level and $32 million below the budget request. The Ecological Services account would get $315 million (+$45.5 million), $17 million below the President’s budget request.
- $1.6 billion for the Bureau of Land Management, $285 million above FY 2021 and $26 million below the President’s budget request.
- $11.34 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), an increase of $2 billion above the FY 2021 enacted level and $111 million above the President’s budget request.
The FY 2022 spending bill for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies would receive an overall allocation of $26.5 billion (+$2.6 billion), of which $3.4 billion (+$321 million) would be targeted to agricultural research programs. The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) would receive $1.8 billion, $236 million above FY 2021 and $131 below the President’s request. The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) would get $1.6 billion, $85 million above FY 2021 and $301 million below the budget request. The Agriculture and Food Research Initiative is slated to receive $450 million, $15 million more than last year and $250 million less than the President’s request.
The House Appropriations Committee has now advanced the Interior-Environment and Agriculture spending bills, along with five other spending bills, namely the ones for State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs; Financial Services and General Government; Legislative Branch; Homeland Security; and Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies. The CJS appropriations bill, the text for which has not yet been released, is scheduled to be marked up by the subcommittee on July 12 and by the full appropriations panel on July 15.
Invitation: Phase 2 of Global Consultation on Digital Extended Specimens
The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), under the umbrella of the alliance for biodiversity knowledge, is currently convening a follow up to the consultation that was held in February and March to converge the ideas behind two related but distinct concepts: the Digital Specimen, proposed by the Europe-based Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo), and the Extended Specimen, which emerged from the Biological Collections Network (BCoN). Phase 2 will focus on capturing the infrastructure capabilities needed to support Digital Extended Specimens. AIBS and its member organizations, Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections, iDigBio, and Natural Science Collections Alliance, contributed to the planning of this consultation.
Similar to the first phase, a landing page for the consultation has been created and is now live on the GBIF community forum.
Consultation Format:
Phase 2 of the virtual global consultation involves two components:
- Two opening webinar sessions were held on June 15 to introduce the topics. Recordings from both sessions are now available.
- An open, facilitated online consultation running between June 15 and July 27, 2021, consisting of multiple online discussion threads hosted on the GBIF community forum.
Who should participate?
Anyone with an interest in natural history collections can join the consultation as a contributor at any time and ensure that they receive regular updates on the process. We want to hear from you, especially if you:
- Are a collections professional
- Work with living, preserved, or geological specimens
- Work for a data provider or aggregator
- Participate in collections data management or data publishing
- Are a researcher or end-user of collections data, including graduate students, postdocs, and faculty
- Are a bioinformatician or data scientist
- Work for a standards organization
- Work for a technology vendor or CMS developer
- Work as an educator
- Work for a publisher or journal
- Possess expertise on legal, regulatory or ethical issues related to data management
Phase 2 Consultation Topics:
- Well-founded access points and data cyberinfrastructure alignment
- Persistent identifier scheme(s)
- Meeting legal, regulatory, ethical, and sensitive data obligations
- Workforce capacity development and inclusion
- Transactional mechanisms and provenance
- Partnerships to collaborate more effectively
The consultation aims to expand participation in the process, build support for further collaboration, identify key use cases, and develop an initial roadmap for community adoption and implementation. To read more about the background for this consultation click here.
Meet with Your Lawmakers This Summer and Help Inform Science Policy
The American Institute of Biological Sciences is pleased to announce that registration is now open for the 2021 Biological Sciences Congressional District Visits event.
Now in its 12th year, this national initiative is an opportunity for biologists across the country to meet with their federal or state elected officials to showcase the people, facilities, and equipment that are required to support and conduct scientific research. This initiative helps to put a face on science and to remind lawmakers that science is happening in their district and state.
The Biological Sciences Congressional District Visits event enables scientists, graduate students, representatives of research facilities, and people affiliated with scientific collections to meet with their federal or state elected officials without traveling to Washington, DC. Participating scientists can meet with their elected officials at the local district office, virtually, or may invite them to visit their research facility.
“It was eye-opening to experience firsthand the process of working with a Congressman's staff to develop this type of event, and it was pleasing to see how engaged our federal representatives are and how willing they can be to take the time for this sort of experience.”
- Dr. Joseph Ross, Associate Professor of Biology, California State University at Fresno
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we could not organize this event in 2020, but we will resume the event this summer and fall with virtual as well as in-person meetings and tours where feasible. AIBS will schedule participants’ meetings with lawmakers and will prepare participants through online training and one-on-one support. Meetings will take place mid-July through October, depending on the participant’s schedule and their lawmaker’s availability.
This event is made possible by the American Institute of Biological Sciences, with the support of event sponsors American Society of Plant Taxonomists, Botanical Society of America, Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, Helminthological Society of Washington, Natural Science Collections Alliance, Organization of Biological Field Stations, and Society for the Study of Evolution.
Registration for participation is free, but required and closes on July 14, 2021. To learn more and register, visit io.aibs.org/cdv.
Short Takes
- The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSPT) has issued a request for information to help improve the effectiveness of federal scientific integrity policies. Specifically, the OSTP seeks stakeholder input on the effectiveness of current federal scientific integrity policies and needed areas of improvement, practices agencies could adopt to improve scientific integrity, and other concerns that federal scientific integrity policies should address. Comments will be accepted until July 28, 2021.
- The National Science Foundation (NSF) has named Dr. Susan S. Margulies, a biomedical engineer, to lead the Directorate for Engineering, which supports fundamental research in emerging and frontier basic research areas. Dr. Margulies serves as professor and chair of the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, housed jointly at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University. She has received several awards and honors from the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the Biomedical Engineering Society and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine. Margulies has a bachelor's degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton University and master's and doctoral degrees in bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
- The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science Advisory Board (SAB) is soliciting nominations of scientific experts to serve on a panel to review draft EPA documents that are being developed to support EPA's National Primary Drinking Water Rulemaking for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Nominations should be submitted by July 21, 2021. Learn more.
- The Environmental Protection Agency is soliciting nominations for experts to serve on the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) Particulate Matter (PM) Panel. The panel will provide advice through the chartered CASAC on updates to the science and policy assessments supporting the agency's reconsideration of the December 2020 decision to retain the PM National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). Deadline to submit nominations is July 16, 2021.
From the Federal Register
The following items appeared in the Federal Register from June 21 to July 2, 2021.
Commerce
Environmental Protection Agency
Executive Office of the President
Health and Human Services
Interior
The American Institute of Biological Sciences is a non-profit 501(c)3 public charity organization that advances the biological sciences for the benefit of science and society. AIBS works with like-minded organizations, funding agencies, and political entities to promote the use of science to inform decision-making. The organization does this by providing peer-reviewed or vetted information about the biology field and profession and by catalyzing action through building the capacity and the leadership of the community to address matters of common concern.
Founded in 1947 as a part of the National Academy of Sciences, AIBS became an independent, member-governed organization in the 1950s. Today, AIBS has over 100 member organizations and has a Public Policy Office in Washington, DC. Its staff members work to achieve its mission by publishing the peer-reviewed journal BioScience, by providing scientific peer-review and advisory services to government agencies and other clients, and by collaborating with scientific organizations to advance public policy, education, and the public understanding of science.
Website: www.aibs.org.
|
