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NSF Under Attack |
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Capitol Hill Update . . . 10/08/09, 10/21/09, 11/5/09
On November 4, the Senate passed the federal government's 2010 fiscal year Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) Appropriations bill. In the process, the Senate also voted down the amendment by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) that called for the elimination of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) political science program (see ASA INFO Alert of Oct. 21 below). Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) was a strong advocate for political science research at NSF. So the below ASA INFO ALERT is moot for now.
ASA INFO ALERT . . . Wednesday, October 21, 2009, 3:52 PM
Dear ASA Section Leader:
On October 8, ASA alerted members of ASA's Political Sociology Section (see note below) of a recent attempt by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) to eliminate the funding of political science research programs at the National Science Foundation. Because of intense interest by the social science community and the importance of this issue, I am sending this present note to educate the larger research community about Sen. Coburn's October 7 amendment (S.AMDT. 2631).
This amendment made it to a October 13 debate on the floor of the Senate as the Senate considered a vote on the 2010 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act (H.R. 2847), which funds NSF. The vote has not taken place as of today but is expected to be taken up very soon (i.e., within days). Senator Coburn presented his amendment while describing examples of recent NSF political science grants that he deemed as wasteful. “The real world would never fund such stupidness,” stated Coburn. “They would never allow millions and millions of dollars every year to be spent on silly things to help politicians to understand why they spin or why they do not answer questions or why people might be for or against war. It is pretty easy to figure out.” Senator Coburn stated that NSF should fund “real science” instead.
Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, argued eloquently against the amendment and warned against such targeting of specific sciences or trivializing academic research. See the attached floor statement by Mikulski. Mikulski touted the value of political science by pointing to political scientist and past NSF grant recipient Elinor Ostrom, the recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in economics. Mikulski also described the MINERVA program, a jointly funded and administered research initiative by the Department of Defense and NSF to support a range of social science projects examining just the sort of political science topics that Sen. Coburn complained about (e.g., authoritarianism, religion and culture, terrorist organizations, and national security) (see ASA's July/August 2008 Footnotes newsletter http://www.asanet.org/footnotes/julyaugust08/art_war.html).
Sen. Mikulski spoke to the role of innovation and the importance of research. "[I]nnovation comes not only in engineering, though much needed; it doesn’t only come in physics, though much desired; it doesn’t come only in medicine, in the biological research, though much revered; a lot of this is the basic social sciences,” she said.
See Sen. Coburn's seven-page position paper explaining the rationale behind his amendment:
http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=82180b1f-a03e-4600-a2e5-846640c2c880. And see the text of his amendment at http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=7f4e6e1f-c8b9-4687-a77f-7b7271dc3b91.
In response to the amendment, the American Political Science Association (APSA) developed an online petition on October 7 to counter the amendment. And, on October 19, APSA sent an open letter to the Senate opposing the amendment. These sources and additional information can be viewed at http://www.apsanet.org/content_67297.cfm.
You likely will want to respond to this latest attack on science. Contact Lee Herring, Director of ASA's Public Affairs & Public Information Office, at 202-383-9005 x-320 with questions.
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ASA INFO ALERT . . . Thursday,October 08, 2009, 11:32 AM
Dear ASA Political Sociology Section Member:
Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) has offered an amendment to the National Science Foundation appropriations bill (now on the Senate floor) to eliminate NSF's funding of political science research all together. Obviously, No scientific discipline is safe if one science is attacked successfully. The social science community is acting now to fend off this amendment by working with the Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA.org). If you are inclined, you may wish to contact your U.S. Senators' offices and urge a NO vote on this amendment (see www.Senate.gov). Contact Lee Herring, Director of ASA's Public Affairs & Public Information Office, at 202-383-9005 x-320 with questions. |
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