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Fast Facts |
AAES FAST FACTS
June 14, 2002
June 14, 2002
June 14, 2002
Allison Salyer, editor
asalyer@aaes.org
WASHINGTON UPDATE
The full House passed a Science Committee bill, which would put the National Science Foundation on track to double its budge in five years. H.R. 4664, the ìInvesting in America's Future Act,' authorizes a 15% increase for NSF's budget for each of the next three years, and at the same time, imposes strict, new management requirements to ensure that NSF continues to use taxpayer money wisely. The bill passed by a vote of 397 to 25. Additional information may be found at www.house.gov/science
Two space walking astronauts performed surgery on the international space station's $600 million robot arm this week, replacing one of its seven joints to fix what amounted to a broken wrist. The space station's robot arm was revived without incident, and its new wrist joint is ready to support continued space station assembly. More tests are planned, but initial results are positive. Additional information may be found at www.washingtonpost.com
Prospects for legislation to ban the cloning of human cells, one of the most contentious issues facing Congress and the White House, dimmed considerably this week as negotiations over ground rules for debate collapsed in the Senate. The Senate had planned to begin consideration of rival bills, including one that would ban all forms of human embryonic cloning and another that would forbid cloning to create new humans but allow it for medical research. The impasse made it unclear how, or even whether the Senate would resolve the issue. Additional information may be found at www.washingtonpost.com
The House Energy and Commerce Committee approved a measure strengthening the national's pipeline safety regulations. The legislation would direct the Secretary of Transportation to set new safety and education standards for fuel pipelines; assess pipelines' vulnerability to terrorist attacks; require more disclosure of pipeline locations and operations; and allow for expedited review of environmental concerns for pipeline repairs. Additional information may be found at http://energycommerce.house.gov
President Bush has unveiled a plan to create the Department of Homeland Security, a Cabinet level Department that will basically combine many of the domestic security responsibilities that are scattered across 22 federal agencies. Bush's plan would roll Secret Service, Customs, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Transportation Security Administration and dozens of others into a single new Department of Homeland Security to be run by a Cabinet Secretary. The plan has received mainly positive support from Congress, which has scheduled hearings on the formation of the new Department over the next few weeks. Additional information may be found at www.time.com
Association News
NSPE
Leaders of the House Energy & Commerce Committee have agreed on draft pipeline safety legislation that would strengthen the version of the bill approved by the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee. Committee leaders have agreed to substantially amend H.R. 3609 to include stiffer civil penalties for pipeline safety violations, and stronger whistleblower protections and operator qualification provisions. The amendment would substantially change the bill's environmental streamlining provisions to make it more acceptable to opponents and contain right-to-know provisions that would require pipeline companies to disclose certain information about their operations. The bill's timeline for requiring gas pipeline inspections is expected to remain the same, with pipeline operators directed to conduct an initial inspection within ten years of a DOT rulemaking and re-inspections every seven years. NSPE is working to get language in the bill that would require the involvement of professional engineers in the inspection process.
The House passed a bill, which would double the National Science Foundation (NSF) budget in five years. The Investing in America's Future Act (H.R. 4664) authorizes a 15 percent increase for NSF's budget for each of the next three years, and at the same time, imposes strict new management requirements to ensure that NSF continues to use taxpayer money wisely. The bill passed by a vote of 397 to 25. The legislation significantly boosts research in areas such as information technology and nanotechnology and would bolster funding for science, technology, engineering and mathematics education. Economists estimate that innovation and the application of new technology have generated at least half of the phenomenal growth in America's gross domestic product since World War II. NSPE strongly supports the bill, as well as the doubling of funding for research for engineering and the physical sciences.
The Senate Environment & Public Works Committee voted to authorize $5.7 billion more for the FY03 federal highway program than requested by the president and $1.3 billion more than approved by the House. The legislation (S. 1917) would authorize the obligation limit at $28.9 billion. The committee adopted by voice vote an amendment introduced by Senators Max Baucus (D-MT) and John Warner (R-VA) that would place the entire $28.9 billion behind the budgetary firewall that requires money coming into the Highway Trust Fund to be spent on highway projects. NSPE has actively supported restoring $4.4 billion in highway funding for FY03, the level approved earlier by the House.
The Senate Energy & Natural Resources panel voted 13-10 to approve a resolution (S.J. Res. 34) that would authorize DOE to continue work on its proposal to bury the nation's spent nuclear fuel beneath Nevada's Yucca Mountain. All but one of the committee's 11 Republicans, Ben Nighthorse Campbell (CO), voted for the measure. Three Democrats joined the GOP in approving it, including Energy & Natural Resources Chair Jeff Bingaman (NM), Bob Graham (FL) and Mary Landrieu (LA). Bingaman said that voting against the resolution would ìstop the program in its tracks' and leave nuclear waste spread throughout the country ìwith no alternative strategy waiting in the wings and little chance of putting together a political consensus to find a new strategy in the foreseeable future.' NSPE urged all 100 Senators by letter to vote in favor of the resolution when it comes to the floor. The House easily overrode Guinn's veto last month by a 306-117 margin.
The House passed HR 2941, The Brownfields Redevelopment Enhancement Act, which amends the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 to authorize the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to make grants to eligible communities to assist in the revitalization and cleanup of brownfield sites. The bill would authorize the HUD program through 2007. The bill also requires HUD to consider what other federal money a community has received and whether it has been used to encourage private developers to clean up brownfields. NSPE strongly supports brownfields redevelopment and a negligence liability standard for engineers in the design and construction of brownfields projects.
President Bush's remark to a farm group has helped energize an effort to include the massive new subsidy in a comprehensive energy bill that congressional negotiators hope to produce this summer. ìFor the good of the economy and for economic security, [lawmakers] need to get me an energy bill...that promotes renewable sources of energy, such as ethanol and biodiesel,' The remarks were Bush's strongest defense of a plan to triple U.S. production of ethanol-based fuels since the Senate added a landmark ethanol provision to its nearly 1,000-page energy bill in April. Before Bush made his remarks, key lawmakers said the outlook for the ethanol provision - which would require refineries to produce 5 billion gallons of corn-grown ethanol fuel within a decade - depended on how strongly the White House lobbied for it. NSPE is concerned about the impact of increased use of ethanol on the Highway Trust Fund, because motor fuels containing ethanol are taxed at a lower rate than other fuels.
AIChE
On Tuesday, June 4th, AIChE sent out an alert to its Catalyst members to send letters supporting H.R. 4664, the "Investing in America's Future Act," to their congressional representative. The House passed this Science Committee bill on Thursday, June 6th, which will put the National Science Foundation on track to double its budget in five years, by initially authorizing a 15% budget increase each year for the next three year. The bill also contains language to ensure that the money is managed by NSF impose strict management requirements.
AIChE provided comments to the Presidential Council on Science and Technology meeting on Wednesday, June 12 at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel. AIChE's Center for Chemical Process Safety commented on the science and technology of combating terrorism, and the Institute's Center for Waste Reduction Technology commented on policies and technologies to promote energy efficiency.
AIChE Government Relations Chair, Dale Keairns, submitted letters to the chairman and ranking members of the House Subcommittee on Environment & Hazardous Materials this week. The letters were in response to the recent hearing on MTBE and its future as part of the Clean Air Act's Oxygenated Fuels program. Keairns stated, "AIChE supports the use of emissions performance standards, as this provides refiners maximum flexibility in supplying fuel to meet air quality goals." A copy of AIChE's MTBE policy paper (www.aiche.org/government/pdfdocs/mbte.pdf ) was attached to the letter, which also urged a full life-cycle analysis before jumping from one national fuel standard to another.
ASME
DOD TASK FORCE CHAIR TESTIFIES BEFORE SENATE APPROPRIATIONS DEFENSE SUBCOMMITTEE
In testimony before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense this week, Dr. John Leland, Chair of ASME's Department of Defense (DOD) Task Force of the Inter-Council Committee on Federal Research and Development (ICCFRD), emphasized the importance of the Science and Technology (S&T) programs at the DOD. "As a result of declining support for defense-related research and development for much of the past decade, the defense industry has had great difficulty in attracting and retaining the best-of-the-best engineering and scientific talents of this nation," Leland noted. He applauded Subcommittee members who have promoted the continued strengthening of DOD's S&T programs and encouraged their continued support.
The DOD Task Force supported the findings and recommendations of the Defense Science Board Task Force, the Quadrennial Defense Review, and the Commission on the Future of the U.S Aerospace Industry, and endorsed the allocation of 3 percent of the total DOD budget, or $11 billion in FY03 for DOD S&T programs.
In concluding his remarks, Leland recognized the critical role DOD S&T plays in ensuring the future national security of the United States stating, "Investment in DOD S&T programs produced the scientific and engineering research underlying today's preeminent U.S. military forces. As varied and unpredictable threats to America develop in the coming years, this technological superiority will become an increasing national security imperative."
Dr. Leland's statement can be found on ASME's Government Relations website at: www.asme.org/gric/ps/2002/02-25.html For additional information, please contact Kathryn Holmes, Government Relations Representative at holmesk@asme.org
AEROSPACE DIVISION JOINS NINE ENGINEERING AND AEROSPACE GROUPS IN ENDORSING AERONAUTICS LEGISLATION
ASME's Aerospace Division recently joined nine other engineering and aerospace groups to endorse legislation introduced by Rep. John Larson (D-CT) to increase funding for Aeronautics R&D. The bill, H.R.4653, the Aeronautics Research and Development Revitalization Act of 2002, would increase funding for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) aeronautics R&D budget to $1.15 billion, and to $550 million for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) by the year 2007.
In recent years, the Aerospace Division has joined with an Aviation Coalition to express 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 attract the next generation of aerospace scientists and engineers.
Over the last decade, funding for NASA's aeronautics research and development (R&D) program has fallen by approximately fifty percent, and that trend is continuing. The Administration's Fiscal Year 2003 (FY 2003) budget request of $541.4M for aeronautics is a reduction of $58M from FY 2002 appropriated funding.
In their letter, the Aviation Coalition strongly supported Rep. Larson's efforts to "counter the dramatic decline in U.S. research and development spending in aeronautics." The Coalition also expressed their support for NASA's "Aeronautics Blueprint-Toward a Bold New Era of Aviation," stating, "we believe such a program is vital to U.S. Aviation and a necessary response to accelerated research and development by the European Union and other global competitors."
The letter can be found on the ASME Government Relations web site at: www.asme.org/gric/ps/2002/02.24.html Additional information about ASME's Aerospace Division is available online at www.asme.org/divisions/aerospace/ . For additional information, please contact Kathryn Holmes, Government Relations Representative at holmesk@asme.org
IEEE
On June 11, Dr. Allan Schell testified on behalf of IEEE-USA and the Coalition for National Security Research before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense in support of an $11 billion FY 2003 appropriation for Department of Defense science and technology programs. See: www.ieeeusa.org/releases/2002/061202pr.html
On June 5, IEEE-USA wrote to House leaders supporting passage of the Investing in America's Future Act (H.R. 4664), which would authorize 15% annual increases at the National Science Foundation in FY2003-2005, and put NSF on the path to doubling in five years. See: www.ieeeusa.org/forum/POLICY/02june05.html
Dr. Elias Zerhouni, newly appointed director of the National Institutes of Health, will keynote the forthcoming IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Engineering, scheduled for Washington, DC on July 7. See: www.biomedicalimaging.org
Available from IEEE-USA, an overview of Educational and Employment Based Visa Programs prepared by Vin O'Neill, IEEE-USA Senior Legislative Representative. See: www.ieeeusa.org/forum/features/visaprograms.html