MSA Public Policy Committee Reports
Summer 1997
Winter 1998
Summer 1998
Winter 1999
Summer 1999

Public Policy Home

Science Funding for FY00. Despite a promise of another 15% increase for the NIH from Representative Porter, the President's budget recommends only a 2.1% increase and falls short of Porter's figure by over $10 billion. However, Clinton's budget request for the NSF is up 5.8%. With spending caps in place, and the political battles being waged over the one trillion dollar surplus expected over the next 15 years, major research budgets will not be settled until well into the Fall.

Instrumentation. With regard to funding for instrumentation, the President's budget for NIH would flat fund the Shared Instrumentation Grants program (SIG) at its current $35 million. However, Senator Harkin (D-Ia) has suggested authorizing the SIG at $100 million and FASEB (under President Bill Brinkley) is arguing for an increase in the SIG to $80 million. The President's budget also requests a 3% increase in the BioTechnology Resources P41 account (which funds our national microscopy centers); FASEB is recommending an increase in the BT P41 program from $67 million to $167 million. At the NSF the President's budget requests a 6.9% increase for Research & Related Activities, although the MRI budget remains at $50 million, the same as FY99. In FY99, over 1/3 of the MRI budget supported microscopy or microscopy-related proposals. At present the NSF spends over $250 million to fund instrumentation in all categories.

In addition, nanotechnology is now a favored word in Washington. It is one of 11 priority areas listed by the administration as strategic, and there is $90 million in the FY00 NSF budget for this area. Once can predict that a reasonable fraction of this money will go for instrumentation and instrumentation development.

ACTIVITIES OF THE PUBLIC POLICY COMMITTEE

MSA Public Policy Committee- Public Perception. Questions directed to Dr. Judith Vaitukaitis, the Director of Research Resources at NIH, Dr. Nat Pitts, Director of the NSF Office of Science and Technology Infrastructure, or Joseph Kull, CFO of the NSF always receive prompt answers and we know they are convinced that MSA's continued interest in their budget is important nationally. Therefore, we recommend that MSA continue its public policy efforts, even though societies such as the AIP, ASCB and FASEB have a more direct influence on budgetary allocations.

Public Policy in Portland. The Public Policy Committee will present a one-hour program at 2pm on Monday, August 2 in Room A107. We are fortunate to have a staffer, Jessica Hamilton, from the office of Congressman Wu to speak with us on his activities and interests on the House Science Committee. Jessica has an undergraduate degree in science and will also take time to tour the Exhibitor's Hall on that day. Please plan to attend, show your support and give your opinions. Two other speakers (invited but not confirmed) will round out this panel.

Public Policy Website. Work on the Public Policy website is nearing completion, and we plan to hand over the completed site to Nestor at the national meeting.

Interaction with Other Societies. FASEB has been very active recently on instrumentation issues, and is interested in having us join them as an Associate Member. (We are already Associate Members of the AIP.)

ACTION ITEMS

1. We recommend that Peter Ingram be appointed as the next Chair of the Public Policy Committee.

2. We recommend MSA Council invite a FASEB representative to make a presentation at Winter Council to explore Associate Membership.

3. We recommend MSA Council invite an AIP representative to Winter Council to discuss how we can strengthen our interactions with them.