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AAES FAST FACTS
May 17, 2002
May 17, 2002
May 17, 2002
Allison Salyer, editor asalyer@aaes.org
WASHINGTON UPDATE
The House of Representatives has embraced a Republican plan that would steer more poor Americans into jobs and de-emphasize education as a means to help people out of poverty. The legislation contains every major idea the GOP has advanced this year for revising the welfare system. It would subsidize state programs that encourage marriage and premarital sexual abstinence: continue to deny welfare to legal immigrants: and give governors substantial new powers to redesign welfare, food stamps, housing and other anti-poverty programs. Approved on a 229-197 vote that closely tracked party lines, the House bill essentially stakes out a negotiating position with the Senate for President Bush, who has defined welfare as one of his paramount domestic issues. In the Senate, which has yet to vote on welfare provisions, the two proposals introduced so far differ from Republican thinking in many respects, suggesting an eventual compromise between the two chambers may prove difficult. Additional information may be found at www.washingtonpost.com
During its third public meeting, the Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry voted to issue its third interim report to address issues of immediate importance to the industry. The Commission voted to include several near-term recommendations regarding industrial base, space and workforce issues. The Commission received testimony from industry and government representatives, as well as educators and students. Additional information may be found at www.aerospacecommission.gov
Less than three weeks after the Army Corps of Engineers vowed to suspend about 150 of its congressionally approved water projects in response to criticism of the agencyís economic analyses, the Corps has already cleared more than 100 of them to proceed. The Corps has always been popular with members of Congress, who love to steer water projects to their districts. Additional information may be found at www.washingtonpost.com
Association News
AIChE
AIChE is hosting "Business Growth through Innovation" on May 19-21 at the La Posada Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The conference will explore how to sustain growth by developing new products quicker and more efficiently and examine new pathways for innovation and how to pick the right trail and speed down it to the end.
Topical Workshops will include:
- sparking and driving innovation
- bringing innovation to the marketplace
- organizing for innovation and rewarding the innovators
Dr. Michael Fitzpatrick, President and COO of Rohm and Haas, will kick off the conference with a keynote address on Sunday.
Please join us for this promising learning and networking event. You can learn more about the conference at: www.aiche.org/management
AIChE with ACC, ACS, ASME, CCR, IEEE, SRA and SOCMA are sponsoring a congressional briefing "Early Warning: Developing Sensors for US National Security" on Monday, May 20th from 12-1:30 in 2325 Rayburn House Office Building.
The detection of harmful chemical and biological agents and diseases is the first and most critical step for rapid response to a terrorist attack. However, significant scientific and technical challenges must be overcome before accurate, real-time, and affordable sensor devices can be developed and deployed. Learn about current, cutting-edge sensor technologies, and hear how university, government, private, and military scientists are working to create even more effective sensors to address the security needs of our nation.
Frank Fernandez, Director of Institute Technology Initiatives and Steven Institute of Technology will moderate the session. Speakers include Commander Phil Smith, Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, United States Navy; Alan Sylwester, Sandia National Laboratory and MicroChemLab Technologies; and Eddie Crow, Pennsylvania State Applied Research Laboratory.
RSVP at 202-872-8725 or science_congress@acs.org to attend.
AIChE cosponsored the "National Nanotechnology Initiative Conference: From Vision Towards Commercialization" in Washington, DC on April 29 ñ May 1st. The conference provided a comprehensive and in-depth look at the National Nanotechnology Initiative. The focus of this conference was to look at what areas are being funded and why, what the results of research have been to-date, and what avenues appear to hold commercial promise. Mihail Roco, Senior Advisor, NSF provided the keynote address. Sessions covered a variety of topics including research initiatives at number of federal NASA, DOE, DOD, NIH, Naval Research Laboratory, NIST, EPA, and universities; permits and licenses; and potential future needs pertaining to nanotechnology.
NSPE
The House passed H.R. 3964 from House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee that restores $4.4 billion to the Highway Trust Fund -- a fund that had taken a hit in the administration's FY '03 spending request. The bill passed by a 410-5 vote. Negotiations between committee members and House appropriators resulted in an agreement to include the $4.4 billion as part of the $29.1 billion FY '02 emergency supplemental. The appropriators left in place the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century's Revenue Aligned Budget Authority formula. In return, the appropriators were able to keep in place some $124 million for 49 highway project earmarks that they've funded in previous spending bills. NSPE strongly supported the T&I bill and urged the appropriators to keep the RABA formula.
Members of the Senate Republican High Tech Task Force (HTTF) urged a subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee to increase funding for the Math and Science Partnerships program. The Mathematics and Science Partnerships program was created in the "No Child Left Behind Act" to fund merit-based partnership programs designed to address the needs of local science and mathematics educators, up to an authorized level of $450 million. The President's budget only requested $12.5 million In their letter to the chairman and ranking member of the Labor-HHS-Education appropriation subcommittee, the Senators requested that the program be funded at as high a level as possible to fulfill its promise. High Tech Task Force member Senator Susan Collins (ME) spearheaded the letter, which was signed by HTTF Members Senators Allen, Wayne Allard (CO), Conrad Burns(MT), Gordon Smith (OR) and Jeff Sessions (AL), as well as Republican Senators Bill Frist (TN), Tim Hutchinson (AR), Pat Roberts (KS), Olympia Snowe (ME) and Fred Thompson (TN). NSPE has been actively lobbying an increase in the M&S Partnerships appropriation.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Comm. began marking up S 1961, The Water Investment Act, which authorizes $35 billion in increased funding for the wastewater and drinking water SRFs. NSPE has been lobbying actively for an increase in water infrastructure funding. However the Committee's work to complete the bill was impeded by a substantial rewrite introduced only the day before (the Chairman's mark) which caused substantial partisan wrangling over the allocation formula to the states and the conditions under which grants to the states were awarded. More than 70 amendments were submitted by members of the committee, and only a few were decided, before the committee recessed.
ASME
COUNCIL ON PUBLIC AFFAIRS HOSTS PUBLIC AFFAIRS LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE
The ASME Council on Public Affairs (CPA) hosted its biennial Public Affairs Leadership Conference on May 5-7, 2002 at the Hilton Alexandria Old Town in Alexandria, VA. The conference provided training for over 150 members interested in ASME Public Affairs programs. Workshops were held on government relations, working with the news media, diversity in engineering and ASME, and intellectual property.
At the Public Affairs Awards dinner, the Honorable Richard Thornburgh, former Governor of Pennsylvania and Attorney General of the United States, delivered the Roy V. Wright lecture. The Presidentís award was given to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Dr. Arden Bement, Director of NIST, accepted the Award, and acknowledged the Instituteís long-standing relationship with ASME.
A Congressional noontime briefing and a public policy roundtable were held during the conference. Featured on the panel, of the briefing entitled, ìElectric Power Deregulation: Lessons Learned and New Challenges,î were: Kurt Yeager, President and Chief Executive Officer, Electric Power Research Institute; David Owens, Vice President, Edison Electric Institute; and, Alice Fernandez, Director, Tariffs and Rates Division East, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The public policy roundtable focused on many issues of importance to ASME members, including federal research and development (R&D), K-12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), energy policy, and standards. Richard Bendis, President and CEO of Innovation Philadelphia, served as moderator as participants heard from representatives from the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House, the Senate Energy Committee, the Department of Education, the House Committee on Science, the Maryland Technology Development Corporation, and NIST.
The conference concluded with over 150 visits to Senate and House offices by ASME members. During their meetings, members stressed the importance of a balanced federal R&D portfolio, especially mentioning the flat or declining support for the physical sciences and engineering. Members also highlighted the poor state of math and science education in schools, and ask their members to support full funding of the Department of Education Math and Science Partnerships.
For further information about the speaker presentations, go to www.asme.org/gric/palc or contact Reese Meisinger at meisingerr@asme.org.
AEROSPACE DIVISION ENDORSES LEGISLATION TO INCREASE FUNDING FOR AERONAUTICS R&D
ASME's Aerospace Division recently sent a letter to Rep. John Larson (D-CT) endorsing legislation he introduced to increase funding for aeronautics research and development (R&D). The bill, H.R.4653, the Aeronautics Research and Development Revitalization Act of 2002, would increase funding for NASA's aeronautics R&D budget to $1.15 billion, and to $550 million for the FAA by the year 2007. Initiatives proposed in the bill would improve technologies to create aircraft with greater fuel efficiency, lower emissions, and fund rotorcraft R&D and supersonic transport. Additionally, the bill establishes a focal point for aeronautics R&D within NASA by re-establishing an Office of Aeronautics reporting directly to the NASA Administrator.
Over the last decade, funding for NASA's aeronautics research and technology program has fallen by approximately 50%. The Administration's Fiscal Year 2003 budget request of $541.4M for aeronautics is a reduction of $58M from FY 2002 appropriated funding.
In recent years, the Aerospace Division has expressed concerns that reducing federal funding for aviation research and technology will jeopardize the nation's leadership in providing the technologies needed to develop the next generation aircraft, improve aviation safety and security, and attracting the next generation of aerospace scientists and engineers.
The letter (position statement #02-21) is available to review on ASME's Government Relations website at www.asme.org/gric/ps/2002/02-21.html Additional information about ASME's Aerospace Division is available online at
For more information about this issue, contact Kathryn Holmes at holmesk@asme.org
IEEE-USA
IEEE-USA's Committee on Communications and Information Policy has announced a workshop on U.S. National Policy for Accelerating Broadband Deployment that will evaluate gigabit ethernet over fiber as a broadband option, as well as other broadband technologies. The Workshop will be held on June 17-18 at the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC. To register or for additional information, go to: www.ieeeusa.org/conferences/broadband
On May 15, IEEE-USA wrote to Senate Commerce Committee members urging passage of the Cyber Security Research and Development Act (S.2182), which was successfully report on May 17. See: www.ieeeusa.org/forum/POLICY/02may15.html
On May 7, IEEE-USA issued a statement endorsing the National Science Foundation Authorization Act of 2002 (H.R. 4664) at a House Science Committee press conference organized for its introduction. The bill was favorably reported by the House Science Research Subcommittee on May 9. See: www.ieeeusa.org/releases/2002/050802pr.html
In an April 30 speech to the National Academies' annual meeting, Secretary of State Colin Powell recognized IEEE-USA, the American Institute of Physics and the American Association for the Advancement of Science for efforts to expand the State Department's S&T expertise through Fellowships. See: www4.nationalacademies.org/nas/nashome.nsf/urllinks/NAS-59PR38
On April 26, IEEE-USA filed comments with the Department of Health and Human Services regarding proposed modifications to the HHS Standards for " Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information." IEEE-USA commented in opposition to a proposed rule that would allow health care providers to share confidential medical records without patient consent. See: www.ieeeusa.org/forum/POLICY/02april26.html