Update 11/16: After the House of Representatives passed the two-step continuing resolution Tuesday night, the Senate passed the measure Wednesday evening on an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote. It now heads to the President for signing into law. That means we have two CRs, one until January 19th and the other to February 2nd.
Original Post: Congress has less than a week to fund the Federal Government for the remainder of the fiscal year or risk going into a shut down. The current continuing resolution, or CR, funds the government until November 17th. But it’s unclear what is going to happen.
The problem lies with the Republican Caucus in the House of Representatives. Put simply, they cannot agree on a course of action with the federal budget that needs to do two things: one, have the entire GOP House Caucus vote for it; and two, would force the Senate to follow suit. The conditions that paralyzed the chamber through much of October, which began with Speaker McCarthy being ousted from his leadership position and then four different candidates vying to replace him, are still present and are hamstringing the caucus, and all of Congress along with it.
Those conditions have not stopped the new Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson (R-LA), from attempting to move the chamber forward. However, Speaker Johnson’s approach is far from ideal: he has proposed a “laddered” continuing resolution which would put different parts of the federal budget on different CR timelines. Funding for military construction, energy and water, veteran, and agriculture programs, and the departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development would run through January 19th. The remaining parts of the government — covering the Defense, State, Justice, Commerce, Labor, and Health and Human Services departments, among many other agencies and government functions — would expire on February 2nd. With the exception of the Department of Energy research agencies, which are included in energy and water programs, the majority of the federal research agencies would be included in the February 2nd part of the Speaker’s plan. The text of the legislation was released Monday morning.
The obvious issue with the Speaker’s plan is it creates multiple deadlines for the federal budget, spreading out the problem. And it doesn’t address the issue that is causing the holdup: the infighting within the House GOP Caucus. Keep in mind, the Republican majority in the House is only four seats, so they have little room for defections if they want to pass a wholly Republican budget and have a strong negotiating position with the Senate. There are already three House Republicans who have come out against this planned laddered approach and it is unlikely to pick up any House Democrat votes.
Looking beyond the House, Speaker Johnson’s plan has few friends. President Biden has called it, “extreme,” and, “an unserious proposal that has been panned by members of both parties.” It is unclear at the moment how the Senate will respond; members of that chamber are keeping their options open by neither praising or blasting the proposal. The Senate has been taking a bipartisan approach to the budget, and sticking to the contours of the May budget agreement, which has put them in a stronger negotiating position.
Should Speaker Johnson’s CR plan fail to pass, he has told his caucus he plans to bring a full-year CR spending bill to the floor, which would include blanket cuts to non-defense spending. Such an approach would be a worst-case scenario for federal research agencies. The prospects for passage of such a plan are unclear at the moment.
The unfortunate reality is the situation is very fluid. With a new Speaker of the House, who has almost no track record to give an idea of how he will lead in the situation, coupled with the continued House Republican disunity, makes this situation almost impossible to predict. We’ll have to let this process play out more before we have a clear picture on the how it will end. Please keep checking back for more updates.
The Biden administration released an executive order on artificial intelligence on October 30th, setting new privacy, anti-discrimination, and safety standards for AI throughout the executive branch, while also seeking to accelerate innovation and bolster the AI workforce. Officially titled the “Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence,” it’s informally being called the AI EO. The White House also released a Fact Sheet, providing a high level summary of the different actions within the EO.
The order is organized around a number of themes, with specific directions to federal agencies in each theme:
New Standards for AI Safety and Security
Protecting Americans’ Privacy
Advancing Equity and Civil Rights
Standing Up for Consumers, Patients and Students
Supporting Workers
Promoting Innovation and Competition
Advancing American Leadership Abroad and,
Ensuring Responsible and Effective Government Use of AI
Much of the EO is centered around setting up regulations for tech companies that want to sell programs and software to federal agencies. By leveraging the federal government as a customer for these products, using the Defense Production Act, the Biden Administration is attempting to force these companies to adopted good best practices and, by extension, influence what is offered in the wider marketplace, both within the US and globally.
However, this order goes far beyond federal bureaucratic procurement requirements, and has several items that directly and indirectly impact the nation’s research community and enterprise. Section 5, “Promoting Innovation and Competition” is where the majority of the interest for the computing community is. One of the biggest items is proposing that NSF pilot the National AI Research Resource (NAIRR), “a tool that will provide AI researchers and students access to key AI resources and data,” according to the order’s fact sheet. According to the wording in the order itself, NAIRR will, “pursue the infrastructure, governance mechanisms, and user interfaces to pilot an initial integration of distributed computational, data, model, and training resources to be made available to the research community in support of AI-related research and development.” NAIRR has a lot of bipartisan support in Congress (see more details here), and is likely to be included in any near-term legislation covering AI; but getting the program off the ground is likely to run headlong into the difficult funding situation in Congress.
There’s a lot of other good news for the computing community in this section of the EO: “fund and launch at least one NSF Regional Innovation Engine that prioritizes AI-related work;” “establish at least four new National AI Research Institutes, in addition to the 25 currently funded as of the date of this order;” and “support activities involving high-performance and data-intensive computing,” at DOE and in coordination with NSF to, “establish a pilot program to enhance existing successful training programs for scientists, with the goal of training 500 new researchers by 2025 capable of meeting the rising demand for AI talent.” There is also direction to the federal agencies to expand AI research grants in areas like healthcare and climate change. All of that is good news for the research community.
Included in Section 5 are provisions covering rules for high-skilled immigration. Unfortunately, much of it is streamlining bureaucratic immigration and visa practices, and promoting what the Biden Administration has already done in this area. The fact is the Biden Administration did about as much as they could do on high-skilled immigration in January of 2022. To do more will require Congress to take up the issue and pass legislation on general immigration policy, something that has not happened in a generation.
In Section 9, “Protecting Privacy,” NSF, in partnership with DOE, is directed to establish a new Research Coordination Network (RCN) to, “promote the adoption of leading-edge privacy-preserving technologies by federal agencies.” The RCN is meant to, “enable privacy researchers to share information, coordinate and collaborate in research, and develop standards for the privacy-research community.” NSF is further directed to, “where feasible and appropriate, prioritize research — including efforts to translate research discoveries into practical applications — that encourage the adoption of leading-edge PETs solutions for agencies’ use.” Privacy-protecting technologies are mentioned prominently throughout the EO.
This executive order is quite expansive and covers a lot of areas. And it’s just the first one in a likely set of actions from the Administration covering AI. There is reference to a forthcoming national security memorandum on, “AI and security.” And the order’s Fact Sheet concludes with, “(m)ore action will be required, and the Administration will continue to work with Congress to pursue bipartisan legislation to help America lead the way in responsible innovation.” This will not be the last word from the Biden Administration on the topic of AI. CRA will continue to tack these actions and will report out to the community; please be sure to check back for future updates.
An audience of Congressional staffers and science policy professionals listen as Dan Reed, center, chair of the National Science Board, moderates the proceedings of the TFAI Deconstructing AI Senate briefing.
Dr. Kee-Bong Song, of Samsung Semiconductor US, makes remarks at the TFAI House briefing.
The panel of speakers, composed of computing and IT experts from across academia, government, and industry, made the case that these advances could only have happened because of the federal investment in such areas as hardware, software, and high performance computing, as well as several others.
Dr. Balaprakash makes remarks to Senate staffers at the TFAI Deconstructing AI briefing.
The briefings, one held on the House of Representatives side of Capitol Hill, and the other on the Senate side, were moderated by Daniel Reed, current chair of the National Science Board and presidential professor in computational science at the University of Utah. For the House-side event, the panelists included Odest Chadwicke Jenkins, professor of robotics, electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan; Prasana Balaprakash, director of AI programs and distinguished R&D staff scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Jeff Welser, chief operating officer, IBM Research; and Kee-Bong Song, Vice President, head of Cellular and Multimedia Lab at Samsung Semiconductor US. For the Senate-side briefing, Gary Givental, chief architect at IBM Consulting Cybersecurity Services and master inventor at IBM, subbed in for Dr. Welser.
Professor Jenkins, of the University of Michigan, gesture to a slide of his remarks at the House briefing.
The speakers represent the three parts of the U.S. innovation ecosystem (industry, universities, and researchers), and they had a clear message: the current advances in AI were only possible because of decades of federal investment in fundamental research in a wide range of the physical sciences. “Advances in AI are intrinsically tied to investments in basic research across the federally funded research enterprise,” said Scott Corley, Executive Director of TFAI. If the country hopes to stay competitive in the various subfields of artificial intelligence, it must commit to fully funding the Chips & Science Act and the federal research agencies included in that legislation, especially NSF.
Gary Givantal, of IBM, gestures while making remarks at the Senate briefing.
CRA was a sponsor of both events and recruited Dr. Reed, a former chair of the CRA Board of Directors, and Professor Jenkins, a current member of the CRA-WP Board and a former member of the CCC Council, to take part. CRA was among the first members to join TFAI in 2004 and has had a major role in many of the coalition’s activities, including the first TFAI Deconstructing event and several of the Benchmarks Reports that the coalition has released.
Unless you’ve had your head in the sand, you’ve likely heard that artificial intelligence is a big deal right now. Nowhere is this more evident than in Congress, where there has been an almost constant drum beat to do something legislatively with regard to AI. But what is going on?
This article will review several notable efforts around AI that are happening in Congress and how they could possibly impact the computing and IT research communities. We’ll also assess the general prospects of each proposal’s chances of moving forward in the legislative process. However, this won’t be a comprehensive review of all proposed AI legislation; such an all-encompassing review is near impossible, given the large numbers of Members interested in weighing in on the topic and the pace at which new ideas are floated. It also won’t cover proposals in the Executive Branch and the research agencies, like DOE’s proposal on AI research. Those may be the topic of future Policy Blog posts.
Senator Majority Leader Schumer’s AI Framework
The proposal that has the best chances of producing results comes from a familiar source: Senate Majority Leader Schumer (D-NY). Regular readers will remember that he was one of the original sponsors of the Endless Frontier Act, one of the legislative forerunners of the Chips and Science Act.
In a speech in June, Senator Schumer released his proposed “SAFE Innovation Framework” (for “Security, Accountability, Foundations, Explainability”) to regulating AI. The acronym covers the specifics of the proposal; in short, and you’ll see this repeated often, it proposes a general outline of utilizing AI while mitigating the risks. The framework is, unfortunately, big on ideas and light on details. But it’s also only one part of the senator’s plans.
Schumer is also proposing an approach for translating this framework into legislative action. To that end he announced the Senate will, “convene the top minds in artificial intelligence here in Congress for a series of AI Insight Forums to lay down a new foundation for AI policy.” The first forum was held the second week of September, and it brought together technology leaders in the AI industry with advocates in labor and civil rights fields. But it was also by invitation only and closed to the media, which did not endear it to many Senators. As originally proposed, each forum will focus on specific topics surrounding AI; the list, as mentioned in Schumer’s speech, is:
Asking the right questions
AI innovation
Copyright & IP
Use-cases & risk management
Workforce
National security
Guarding against doomsday scenarios
AI’s role in our social world
Transparency, explainability & alignment, and
Privacy & liability
This is likely not a final list and it could be longer or shorter, depending on what Schumer wants to cover. It has been implied that these forums would replace the traditional Congressional hearings in order to craft legislation. However, that is unlikely, as it violates tenets of good, open government, and other members of Congress are unlikely to give up a chance to say something publicly during the legislative process.
In addition to this framework and these forums, Schumer has convened a bipartisan group of Senators to take the lead on the subject of AI and craft any possible legislation. They are Senators Young (R-IN), Rounds (R-SD), and Heinrich (D-NM).
Why is this the most likely effort to produce results? First, since this is being led by the leader of the Senate, it has legislative legs. Also, since it has bipartisan backing, it’s more likely to represent a consensus approach that can clear the Senate and, potentially, the House. If this all looks familiar, that’s because we went through it with the Chips and Science Act. Schumer learned that a slow, deliberate, and bipartisan approach will produce results in a closely divided and partisan Congress. The drawback is that it will take time; remember that the Chips Act was the end product of over two years of legislative work. In fact, Schumer is not expecting to release any concrete proposals for several more months, and that timeline could slip until next year.
Senators Blumenthal and Hawley’s AI Framework
Senators Blumenthal (D-CT) and Hawley (R-MO) released their own legislative framework, the “Bipartisan Framework for US AI Act” on September 8th. Unlike with Schumer’s SAFE Innovation Framework, this one has more concrete proposals, while still being fairly light on specifics. Its main thrust is to establish an independent oversight body that would require companies developing, “sophisticated general-purpose A.I. models (e.g., GPT-4) or models used in high-risk situations (e.g., facial recognition),” to register their products and services. What that oversight body is, whether new or already establishes, is not stated; nor is it said where such a body would be located within the Federal Government.
Additionally, the Blumenthal/Hawley framework has two novel parts. The first is that it would exempt AI products from Section 230 protections. Reforming Section 230, which provides legal protections to internet service providers and websites for user generated content, has been a major policy argument in Congress for the past several years. It’s not a surprise for it to be included in a related, though different, technology field.
The second is it would encourage the use of, “export control, sanctions, and other legal restrictions to limit the transfer of advanced A.I. models, hardware, and related equipment, and other technologies to China, Russia, and other adversary nations, as well as countries engaged in gross human rights violations.” While using the export control regime to maintain the country’s standing with a specific technology isn’t new, this is the first time it’s been proposed specifically for AI, and so broadly. Should this proposal become law, how it is implemented and how broadly it covers the field, will determine its impact. This could be a serious impediment to the research community, or no different than in other cutting edge technology sectors. But it’s worth keeping in mind that this idea is being considered.
While this framework proposal is bipartisan, and it’s arguably more substantial than Schumer’s, it’s unlikely to move by itself. What’s more likely to come of this is that ideas could be included as amendments in some other proposed legislation. It could also be the forerunner of a more substantial legislative proposal in the near future. We’ll have to wait and see.
House Science Committee’s AI Efforts
The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee has been taking a methodical, bipartisan, and traditional legislative approach to the subject of artificial intelligence. Back in June, a day after Schumer released his framework, the committee held a hearing on AI in the national interest. Calling several witnesses from government, industry, and academia research communities, the committee asked tough and important questions about artificial intelligence. Many of those questions were about the potential impacts of AI and what actions the government can take to both harness its potential and mitigate its adverse impacts.
That hearing is expected to be one of many that the Science Committee will hold on the subject of artificial intelligence over the coming months. In much the same approach as Schumer’s forums, the committee is taking a long-view, deliberative approach to crafting any legislation. But, like much of the other efforts discussed here, it’s currently light on specific proposals.
The legislation is sponsored by Representatives Eshoo (D-CA), McCaul (R-TX), Beyer (D-VA), and Obernolte (D-CA), the co-chairs and vice-chairs of the House Artificial Intelligence Caucus. It also has a Senate counterpart sponsored by Senators Heinrich (D-NM), Young (R-IN), Rounds (R-SD), and Booker (D-NJ); note that three of the Senate sponsors are heavily involved in Schumer’s AI efforts.
While this appears to be an easy add on to the federal budget, keep in mind the budget environment we are currently in. To say the least, this is not the best time to propose a new $200 million research program. Opposition to new spending is likely where any public pushback to this legislation will come from. There is also the fact that no one in House Leadership, for either party, is involved in this effort; typically, you need some buy-in from leadership for a piece of legislation to move in the House. While that doesn’t sink the bill’s potential, it does make it more difficult for it to move.
Of all the proposals discussed in this article, the CREATE AI Act is the most likely to be passed into law. In theory, it could move as a piece of a larger, must-pass piece of legislation, such as an amendment to a funding bill. But the prospects for that right now aren’t great.
Final Analysis
While it can seem that Congress could pass major legislation covering artificial intelligence at any moment, the reality is that legislators are still trying to understand the problem. Everyone knows what they want (all the benefits of AI), and what they don’t want (all the problems with AI), but they don’t have a solid plan on how to do it. Any major action is still months away; possibly longer. There are small pieces, such as the CREATE AI Act, that could move this year, but they will likely be the exception. CRA will continue to follow this issue and represent the computing and IT research community in these discussions. We will continue to make the case to policymakers that research is an important part of any national policy with regard to AI and that the computing research community needs to be involved.
Labor Day is fast approaching and that means Congress will return to Washington from its August recess. With it, the legislative body will be met with some major, yet typical, items on its September to-do list. The most significant being passing a continuing resolution to keep the federal government running after the start of Fiscal Year 2024.
It’s no longer a question of if a CR will be needed; neither chamber has passed all of their appropriations bills. With FY24 beginning on October 1st, Congress must act or risk a government shutdown. The Senate is further along, having passed all their bills through the Senate Appropriations Committee, and most on a bipartisan basis, but none have gotten to the full Senate for consideration. The House is more incomplete, having passed most, but not all, of their funding bills through their Approps Committee. But there are some important hold-ups; for example, we are still waiting on details of the House Commerce, Justice, Science bill, which contains the budgets for NSF, NIST, and NASA. Put simply, both chambers are not close to being done with their work, hence the need for a continuing resolution.
The House GOP leadership has to take their threats seriously; they can’t just cut a deal with House Democrats to move a spending bill. Back in June, after the Debt Limit Budget Agreement was signed into law, which this same group of Republican members voted against, they effectively shut down the House by refusing to vote with their caucus on any legislation. That could be repeated. Or they could call for a vote to remove Speaker McCarthy (R-CA) from his leadership position; you’ll recall from January how long it took to vote him into his position.
It is important to keep in mind that if Congress does not pass a CR, that means there is a lapse in funding authority and the government must shut down. That would be a worse-case scenario. To contextualize this for the research community, a government shutdown would mean researchers couldn’t access funds from their federal research grants or communicate with their research agency program officers. And, of course, any federal facilities, such as the national labs or governmental offices, would be closed until a funding bill was passed into law. It would create a serious disruption in the nation’s scientific enterprise; remember what happened the last time there was a shutdown.
It’s a complicated political game at the moment. There is agreement from both Senate Majority Leader Schumer (D-NY) and Speaker McCarthy that a CR is needed to keep the government open. But anything passed will not be in effective for long, again showing the influence of this block of House Republicans. Unfortunately, the process will need to play out more before we know how FY24 will be closed out; that will likely not happen until the very end of the year (or even be pushed into next year). And the threat of a government shutdown will continue to be there. CRA will keep monitoring the situation and report on any new developments.
Last week, the Biden Administration released a memo to the Federal research agencies outlining their research and development priorities for the Fiscal Year 2025 budget. The memo provides guidance to the agencies on how to prepare their budget request submissions for the Office of Management & Budget (OMB), who is the lead office in the White House tasked with assembling the yearly Presidential Budget Request (PBR).
Regular readers will recall, the first step in the federal budget process is the PBR, which is legally required to be submitted to Congress in early February (though it isn’t always submitted on time, as this past year demonstrated). Once the PBR is transmitted to Congress, the legislature then decides how money is legally allocated to the federal agencies through the appropriations process.
Advance trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI) technology that protects people’s rights and safety, and harness it to accelerate the Nation’s progress,
Lead the world in maintaining global security and stability in the face of immense geopolitical changes and evolving risks,
Step up to the global challenge of meeting the climate crisis by reimagining our infrastructures, renewing our relationship with nature, and securing environmental justice,
Achieve better health outcomes for every person,
Reduce barriers and inequities,
Bolster the R&D and industrial innovation that will build the Nation’s future economic competitiveness from the bottom up and middle out,
Strengthen, advance, and use America’s unparalleled research to achieve our Nation’s great aspirations.
Very little is new here, as all of these priorities are in line with the Administration’s FY24 budget requests, and the years before that. The one item that has fallen back from past years is pandemic readiness; while it had been its own category in past memos, for obvious reasons it is now a subpoint under “achieve better health outcomes for every person.” Other than that, the memo continues to show that the Biden Administration is prioritizing AI, national security, equity and inclusion, and national competitiveness in the nation’s R&D enterprise.
With Fiscal Year 2025 being the last budget of President Biden’s first term, there is the possibility that this will be the last time this Administration will direct the research agencies’ agendas. Should President Biden will a second term, we can expect these to continue to direct those agencies’ plans.
At the end of July, the Senate Appropriations Committee completed its work on its slate of Fiscal Year 2024 funding legislation. One of the last bills the committee voted on was their version of the Defense appropriations bill, which handles funding for the Department of Defense. With regard to research funding, the Senate’s plans are very good for basic, fundamental research, particularly for university research; but pretty bad in the applied and advanced technology development areas.
As a refresher, DOD’s Science and Technology program is made up of three accounts: 6.1 (basic research), 6.2 (applied research), and 6.3 (advanced technology development). These accounts are themselves made up of individual accounts for each of the three services (Army, Navy, and Air Force), as well as a Defense Wide account. DARPA, or the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is a section under the Defense Wide account.
The Senate’s plan is quite good for the defense basic research. Basic Research (6.1), which is the main Defense Department supporter of fundamental research at US universities, would receive a significant increase of 10.3 percent compared to its FY23 levels. Under the Senate’s plan, the account goes from $2.92 billion in FY23 to $3.22 billion for FY24, an increase of $300 million. That increase is fueled by plus-ups in the services’ “University Research Initiative” subaccounts: the Army’s subaccount increases by 64 percent, the Navy’s increases by 33 percent, and Air Force’s increases by 36 percent, and even the Space Force received a significant increase (281 percent) for its second year of funding for its research portfolio. The one exception to the good 6.1 news is the Defense-Wide account, which received an overall cut of about 7.0 percent.
The Applied Research (6.2) account is in a different spot, with a significant cut in funding under the Senate’s mark. The full account would see an 8.5 percent decrease compared to last year’s budget, going from $7.80 billion in FY23 to $7.14 billion under the Senate’s plan, a reduction of $660 million.
The Advanced Technology Development (6.3) account would also receive a significant cut under the Senate’s budget framework. It would go from $11.71 billion in FY23 to $10.00 billion in FY24, a decrease of $1.71 billion (or -14.6 percent).
Finally, DARPA would be flat funded under the Senate legislation. The agency would go from $4.06 billion in FY23 to $4.09 billion in FY24, an increase of less than 1.0 percent, or just $30 million.
FY23
FY24 PBR
FY24 House
FY24 Senate
$ Change
% Change
DOD 6.1
$2.92B
$2.48B
$2.53B
$3.22B
+$300M
+10.3%
DOD 6.2
$7.80B
$6.01B
$6.73B
$7.14B
-$660M
-8.5%
DOD 6.3
$11.71B
$9.33B
$10.14B
$10.00B
-$1.71B
-14.6%
DARPA
$4.06B
$4.39B
$4.12B
$4.09B
+$30M
+0.7%
While not perfect, the Senate’s budget mark is in sharp contrast to the other budget plans that have been proposed for the defense research accounts. The President’s budget request included cuts to all three S&T accounts, with 6.1 being reduced by 15 percent, 6.2 reduced by 23 percent, and 6.3 reduced by 20 percent. DARPA was the only account to escape cuts under the President’s plan and would increase by 6.5 percent. The details of the House plan were an improvement on the Administration’s request budget but not by much: cuts of 13.4 percent for 6.1; 13.7 percent for 6.2; 13.4 percent for 6.3. And DARPA would have seen an increase of 1.5 percent.
The Senate Appropriations Committee approved their Defense legislation on July 27th; the bill now heads to the full chamber for consideration. It’s unclear when that will happen, but it will be after the Senate comes back from its August recess. It’s hard to say where a final defense research budget will ultimately settle. The House and Senate are far apart with their budget plans, but defense spending is one of the few areas that the two chambers agree is important. But given the complex politics, particularly within the House chamber, it’s expected that Fiscal Year 2024 will take a lot of time and effort to close out. Talk of a months-long continuing resolution(s), and even a possible government lapse in funding (ie: a government shutdown), has already begun. CRA will continue to monitor the situation and report on any new develops; please keep checking back for the latest news.
Do you have expertise in technological issues? Are you interested in how legislation impacts tech issues? There’s a Congressional fellowship for you! Tech Congress, an organization that, “gives talented technologists the opportunity to gain first-hand experience in federal policymaking and shape the future of tech policy,” is accepting applications for its 2024 class of Congressional Innovation Fellows.
The Congressional Innovation Fellowship is a program to, “bridg(e) the divide between Congress and the technology sector.” Tech Congress provides benefits and assistance in placement in a Congressional personal or committee office. The program has two levels, covering both “early – mid career technologists,” to get hands on experience working in Congress and learn about the policymaking process. This program has been running for several years, having been founded in 2015, and has over 95 alumni.
Tech Congress’ website has detailed information on what they’re looking for in applicants. If you’re interested in the intersection of public policy and technology, this is a great opportunity to pursue. They have two information calls scheduled for August 3 and 15. The deadline to submit applications is August 22.
The bill proposes a 4.1 percent increase for the Office of Science over FY23 enacted levels, bringing the agency’s budget to $8.43 billion for FY24 (an increase of $330 million). Within the Office of Science, the Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program, which houses the majority of the computing research at DOE, would see a decrease of 4.7 percent – going from $1.07 billion in FY23 to $1.02 billion for FY24, under the Senate’s plan.
Much like the last several years of ASCR budgets, that 4.7 percent decrease is deceptive. Similar to the specifics in the House’s budget plans, only part of the planned draw down of funds from the exascale construction accounts is moved over to the research subaccounts; typically, all the money is shifted over. Out of $63 million, the Senate is proposing only about $10 million be moved in the research side of the program. When accounting for this, the research subaccounts would receive a general 1.0 percent increase under the Senate’s plans.
In the committee’s report, the Senate appropriators voiced their support for the agency’s efforts in artificial intelligence and quantum information sciences. For AI, the committee provided not less than $135 million for artificial intelligence and machine learning efforts within the Office of Science. And for QIS, the committee provides not less than $255 million, with a breakdown of $120 million for research and $125 million for the five National Quantum Information Science Research Centers.
The appropriators also voiced their support for the Office of Science’s engagement plans with HBCUs and MSIs, with particular praise for the agency’s RENEW and FAIR programs, in order to build research capacity and further workforce development. This is in contrast to the House’s plans which eliminated funding for the programs with little justification. The Senate budget mark also support’s DOE’s EPSCoR program, recommending $35 million.
Finally, the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy, or ARPA-E, would receive a cut of $20 million, or a reduction of 4.3 percent compared to FY23 enacted levels. The agency would go from $470 million in FY23 to $450 million under the Senate’s FY24 plans. That is below the flat funding of the House’s mark and well below the $650 million plans that the Administration recommended.
FY23
FY24 PBR
FY24 Senate
$ Change
% Change
DOE SC Total
$8.10B
$8.80B
$8.43M
+$330M
+4.1%
ASCR
$1.07B
$1.12B
$1.02B
-$50M
-4.7%
ARPA-E
$470M
$650M
$450M
-$20M
-4.3%
The Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously approved their Energy and Water legislation on July 20th; the bill now heads to the full chamber for consideration. It’s unclear when that will happen, but it will likely be after the Senate comes back from its August recess. While the House and Senate are not far apart with their Energy and Water plans, at least as far as computing research is concerned, that is the exception with this year’s funding legislation. It is expected that Fiscal Year 2024 will take a lot of time and effort to close out. There is already talk of a months-long continuing resolution(s) and even a possible government lapse in funding (ie: a government shutdown). CRA will continue to monitor the situation and report on any new develops; please keep checking back for the latest news.
[Editor’s Note: This post was written by CRA’s new Tisdale Policy Fellow for Summer 2023, Fatima Morera Lohr.]
In our ongoing series covering the Fiscal Year 2024 budget, we turn to the Senate Appropriations Committee. In an unusual move, the Senate appropriators got ahead of their House counterparts and released several proposed pieces of funding legislation, with the Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) bill being one of them. This bill is of most concern to the computing research community, as it contains the budgets for the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and NASA. The Senate numbers in this funding legislation are in line with the nondefense funding targets set in the May Debt Limit Agreement; which is to say that the agencies generally received flat funding or cuts. Let’s get into the details.
First, NSF’s budget requires some explanation, particularly what the Senate appropriators are using as the agency’s FY23 baseline budget. Regular readers will recall that NSF received the majority of its historic, FY23 budget increase in the supplemental section of last year’s Omnibus bill. However, the Senate is not using the full funding that NSF received in FY23 as its baseline for comparison to FY24; they are ignoring the Chips Act supplemental funding, which accounts for about $335 million. When comparing the Senate FY24 mark to the FY23 levels, minus the supplemental funding, NSF appears to be flat funded under the Senate’s plans. However, when compared against the total funds NSF received in FY23, the cut is much deeper. In this article, we will compare the Senate numbers to the full amount that NSF received in FY23.
Under the Senate’s plan, NSF would receive a four percent cut, going from $9.90 billion in FY23, to $9.50 billion in FY24, a loss of $400 million. This is significantly less than the President’s proposed budget of $11.30 billion, released in March.
The cuts to NSF’s topline are not felt evenly at the agency. The Research and Related Activities (R&RA) account, which houses the agency’s research portfolio, would receive $7.61 billion for FY24, which is a cut of 2.5 percent or $200 million. The Directorate for STEM Education (EDU) would receive $1.23 billion, which represents a decrease of $140 million from FY23, or -10.2 percent. These numbers are below what the Administration requested in its budget plan earlier this year.
FY23
FY24 PBR
FY24 Senate
$ Change
% Change
NSF Total
$9.90B
$11.30B
$9.50B
-$400M
-4.0%
R&RA
$7.80B
$9.03B
$7.60B
-$200M
-2.5%
EHR/EDU
$1.37B
$1.44B
$1.23B
-$140M
-10.2%
The funding policy provisions in the Committee’s report contain several items of importance to the computing research community. Within the report, the Committee expressed their support for the Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP) and provided up to $200 million for the Regional Innovation Engines; that is $100 million less than what was recommended in the agency’s budget request. In addition, the Committee also supports the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) providing, “no less than $275 million,” and directing to NSF to provide, “to the maximum extent practicable,” 16 percent of NSF research funding and 18 percent of scholarship funding to EPSCoR states. EPSCoR is NSF’s program to set aside funding for states that do not receive the majority of the agency’s funding, and has been a major Congressional priority for the last few years. The committee was also supportive of NSF’s efforts in artificial intelligence, quantum information science and high performance computing, as well as the agency’s broadening participation efforts.
Among the other research agencies in the legislation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) would be hit harder under the Senate’s plan. NIST would receive $1.45 billion for FY24, an 11 percent decrease, or $180 million less than it received in FY23 ($1.63 billion). On the other hand, the Science and Technical Research and Services (STRS), would receive $1.02 billion, an increase of $67 million,or +7.0 percent, over FY23. STRS contains the majority of the agency’s research portfolio. NIST’s total budget is below what was requested for the next fiscal year, while STRS’ is above the amount requested by the Biden Administration.
FY23
FY24 PBR
FY24 Senate
$ Change
% Change
NIST Total
$1.63B
$1.63B
$1.45B
-$180M
-11%
STRS
$953M
$995M
$1.02B
+$67M
+7%
Finally, NASA’s budget is also looking at a decrease under the Senate’s plans. At the topline, NASA would receive $25 billion for FY24, a decrease of $400 million from FY23 levels (-1.50 percent). The agency’s Science account would be hit much harder than the topline, receiving $7.34 billion under the Senate’s mark, a decrease of -5.9 percent, or $460 million, from FY23 ($7.8 billion). The justification for the large cut to the NASA Science account, given in the Committee’s report, is to, “keep NASA’s near-term launches on track to continue progress in exploring our solar system and the universe, understanding the Sun, and observing our changing planet.”
FY23
FY24 PBR
FY24 Senate
$ Change
% Change
NASA Total
$25.4B
$27.2B
$25.0B
-$400M
-1.5%
Science
$7.80B
$8.26B
$7.34B
-$460M
-5.9%
The CJS bill was approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee on July 13th; it is unclear when it will be considered by the full Senate chamber. We are still waiting on the House Appropriations Committee to release the details of their CJS funding bill, but the expectation is that it will be made public in the next few days. As we have mentioned in previous articles about the Fiscal Year 2024 budget, the House and Senate are likely to be far apart with their funding plans. That will make closing out FY24 very difficult, and the politics surrounding federal spending will only make finishing the budget harder. We will have to allow the process to play out more before we have any clarity on the endgame for FY24. We will be monitoring the situation for any developments, so please check back for updates.
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FY24 Budget Update: With Days till a Possible Government Shut Down, Uncertainty Reigns
/In: Funding, FY24 Appropriations /by Brian MosleyUpdate 11/16: After the House of Representatives passed the two-step continuing resolution Tuesday night, the Senate passed the measure Wednesday evening on an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote. It now heads to the President for signing into law. That means we have two CRs, one until January 19th and the other to February 2nd.
Original Post: Congress has less than a week to fund the Federal Government for the remainder of the fiscal year or risk going into a shut down. The current continuing resolution, or CR, funds the government until November 17th. But it’s unclear what is going to happen.
The problem lies with the Republican Caucus in the House of Representatives. Put simply, they cannot agree on a course of action with the federal budget that needs to do two things: one, have the entire GOP House Caucus vote for it; and two, would force the Senate to follow suit. The conditions that paralyzed the chamber through much of October, which began with Speaker McCarthy being ousted from his leadership position and then four different candidates vying to replace him, are still present and are hamstringing the caucus, and all of Congress along with it.
Those conditions have not stopped the new Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson (R-LA), from attempting to move the chamber forward. However, Speaker Johnson’s approach is far from ideal: he has proposed a “laddered” continuing resolution which would put different parts of the federal budget on different CR timelines. Funding for military construction, energy and water, veteran, and agriculture programs, and the departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development would run through January 19th. The remaining parts of the government — covering the Defense, State, Justice, Commerce, Labor, and Health and Human Services departments, among many other agencies and government functions — would expire on February 2nd. With the exception of the Department of Energy research agencies, which are included in energy and water programs, the majority of the federal research agencies would be included in the February 2nd part of the Speaker’s plan. The text of the legislation was released Monday morning.
The obvious issue with the Speaker’s plan is it creates multiple deadlines for the federal budget, spreading out the problem. And it doesn’t address the issue that is causing the holdup: the infighting within the House GOP Caucus. Keep in mind, the Republican majority in the House is only four seats, so they have little room for defections if they want to pass a wholly Republican budget and have a strong negotiating position with the Senate. There are already three House Republicans who have come out against this planned laddered approach and it is unlikely to pick up any House Democrat votes.
Looking beyond the House, Speaker Johnson’s plan has few friends. President Biden has called it, “extreme,” and, “an unserious proposal that has been panned by members of both parties.” It is unclear at the moment how the Senate will respond; members of that chamber are keeping their options open by neither praising or blasting the proposal. The Senate has been taking a bipartisan approach to the budget, and sticking to the contours of the May budget agreement, which has put them in a stronger negotiating position.
Should Speaker Johnson’s CR plan fail to pass, he has told his caucus he plans to bring a full-year CR spending bill to the floor, which would include blanket cuts to non-defense spending. Such an approach would be a worst-case scenario for federal research agencies. The prospects for passage of such a plan are unclear at the moment.
The unfortunate reality is the situation is very fluid. With a new Speaker of the House, who has almost no track record to give an idea of how he will lead in the situation, coupled with the continued House Republican disunity, makes this situation almost impossible to predict. We’ll have to let this process play out more before we have a clear picture on the how it will end. Please keep checking back for more updates.
Biden Administration Releases Executive Order on Artificial Intelligence
/In: Artificial Intelligence, Defense R&D Highlights, Information Technology R&D Highlights, Policy, Research /by Brian MosleyThe Biden administration released an executive order on artificial intelligence on October 30th, setting new privacy, anti-discrimination, and safety standards for AI throughout the executive branch, while also seeking to accelerate innovation and bolster the AI workforce. Officially titled the “Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence,” it’s informally being called the AI EO. The White House also released a Fact Sheet, providing a high level summary of the different actions within the EO.
The order is organized around a number of themes, with specific directions to federal agencies in each theme:
Much of the EO is centered around setting up regulations for tech companies that want to sell programs and software to federal agencies. By leveraging the federal government as a customer for these products, using the Defense Production Act, the Biden Administration is attempting to force these companies to adopted good best practices and, by extension, influence what is offered in the wider marketplace, both within the US and globally.
However, this order goes far beyond federal bureaucratic procurement requirements, and has several items that directly and indirectly impact the nation’s research community and enterprise. Section 5, “Promoting Innovation and Competition” is where the majority of the interest for the computing community is. One of the biggest items is proposing that NSF pilot the National AI Research Resource (NAIRR), “a tool that will provide AI researchers and students access to key AI resources and data,” according to the order’s fact sheet. According to the wording in the order itself, NAIRR will, “pursue the infrastructure, governance mechanisms, and user interfaces to pilot an initial integration of distributed computational, data, model, and training resources to be made available to the research community in support of AI-related research and development.” NAIRR has a lot of bipartisan support in Congress (see more details here), and is likely to be included in any near-term legislation covering AI; but getting the program off the ground is likely to run headlong into the difficult funding situation in Congress.
There’s a lot of other good news for the computing community in this section of the EO: “fund and launch at least one NSF Regional Innovation Engine that prioritizes AI-related work;” “establish at least four new National AI Research Institutes, in addition to the 25 currently funded as of the date of this order;” and “support activities involving high-performance and data-intensive computing,” at DOE and in coordination with NSF to, “establish a pilot program to enhance existing successful training programs for scientists, with the goal of training 500 new researchers by 2025 capable of meeting the rising demand for AI talent.” There is also direction to the federal agencies to expand AI research grants in areas like healthcare and climate change. All of that is good news for the research community.
Included in Section 5 are provisions covering rules for high-skilled immigration. Unfortunately, much of it is streamlining bureaucratic immigration and visa practices, and promoting what the Biden Administration has already done in this area. The fact is the Biden Administration did about as much as they could do on high-skilled immigration in January of 2022. To do more will require Congress to take up the issue and pass legislation on general immigration policy, something that has not happened in a generation.
In Section 9, “Protecting Privacy,” NSF, in partnership with DOE, is directed to establish a new Research Coordination Network (RCN) to, “promote the adoption of leading-edge privacy-preserving technologies by federal agencies.” The RCN is meant to, “enable privacy researchers to share information, coordinate and collaborate in research, and develop standards for the privacy-research community.” NSF is further directed to, “where feasible and appropriate, prioritize research — including efforts to translate research discoveries into practical applications — that encourage the adoption of leading-edge PETs solutions for agencies’ use.” Privacy-protecting technologies are mentioned prominently throughout the EO.
This executive order is quite expansive and covers a lot of areas. And it’s just the first one in a likely set of actions from the Administration covering AI. There is reference to a forthcoming national security memorandum on, “AI and security.” And the order’s Fact Sheet concludes with, “(m)ore action will be required, and the Administration will continue to work with Congress to pursue bipartisan legislation to help America lead the way in responsible innovation.” This will not be the last word from the Biden Administration on the topic of AI. CRA will continue to tack these actions and will report out to the community; please be sure to check back for future updates.
Recent Advances in AI Only Possible Because of Decades of Federal Investments in Fundamental Research, Experts Across Academia, Government, and Industry Tell Congress
/In: CRA, Events, People, Policy, Research /by Brian MosleyAn audience of Congressional staffers and science policy professionals listen as Dan Reed, center, chair of the National Science Board, moderates the proceedings of the TFAI Deconstructing AI Senate briefing.
Last week, the Task Force on American Innovation (TFAI), an alliance of American high tech companies and businesses, research university associations, and scientific societies, held two events in Congress to “deconstruct” artificial intelligence and demonstrate how the decades long federal research investment which has powered in the latest advances in the AI fields. The briefings were titled, “Federally Funded Research and the Advent of Artificial Intelligence: A TFAI Deconstructing Event.”
Dr. Kee-Bong Song, of Samsung Semiconductor US, makes remarks at the TFAI House briefing.
The panel of speakers, composed of computing and IT experts from across academia, government, and industry, made the case that these advances could only have happened because of the federal investment in such areas as hardware, software, and high performance computing, as well as several others.
Dr. Balaprakash makes remarks to Senate staffers at the TFAI Deconstructing AI briefing.
The briefings, one held on the House of Representatives side of Capitol Hill, and the other on the Senate side, were moderated by Daniel Reed, current chair of the National Science Board and presidential professor in computational science at the University of Utah. For the House-side event, the panelists included Odest Chadwicke Jenkins, professor of robotics, electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan; Prasana Balaprakash, director of AI programs and distinguished R&D staff scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Jeff Welser, chief operating officer, IBM Research; and Kee-Bong Song, Vice President, head of Cellular and Multimedia Lab at Samsung Semiconductor US. For the Senate-side briefing, Gary Givental, chief architect at IBM Consulting Cybersecurity Services and master inventor at IBM, subbed in for Dr. Welser.
Professor Jenkins, of the University of Michigan, gesture to a slide of his remarks at the House briefing.
The speakers represent the three parts of the U.S. innovation ecosystem (industry, universities, and researchers), and they had a clear message: the current advances in AI were only possible because of decades of federal investment in fundamental research in a wide range of the physical sciences. “Advances in AI are intrinsically tied to investments in basic research across the federally funded research enterprise,” said Scott Corley, Executive Director of TFAI. If the country hopes to stay competitive in the various subfields of artificial intelligence, it must commit to fully funding the Chips & Science Act and the federal research agencies included in that legislation, especially NSF.
Gary Givantal, of IBM, gestures while making remarks at the Senate briefing.
CRA was a sponsor of both events and recruited Dr. Reed, a former chair of the CRA Board of Directors, and Professor Jenkins, a current member of the CRA-WP Board and a former member of the CCC Council, to take part. CRA was among the first members to join TFAI in 2004 and has had a major role in many of the coalition’s activities, including the first TFAI Deconstructing event and several of the Benchmarks Reports that the coalition has released.
Current State of Artificial Intelligence Legislation & Where Research Fits into It All
/In: Artificial Intelligence, Policy, Research /by Brian MosleyUnless you’ve had your head in the sand, you’ve likely heard that artificial intelligence is a big deal right now. Nowhere is this more evident than in Congress, where there has been an almost constant drum beat to do something legislatively with regard to AI. But what is going on?
This article will review several notable efforts around AI that are happening in Congress and how they could possibly impact the computing and IT research communities. We’ll also assess the general prospects of each proposal’s chances of moving forward in the legislative process. However, this won’t be a comprehensive review of all proposed AI legislation; such an all-encompassing review is near impossible, given the large numbers of Members interested in weighing in on the topic and the pace at which new ideas are floated. It also won’t cover proposals in the Executive Branch and the research agencies, like DOE’s proposal on AI research. Those may be the topic of future Policy Blog posts.
Senator Majority Leader Schumer’s AI Framework
The proposal that has the best chances of producing results comes from a familiar source: Senate Majority Leader Schumer (D-NY). Regular readers will remember that he was one of the original sponsors of the Endless Frontier Act, one of the legislative forerunners of the Chips and Science Act.
In a speech in June, Senator Schumer released his proposed “SAFE Innovation Framework” (for “Security, Accountability, Foundations, Explainability”) to regulating AI. The acronym covers the specifics of the proposal; in short, and you’ll see this repeated often, it proposes a general outline of utilizing AI while mitigating the risks. The framework is, unfortunately, big on ideas and light on details. But it’s also only one part of the senator’s plans.
Schumer is also proposing an approach for translating this framework into legislative action. To that end he announced the Senate will, “convene the top minds in artificial intelligence here in Congress for a series of AI Insight Forums to lay down a new foundation for AI policy.” The first forum was held the second week of September, and it brought together technology leaders in the AI industry with advocates in labor and civil rights fields. But it was also by invitation only and closed to the media, which did not endear it to many Senators. As originally proposed, each forum will focus on specific topics surrounding AI; the list, as mentioned in Schumer’s speech, is:
This is likely not a final list and it could be longer or shorter, depending on what Schumer wants to cover. It has been implied that these forums would replace the traditional Congressional hearings in order to craft legislation. However, that is unlikely, as it violates tenets of good, open government, and other members of Congress are unlikely to give up a chance to say something publicly during the legislative process.
In addition to this framework and these forums, Schumer has convened a bipartisan group of Senators to take the lead on the subject of AI and craft any possible legislation. They are Senators Young (R-IN), Rounds (R-SD), and Heinrich (D-NM).
Why is this the most likely effort to produce results? First, since this is being led by the leader of the Senate, it has legislative legs. Also, since it has bipartisan backing, it’s more likely to represent a consensus approach that can clear the Senate and, potentially, the House. If this all looks familiar, that’s because we went through it with the Chips and Science Act. Schumer learned that a slow, deliberate, and bipartisan approach will produce results in a closely divided and partisan Congress. The drawback is that it will take time; remember that the Chips Act was the end product of over two years of legislative work. In fact, Schumer is not expecting to release any concrete proposals for several more months, and that timeline could slip until next year.
Senators Blumenthal and Hawley’s AI Framework
Senators Blumenthal (D-CT) and Hawley (R-MO) released their own legislative framework, the “Bipartisan Framework for US AI Act” on September 8th. Unlike with Schumer’s SAFE Innovation Framework, this one has more concrete proposals, while still being fairly light on specifics. Its main thrust is to establish an independent oversight body that would require companies developing, “sophisticated general-purpose A.I. models (e.g., GPT-4) or models used in high-risk situations (e.g., facial recognition),” to register their products and services. What that oversight body is, whether new or already establishes, is not stated; nor is it said where such a body would be located within the Federal Government.
Additionally, the Blumenthal/Hawley framework has two novel parts. The first is that it would exempt AI products from Section 230 protections. Reforming Section 230, which provides legal protections to internet service providers and websites for user generated content, has been a major policy argument in Congress for the past several years. It’s not a surprise for it to be included in a related, though different, technology field.
The second is it would encourage the use of, “export control, sanctions, and other legal restrictions to limit the transfer of advanced A.I. models, hardware, and related equipment, and other technologies to China, Russia, and other adversary nations, as well as countries engaged in gross human rights violations.” While using the export control regime to maintain the country’s standing with a specific technology isn’t new, this is the first time it’s been proposed specifically for AI, and so broadly. Should this proposal become law, how it is implemented and how broadly it covers the field, will determine its impact. This could be a serious impediment to the research community, or no different than in other cutting edge technology sectors. But it’s worth keeping in mind that this idea is being considered.
While this framework proposal is bipartisan, and it’s arguably more substantial than Schumer’s, it’s unlikely to move by itself. What’s more likely to come of this is that ideas could be included as amendments in some other proposed legislation. It could also be the forerunner of a more substantial legislative proposal in the near future. We’ll have to wait and see.
House Science Committee’s AI Efforts
The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee has been taking a methodical, bipartisan, and traditional legislative approach to the subject of artificial intelligence. Back in June, a day after Schumer released his framework, the committee held a hearing on AI in the national interest. Calling several witnesses from government, industry, and academia research communities, the committee asked tough and important questions about artificial intelligence. Many of those questions were about the potential impacts of AI and what actions the government can take to both harness its potential and mitigate its adverse impacts.
That hearing is expected to be one of many that the Science Committee will hold on the subject of artificial intelligence over the coming months. In much the same approach as Schumer’s forums, the committee is taking a long-view, deliberative approach to crafting any legislation. But, like much of the other efforts discussed here, it’s currently light on specific proposals.
House AI Caucus CREATE AI Act
Unlike the other efforts mentioned above, the “Creating Resources for Every American To Experiment with Artificial Intelligence Act of 2023” (CREATE AI Act) is a specific legislative proposal and could impact the research community directly. The bill would establish the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR), a cyberinfrastructure resources proposed by a Congressionally established task force of the same name. The NAIRR, run by NSF and overseen by an interagency steering committee, would provide, “free or low-cost access to datasets and computing resources for development of AI workflows,” helping to democratize the development and use of artificial intelligence.
The legislation is sponsored by Representatives Eshoo (D-CA), McCaul (R-TX), Beyer (D-VA), and Obernolte (D-CA), the co-chairs and vice-chairs of the House Artificial Intelligence Caucus. It also has a Senate counterpart sponsored by Senators Heinrich (D-NM), Young (R-IN), Rounds (R-SD), and Booker (D-NJ); note that three of the Senate sponsors are heavily involved in Schumer’s AI efforts.
While this appears to be an easy add on to the federal budget, keep in mind the budget environment we are currently in. To say the least, this is not the best time to propose a new $200 million research program. Opposition to new spending is likely where any public pushback to this legislation will come from. There is also the fact that no one in House Leadership, for either party, is involved in this effort; typically, you need some buy-in from leadership for a piece of legislation to move in the House. While that doesn’t sink the bill’s potential, it does make it more difficult for it to move.
Of all the proposals discussed in this article, the CREATE AI Act is the most likely to be passed into law. In theory, it could move as a piece of a larger, must-pass piece of legislation, such as an amendment to a funding bill. But the prospects for that right now aren’t great.
Final Analysis
While it can seem that Congress could pass major legislation covering artificial intelligence at any moment, the reality is that legislators are still trying to understand the problem. Everyone knows what they want (all the benefits of AI), and what they don’t want (all the problems with AI), but they don’t have a solid plan on how to do it. Any major action is still months away; possibly longer. There are small pieces, such as the CREATE AI Act, that could move this year, but they will likely be the exception. CRA will continue to follow this issue and represent the computing and IT research community in these discussions. We will continue to make the case to policymakers that research is an important part of any national policy with regard to AI and that the computing research community needs to be involved.
FY24 Appropriations Update: Congress’ September To-Do List is Short but Contentious
/In: Funding, FY24 Appropriations, Research /by Brian MosleyLabor Day is fast approaching and that means Congress will return to Washington from its August recess. With it, the legislative body will be met with some major, yet typical, items on its September to-do list. The most significant being passing a continuing resolution to keep the federal government running after the start of Fiscal Year 2024.
It’s no longer a question of if a CR will be needed; neither chamber has passed all of their appropriations bills. With FY24 beginning on October 1st, Congress must act or risk a government shutdown. The Senate is further along, having passed all their bills through the Senate Appropriations Committee, and most on a bipartisan basis, but none have gotten to the full Senate for consideration. The House is more incomplete, having passed most, but not all, of their funding bills through their Approps Committee. But there are some important hold-ups; for example, we are still waiting on details of the House Commerce, Justice, Science bill, which contains the budgets for NSF, NIST, and NASA. Put simply, both chambers are not close to being done with their work, hence the need for a continuing resolution.
What’s the hold up? It’s the same recurring story: a group of hardline conservative members of the House GOP Caucus are demanding partisan policy provisions and significant reductions in federal spending to win their votes on any CR or spending legislation. Since the Republican majority in the House is so small, only four votes, this group is able to wield a great deal of influence over the process.
The House GOP leadership has to take their threats seriously; they can’t just cut a deal with House Democrats to move a spending bill. Back in June, after the Debt Limit Budget Agreement was signed into law, which this same group of Republican members voted against, they effectively shut down the House by refusing to vote with their caucus on any legislation. That could be repeated. Or they could call for a vote to remove Speaker McCarthy (R-CA) from his leadership position; you’ll recall from January how long it took to vote him into his position.
It is important to keep in mind that if Congress does not pass a CR, that means there is a lapse in funding authority and the government must shut down. That would be a worse-case scenario. To contextualize this for the research community, a government shutdown would mean researchers couldn’t access funds from their federal research grants or communicate with their research agency program officers. And, of course, any federal facilities, such as the national labs or governmental offices, would be closed until a funding bill was passed into law. It would create a serious disruption in the nation’s scientific enterprise; remember what happened the last time there was a shutdown.
It’s a complicated political game at the moment. There is agreement from both Senate Majority Leader Schumer (D-NY) and Speaker McCarthy that a CR is needed to keep the government open. But anything passed will not be in effective for long, again showing the influence of this block of House Republicans. Unfortunately, the process will need to play out more before we know how FY24 will be closed out; that will likely not happen until the very end of the year (or even be pushed into next year). And the threat of a government shutdown will continue to be there. CRA will keep monitoring the situation and report on any new developments.
Biden Administration Releases R&D Priorities Memo for Next Year’s Budget Request
/In: FY25 Appropriations, Policy, Research /by Brian MosleyLast week, the Biden Administration released a memo to the Federal research agencies outlining their research and development priorities for the Fiscal Year 2025 budget. The memo provides guidance to the agencies on how to prepare their budget request submissions for the Office of Management & Budget (OMB), who is the lead office in the White House tasked with assembling the yearly Presidential Budget Request (PBR).
Regular readers will recall, the first step in the federal budget process is the PBR, which is legally required to be submitted to Congress in early February (though it isn’t always submitted on time, as this past year demonstrated). Once the PBR is transmitted to Congress, the legislature then decides how money is legally allocated to the federal agencies through the appropriations process.
The memo identifies seven broad categories for the Administration’s R&D priorities:
Very little is new here, as all of these priorities are in line with the Administration’s FY24 budget requests, and the years before that. The one item that has fallen back from past years is pandemic readiness; while it had been its own category in past memos, for obvious reasons it is now a subpoint under “achieve better health outcomes for every person.” Other than that, the memo continues to show that the Biden Administration is prioritizing AI, national security, equity and inclusion, and national competitiveness in the nation’s R&D enterprise.
With Fiscal Year 2025 being the last budget of President Biden’s first term, there is the possibility that this will be the last time this Administration will direct the research agencies’ agendas. Should President Biden will a second term, we can expect these to continue to direct those agencies’ plans.
FY24 Appropriations Update: Senate Defense Research Numbers Released; Basic Research Does Well, Other Accounts Receive Cuts
/In: FY24 Appropriations, Research /by Brian MosleyAt the end of July, the Senate Appropriations Committee completed its work on its slate of Fiscal Year 2024 funding legislation. One of the last bills the committee voted on was their version of the Defense appropriations bill, which handles funding for the Department of Defense. With regard to research funding, the Senate’s plans are very good for basic, fundamental research, particularly for university research; but pretty bad in the applied and advanced technology development areas.
As a refresher, DOD’s Science and Technology program is made up of three accounts: 6.1 (basic research), 6.2 (applied research), and 6.3 (advanced technology development). These accounts are themselves made up of individual accounts for each of the three services (Army, Navy, and Air Force), as well as a Defense Wide account. DARPA, or the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is a section under the Defense Wide account.
The Senate’s plan is quite good for the defense basic research. Basic Research (6.1), which is the main Defense Department supporter of fundamental research at US universities, would receive a significant increase of 10.3 percent compared to its FY23 levels. Under the Senate’s plan, the account goes from $2.92 billion in FY23 to $3.22 billion for FY24, an increase of $300 million. That increase is fueled by plus-ups in the services’ “University Research Initiative” subaccounts: the Army’s subaccount increases by 64 percent, the Navy’s increases by 33 percent, and Air Force’s increases by 36 percent, and even the Space Force received a significant increase (281 percent) for its second year of funding for its research portfolio. The one exception to the good 6.1 news is the Defense-Wide account, which received an overall cut of about 7.0 percent.
The Applied Research (6.2) account is in a different spot, with a significant cut in funding under the Senate’s mark. The full account would see an 8.5 percent decrease compared to last year’s budget, going from $7.80 billion in FY23 to $7.14 billion under the Senate’s plan, a reduction of $660 million.
The Advanced Technology Development (6.3) account would also receive a significant cut under the Senate’s budget framework. It would go from $11.71 billion in FY23 to $10.00 billion in FY24, a decrease of $1.71 billion (or -14.6 percent).
Finally, DARPA would be flat funded under the Senate legislation. The agency would go from $4.06 billion in FY23 to $4.09 billion in FY24, an increase of less than 1.0 percent, or just $30 million.
While not perfect, the Senate’s budget mark is in sharp contrast to the other budget plans that have been proposed for the defense research accounts. The President’s budget request included cuts to all three S&T accounts, with 6.1 being reduced by 15 percent, 6.2 reduced by 23 percent, and 6.3 reduced by 20 percent. DARPA was the only account to escape cuts under the President’s plan and would increase by 6.5 percent. The details of the House plan were an improvement on the Administration’s request budget but not by much: cuts of 13.4 percent for 6.1; 13.7 percent for 6.2; 13.4 percent for 6.3. And DARPA would have seen an increase of 1.5 percent.
The Senate Appropriations Committee approved their Defense legislation on July 27th; the bill now heads to the full chamber for consideration. It’s unclear when that will happen, but it will be after the Senate comes back from its August recess. It’s hard to say where a final defense research budget will ultimately settle. The House and Senate are far apart with their budget plans, but defense spending is one of the few areas that the two chambers agree is important. But given the complex politics, particularly within the House chamber, it’s expected that Fiscal Year 2024 will take a lot of time and effort to close out. Talk of a months-long continuing resolution(s), and even a possible government lapse in funding (ie: a government shutdown), has already begun. CRA will continue to monitor the situation and report on any new develops; please keep checking back for the latest news.
Congressional Innovation Fellowships Accepting Applications for 2024 Class; Deadline to Apply August 22
/In: General, Misc., People /by Brian MosleyDo you have expertise in technological issues? Are you interested in how legislation impacts tech issues? There’s a Congressional fellowship for you! Tech Congress, an organization that, “gives talented technologists the opportunity to gain first-hand experience in federal policymaking and shape the future of tech policy,” is accepting applications for its 2024 class of Congressional Innovation Fellows.
The Congressional Innovation Fellowship is a program to, “bridg(e) the divide between Congress and the technology sector.” Tech Congress provides benefits and assistance in placement in a Congressional personal or committee office. The program has two levels, covering both “early – mid career technologists,” to get hands on experience working in Congress and learn about the policymaking process. This program has been running for several years, having been founded in 2015, and has over 95 alumni.
Tech Congress’ website has detailed information on what they’re looking for in applicants. If you’re interested in the intersection of public policy and technology, this is a great opportunity to pursue. They have two information calls scheduled for August 3 and 15. The deadline to submit applications is August 22.
FY24 Appropriations Update: Senate Provides Slight Increases for Energy Department Computing Research
/In: Funding, FY24 Appropriations, Research /by Brian MosleyContinuing our coverage of the Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) federal budget process, we turn to the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Energy and Water bill. This bill contains the budgets for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science (DOE SC) and ARPA-E, as well as funding for the Exascale Computing R&D program, for which DOE is the lead federal agency. The Senate Appropriators generally stuck to the May Debt Limit Agreement and provided either slight cuts or slight increases to the covered energy research programs. In short, a far cry from the generous budgets requested by the President in March but slightly better than what the House Appropriators approved.
The bill proposes a 4.1 percent increase for the Office of Science over FY23 enacted levels, bringing the agency’s budget to $8.43 billion for FY24 (an increase of $330 million). Within the Office of Science, the Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program, which houses the majority of the computing research at DOE, would see a decrease of 4.7 percent – going from $1.07 billion in FY23 to $1.02 billion for FY24, under the Senate’s plan.
Much like the last several years of ASCR budgets, that 4.7 percent decrease is deceptive. Similar to the specifics in the House’s budget plans, only part of the planned draw down of funds from the exascale construction accounts is moved over to the research subaccounts; typically, all the money is shifted over. Out of $63 million, the Senate is proposing only about $10 million be moved in the research side of the program. When accounting for this, the research subaccounts would receive a general 1.0 percent increase under the Senate’s plans.
In the committee’s report, the Senate appropriators voiced their support for the agency’s efforts in artificial intelligence and quantum information sciences. For AI, the committee provided not less than $135 million for artificial intelligence and machine learning efforts within the Office of Science. And for QIS, the committee provides not less than $255 million, with a breakdown of $120 million for research and $125 million for the five National Quantum Information Science Research Centers.
The appropriators also voiced their support for the Office of Science’s engagement plans with HBCUs and MSIs, with particular praise for the agency’s RENEW and FAIR programs, in order to build research capacity and further workforce development. This is in contrast to the House’s plans which eliminated funding for the programs with little justification. The Senate budget mark also support’s DOE’s EPSCoR program, recommending $35 million.
Finally, the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy, or ARPA-E, would receive a cut of $20 million, or a reduction of 4.3 percent compared to FY23 enacted levels. The agency would go from $470 million in FY23 to $450 million under the Senate’s FY24 plans. That is below the flat funding of the House’s mark and well below the $650 million plans that the Administration recommended.
The Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously approved their Energy and Water legislation on July 20th; the bill now heads to the full chamber for consideration. It’s unclear when that will happen, but it will likely be after the Senate comes back from its August recess. While the House and Senate are not far apart with their Energy and Water plans, at least as far as computing research is concerned, that is the exception with this year’s funding legislation. It is expected that Fiscal Year 2024 will take a lot of time and effort to close out. There is already talk of a months-long continuing resolution(s) and even a possible government lapse in funding (ie: a government shutdown). CRA will continue to monitor the situation and report on any new develops; please keep checking back for the latest news.
FY24 Appropriations Update: Senate Marks for NSF, NIST, NASA Released; NSF Would Receive Cut in Line with May Budget Agreement
/In: Funding, FY24 Appropriations /by Brian Mosley[Editor’s Note: This post was written by CRA’s new Tisdale Policy Fellow for Summer 2023, Fatima Morera Lohr.]
In our ongoing series covering the Fiscal Year 2024 budget, we turn to the Senate Appropriations Committee. In an unusual move, the Senate appropriators got ahead of their House counterparts and released several proposed pieces of funding legislation, with the Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) bill being one of them. This bill is of most concern to the computing research community, as it contains the budgets for the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and NASA. The Senate numbers in this funding legislation are in line with the nondefense funding targets set in the May Debt Limit Agreement; which is to say that the agencies generally received flat funding or cuts. Let’s get into the details.
First, NSF’s budget requires some explanation, particularly what the Senate appropriators are using as the agency’s FY23 baseline budget. Regular readers will recall that NSF received the majority of its historic, FY23 budget increase in the supplemental section of last year’s Omnibus bill. However, the Senate is not using the full funding that NSF received in FY23 as its baseline for comparison to FY24; they are ignoring the Chips Act supplemental funding, which accounts for about $335 million. When comparing the Senate FY24 mark to the FY23 levels, minus the supplemental funding, NSF appears to be flat funded under the Senate’s plans. However, when compared against the total funds NSF received in FY23, the cut is much deeper. In this article, we will compare the Senate numbers to the full amount that NSF received in FY23.
Under the Senate’s plan, NSF would receive a four percent cut, going from $9.90 billion in FY23, to $9.50 billion in FY24, a loss of $400 million. This is significantly less than the President’s proposed budget of $11.30 billion, released in March.
The cuts to NSF’s topline are not felt evenly at the agency. The Research and Related Activities (R&RA) account, which houses the agency’s research portfolio, would receive $7.61 billion for FY24, which is a cut of 2.5 percent or $200 million. The Directorate for STEM Education (EDU) would receive $1.23 billion, which represents a decrease of $140 million from FY23, or -10.2 percent. These numbers are below what the Administration requested in its budget plan earlier this year.
The funding policy provisions in the Committee’s report contain several items of importance to the computing research community. Within the report, the Committee expressed their support for the Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP) and provided up to $200 million for the Regional Innovation Engines; that is $100 million less than what was recommended in the agency’s budget request. In addition, the Committee also supports the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) providing, “no less than $275 million,” and directing to NSF to provide, “to the maximum extent practicable,” 16 percent of NSF research funding and 18 percent of scholarship funding to EPSCoR states. EPSCoR is NSF’s program to set aside funding for states that do not receive the majority of the agency’s funding, and has been a major Congressional priority for the last few years. The committee was also supportive of NSF’s efforts in artificial intelligence, quantum information science and high performance computing, as well as the agency’s broadening participation efforts.
Among the other research agencies in the legislation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) would be hit harder under the Senate’s plan. NIST would receive $1.45 billion for FY24, an 11 percent decrease, or $180 million less than it received in FY23 ($1.63 billion). On the other hand, the Science and Technical Research and Services (STRS), would receive $1.02 billion, an increase of $67 million,or +7.0 percent, over FY23. STRS contains the majority of the agency’s research portfolio. NIST’s total budget is below what was requested for the next fiscal year, while STRS’ is above the amount requested by the Biden Administration.
Finally, NASA’s budget is also looking at a decrease under the Senate’s plans. At the topline, NASA would receive $25 billion for FY24, a decrease of $400 million from FY23 levels (-1.50 percent). The agency’s Science account would be hit much harder than the topline, receiving $7.34 billion under the Senate’s mark, a decrease of -5.9 percent, or $460 million, from FY23 ($7.8 billion). The justification for the large cut to the NASA Science account, given in the Committee’s report, is to, “keep NASA’s near-term launches on track to continue progress in exploring our solar system and the universe, understanding the Sun, and observing our changing planet.”
The CJS bill was approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee on July 13th; it is unclear when it will be considered by the full Senate chamber. We are still waiting on the House Appropriations Committee to release the details of their CJS funding bill, but the expectation is that it will be made public in the next few days. As we have mentioned in previous articles about the Fiscal Year 2024 budget, the House and Senate are likely to be far apart with their funding plans. That will make closing out FY24 very difficult, and the politics surrounding federal spending will only make finishing the budget harder. We will have to allow the process to play out more before we have any clarity on the endgame for FY24. We will be monitoring the situation for any developments, so please check back for updates.