Federal Science Agency Funding

Congratulations to Rep. Lamar as Smith (TX)!
According to Andrea Widener in the March 17 issue of Chemical and Engineering News, Rep. Smith is trying to put the clamps on funding for the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.. The pseudoscientists, on the payroll, are screaming that this is political interference with the agencie's independence. They want to keep the bucks rolling, so they can grab their share.
Lamar Smith's bill which is entitled The Frontiers in Innovation, Research, Science and Technolog y (FI RST), Act HR 4186 would authorize funding increases for NSF and not NIST through 2015 that would not keep pace with inflation. While that's good, it doesn't do enough. We need more extreme cuts. One provision of the bill requires an NSF official to personally affirm that grant awards are in the national interest. Another provision would give Congress more control over funding for individual NSF directorates including authorizing a 40% cut for the social, behavioral, and economic sciences in 2015.
Unfortunately, the bill is not likely to go anywhere with a democratically controlled Senate and a socialist president, with pen in hand ready to veto it. But, it is a step in the right direction and could be a forerunner of things to come, if Republicans grab control of the Senate in November and find some way to put the screws on Pres. Obama.