A space to explore, share and shape the issues facing social and behavioral scientists
Legislation that sets policy for the National Science Foundation has been signed by President Obama. The bill no longer includes funding restrictions on social science but does include language that has been used in the past to attack the disciplines.
UPDATED WITH HOUSE PASSAGE: A bill that was the latest version of the beloved America COMPETES — but which no longer authorizes funding for key federal science research agencies — looks likely to land on the president’s desk. The new version has lost a particularly toxic aspect of earlier versions.
Options for changing legislation that would almost halve social science funding from the National Science Foundation are narrowing.
The National science Foundation sees a number of contradictions in the funding reauthorization bill known as America COMPETES that it reckons would reduce the nation’s competitiveness.
The latest re-authorization of the America COMPETES bill that dramatically reduces funding for social science (and geoscience) may very well pass Congress. Will the president be willing to veto an important bill that contains these unwelcome provisions?
Past attempts by American policymakers to degrade the role of social science in the nation’s research and educational infrastructure highlight the necessity of having champions ready to joust in the tourneys on Capitol Hill.
The social and behavioral component of the National Science Foundation’s budget is a small part of the total but of paramount importance to the discipline’s researchers, a relationship brought home as Congress gets ready to discuss funding.
With a little more wiggle room in the U.S. budget this year, proponents of strong federal support for R&D and higher education are trying to get their message out about America’s lagging innovation. Social science and the STEM fields are making common cause in the campaign.
Two pieces of upcoming legislation, the Frontiers in Research, Science, and Technology bill and American COMPETES, could include some unwelcome news for social and behavioral science if certain key legislators get their way.
