As Republicans take control of the US House of Representatives, science could take a hit – despite a new Congressional measure to boost funding.

“There’s going to be a big fight,” says Michael Lubell of the American Physical Society in Washington DC. “The question is who blinks first.”

In one of its last votes before the holidays, Congress passed the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act. Contained in the act is a resolution to boost science funding over the next three years.

But with budget-minded Republicans now a majority in the House of Representatives, even maintaining science funding at existing levels could be a struggle.


The America COMPETES act calls for a 13 per cent boost in funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF) by 2013, with similar growth for other science agencies.

Stopgap spending

Though the White House is not expected to release its proposed 2012 budget until February, and despite pressure to reduce the budget deficit, President Barack Obama has called for investment in science and technology to be maintained.

Republicans – whose consent is needed to actually set new budgets for government agencies – have been calling for cuts to the overall federal budget, and it is not at all clear that science will survive unscathed, says Lubell.

In December, the incoming Republican majority in the House of Representatives selected the NSF as the first target for a project in which the electorate was asked to identify “wasteful spending that should be cut”.

Things could come to a head in March, when a stopgap spending measure expires, forcing Congress to vote anew on spending levels, says Lubell.

Although the funding boost suggested in the America COMPETES act is not assured, the act contains other elements that will go into effect right away. Among other things, it permits all federal agencies to set up cash prizes to spur innovation, a practice pioneered by NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).