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.
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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.
Last week the House of Representatives passed their version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Also known as the defense policy bill, this is yearly, must-pass legislation that covers policy and spending requirements at the Defense Department. The bill included a number of controversial amendments around social issues included to garner the support of harder line members of the House Republican caucus. The bill also includes an amendment creating an onerous new reporting requirement for anyone engaging in research with the DOD.
Proposed by Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), the amendment would require any researcher (which is defined broadly and could include undergrads) taking part in DOD funded research to disclose, on a publicly accessible federal government website:
their date and place of birth, nationality, and immigration status if a foreign national;
education from undergrad onwards;
professional and employment background;
all research and publications (publications is defined very broadly and includes personal writings);
professional society affiliations, both US and foreign; and
past or current involvement in a foreign talent recruitment program.
PIs would have to disclose this information at the time of application and within 90 days of a new person coming onto the project. Additionally, each PI would yearly need to disclose, “any direct, indirect, formal, or informal collaboration that…either independently or as the lead of the covered program, [the PI] enters into with any third party persons or entities, including the identity and nationality of the third party collaborator, the nature of the collaboration (whether direct, indirect, formal or informal) and the terms and conditions of such collaboration.” Banks’ rationale for such heavy-handed rules is to respond to and stop the Chinese government’s attempts to exfiltrate the results of federally funded research. Beyond the data disclosure, there is no other obvious mechanism included to mitigate any potential research security risks.
Science Magazine covered the subject and quoted Alex Aiken, of Stanford University and Vice Chair of the CRA Government Affairs Committee. “Yes, research security is a real issue,” says Alex Aiken, “But this seems excessive. What purpose would it serve? And why should it all be made public?”
In addition to the burden, there are concerns that such a reporting requirement could give away information on the state of the federal defense research system. As Dr. Aiken said, “Public disclosure means foreign governments can use the information, too…And I’m sure those countries would learn a great deal about the network of connections of the U.S. research community from these disclosures.”
CRA is highly concerned about this language being included in the NDAA. Research security is a serious issue, and agencies like DOD and NSF have been working with the research community to identify ways to mitigate those risks without damaging the collaborative research ecosystem that has been so immensely productive for the nation. It’s not clear that language like this will strengthen those efforts — instead it appears to add a remarkably onerous burden on all researchers working on Defense problems without providing any mechanism for actually mitigating risks. CRA plans to work with our friends and allies, both in Congress and the policy community, to lay out the case that this language is likely to cause more harm than good to the nation’s defense research community.
The defense policy bill passed the full House of Representatives last week. We now will wait to see the Senate version of the NDAA; it is expected to be made public soon with an eye to passing through the chamber next week. While the Senate version is unlikely to contain similar language — and our understanding is that the DOD has also indicated it has issues with it as well — ultimately both chambers will have to agree upon the provisions that will end up in the final bill, and the Banks language will be a part of that negotiation. CRA will continue to track this matter and will report on any new developments.
Continuing our coverage of the Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) federal budget process, we turn to the House 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. Unfortunately, the House Appropriations Committee is recommending flat funding for the DOE SC research accounts.
Under the House’s plan, the Office of Science would be funded at the same amount it was funded in FY23: $8.10 billion. Within the Office of Science, the Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program, which houses the majority of the computing research at DOE, would receive an overall cut of 4.7 percent – going from $1.07 billion in FY23 to $1.02 billion for FY24. Regular readers will recall that the President’s budget request from March recommended an 8.6 percent increase to the Office of Science and a 4.7 increase for ASCR.
There is some good news in the details for ASCR. Much of the decrease is from planned reductions in the exascale construction accounts. What has happened in past budgets is that the money that is moved out of those accounts, would then be shifted to the research side of the program. The House appropriators only did that in part this year, with about $10 million moved to the research subaccounts, while the remaining ~$50 million was placed elsewhere in the bill. From a research point of view, this would represent a slight increase.
Unfortunately, that’s where the good news ends. In the committee’s report, the House appropriators also zeroed out the budgets for the Reaching a New Energy Sciences Workforce (RENEW) and Funding for Accelerated, Inclusive Research (FAIR) programs, whose aims are to expand and diversifying the researcher workforce and institutions that DOE works with for the research they perform. No justification was given in the report beyond describing them as part of the Justice40 Initiatives, a priority of the Biden Administration. As well, during the full committee markup, an amendment from Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) was adopted on a party-line vote which would prohibit, “funding for any Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office, training, or program,” at the Energy Department.
Finally, the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy, or ARPA-E, would also be flat funded, receiving $470 million for FY24, the same amount it received in FY23. No details were given in the committee’s report for ARPA-E’s budget.
FY23
FY24 PBR
FY24 House
$ Change
% Change
DOE SC Total
$8.10B
$8.80B
$8.10M
$0
—
ASCR
$1.07B
$1.12B
$1.02B
-$50M
-4.7%
ARPA-E
$470M
$650M
$470M
$0
—
What’s going on here? With regard to funding levels, this is the House Republican Caucus moving forward with their agenda in line with the May Debt Limit Agreement. Their stated aim was to get federal spending under control, and this funding bill is working to that end. With regard to eliminating the DEI programs, this is likely both finding funds to put toward more favored projects, as well as political attacks on Administration priorities. Given the character of legislative work in the House, where it is a majority rules system, the House Republicans have the ability to push their agenda through the chamber.
The House Appropriations Committee approved their bill on June 22nd; next step is for it to go before the full House chamber for passage. Once the bill clears the House floor, we have to wait and see what happens with the Senate slate of funding bills. It is safe to say that the Senate Democrats will not agree with the House’s plans. In fact, they are likely to be far apart. That will set up its own difficult dynamic for closing out Fiscal Year 2024. A continuing resolution is an almost certainty right now, and a lapse in government spending (ie: a government shutdown) is looking very possible. But we are far enough from the end of the Federal fiscal year (October 1st) that outcomes could change. Please check back for more updates.
Following the Debit Limit Agreement that President Biden and House Speaker McCarthy (R-CA) signed at the end of May, the appropriations process for Fiscal Year 2024 started up in earnest. That agreement, which set specific funding marks for defense and nondefense spending, is already appearing to break down, with the House Appropriations Committee saying that the agreed to spending “marks,” were actually “ceilings” that they could work under. In response, the Senate Appropriations Committee has said they will adhere to the funding strictures set in the agreement. This sets up a difficult dynamic where the House and Senate will likely have wildly different budget plans, making a final, compromise decision on FY24 spending very difficult, if not impossible. All the same, that disagreement has not stopped the process from moving forward in both chambers.
The House Appropriations Committee has taken the lead and begun its work to craft their spending plans and legislation. As we have done in years past, CRA will examine the House and Senate’s budget plans for each federal research agency of note to the computing community and provide a summary and breakdown. The first agency to check is the Department of Defense (DOD) and the House’s defense appropriations bill.
Taking a step back, DOD’s Science and Technology (DOD S&T) 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. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a section under the Defense Wide account.
Regular readers will recall that the Administration’s requested budget for these accounts, released in March, was very bad. Unfortunately, the House appropriators’ plan, while better than what the Administration proposed, isn’t an objectively good budget. This situation has recurred several times over the last few years, with the House appropriators working from the Administration’s request but not from the agencies’ previous year’s budgets. While Congress has ultimately passed into law healthy budgets for defense research, given the previously mentioned budget agreement, general federal funds are likely to be hard to come by this year; so, where does that leave accounts like these?
Getting into the details of the House’s plan, Basic Research (6.1) would receive a significant cut of 13.4 percent compared to its FY23 levels. The account would decrease from $2.92 billion in FY23 to $2.53 billion for FY24, a reduction of $399 million. There is no good news in the details: the individual services all received cuts to their 6.1 programs (Army: -14.9 percent; Navy: -4.6 percent; Air Force: -3.8 percent; and Defense-wide: -20.2 percent). And, digging a little deeper into the details, none of the service’s “University Research Initiative” subaccounts would see plus ups, only cuts.
The Applied Research (6.2) account is in much the same shape; objectively bad compared to last year’s budget but good compared to the Administration’s request. The full account would see a 13.7 percent cut compared to last year’s budget, decreasing from $7.80 billion in FY23 to $6.73 billion under the House’s plan (a loss of $1.07 billion).
Finally, the Advanced Technology Development (6.3) account would also receive a cut under the House’s framework. It would go from $11.71 billion in FY23 to $9.33 billion in FY24, a cut of $1.57 billion (or -13.4 percent).
Finally, DARPA would not escape the bad budget numbers under the House’s plan. The agency’s budget would increase from $4.06 billion in FY23 to $4.12 billion in FY24, an increase of only 1.5 percent (or +$60 million). For all intents and purposes, the DARPA is flat funded. President Biden had recommended $4.39 billion for the research agency, which would have been an 8.1 percent increase.
FY23
FY24 PBR
FY24 House
$ Change
% Change
DOD 6.1
$2.92B
$2.48B
$2.53B
-$399M
-13.4%
DOD 6.2
$7.80B
$6.01B
$6.73B
-$1.07B
-13.7%
DOD 6.3
$11.71B
$9.33B
$10.14B
-$1.57B
-13.4%
DARPA
$4.06B
$4.39B
$4.12B
+$60M
+1.5%
As with the last several years, CRA and our colleagues in the research advocacy community will continue to make the case that support for these fundamental and applied research lines are critical to ensuring the Defense Department has the technology base it needs to meet the threats we face now and in the future. We will have to wait and see what the Senate’s plans are for defense research; hopefully they are better.
What happens next? The bill was approved by the full House Appropriations Committee on June 22nd. It now heads to the full House for consideration, where it is likely to be passed. Then we will have to wait for the Senate to release their plan for the Defense department. The good news there is that the Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to release their mark in regular order, something they have not done in several years. However, the general view in Washington is that the appropriations process will break down at the conference stage. That is because of the previously mentioned disagreement with overall funding levels; both chambers are working with different numbers, and they are far apart. This is looking to be a very long and difficult year for the Federal budget; please keep checking back for more updates.
[Editor’s Note: This post was written by CRA’s new Tisdale Policy Fellow for Summer 2023, Fatima Morera Lohr.]
On Thursday, June 22 the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology held a hearing on Artificial Intelligence: Advancing Innovation Towards the National Interest to discuss different ways the federal government can utilize Artificial Intelligence (AI) in a, “trustworthy and beneficial manner for all Americans.” The committee heard from several witnesses from government, academia, and industry about the risks and benefits of the technology and, “how to promote innovation, establish proper standards, and build the domestic AI workforce.”
In his opening statement, Science Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-OK) highlighted that, even though the United States is in the lead in AI research, the gap with other countries is narrowing. In particular, he called attention to a Stanford University report which, “ranked universities by the number of A.I. papers they published,” and, “found that nine of the top ten universities were based in China;” only one U.S. school was on the list, at number 10 (MIT). At the same time, Chairman Lucas made clear that advances in AI do not have to come at the expense of, “safety, security, fairness, or transparency.” At several points during the hearing, Lucas, other committee members, and the witnesses discussed “embedding our (ie: American) values in the technology will be key and have long last[ing] impacts.” Finally, Chairman Lucas talked about the national interest need to ensure the country has a, “robust innovation pipeline that supports fundamental research, all the way through to real-world applications,” and that, “the academic community, the private sector, and the open-source community,” need, “to help us figure out how to shape the future of this technology.”
Following the chairman’s remarks, Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren’s (D-CA)opening statement supported Lucas’ view that the federal government needs to, “strike a balance that allows for innovation and ensures the U.S. maintains leadership.” She continued that, “at a minimum, we need to be investing in the research and workforce to help us develop the tools we will need going forward.” Rep. Lofgren finished her opening statement by listing several challenges that she wanted to tackle in the hearing: intersection of AI and intellectual property, research infrastructure and workforce challenges, and what the Science Committee should focus on in this field.
The witnesses represented views from government, industry, and the academic research communities, and the panelists shared how each area is tackling their unique challenges with adapting and adopting AI. Dr. Jason Matheny, President and CEO of RAND Corporation, who has experience at OSTP and the National Security Council in the Obama Administration, provided a view on government actions. Dr. Shahin Farshchi, General Partner at Lux Capital gave an investor perspective from industry. Clement Delangue, Co-founder and CEO of Hugging Face, had a different industry outlook, being an entrepreneurial immigrant to the United States. Dr. Rumman Chowdhury, Responsible AI Fellow at Harvard University, presented the researcher’s perspective. Finally, Dr. Dewey Murdick, Executive Director of the Center for Security and Emerging Technology, provided a think tank view on the matter. They reiterated the need for the federal government to continue supporting research in AI in order for the country to continue being the world leaders, while simultaneously reaping the benefits and mitigating the risk of the technology.
All witnesses shared the view that the country needs to become more comfortable with the idea that AI is here to stay. There was also discussion about the positive impact technology can have for the country, when used correctly. Matheny spoke about the role the federal government can play in, “advanc[ing] AI in a beneficial and trustworthy manner for all Americans,” and outlined the different actions the federal government could take in order to make AI as trustworthy as possible. The need to provide researchers with resources was also a common theme, echoed by both Farshchi and Matheny, particularly if the U.S. wants to stay in front of China.
Delangue commented on the need for open systems since, “open systems foster democratic governance and increased access, especially to researchers, and can help to solve critical security concerns by enabling and empowering safety research.” He also commented on how not all the data is available even by open research organizations. On the other hand, Chowdhury spoke about the duality of AI, how it can be both useful and harmful; “while it has immense capability, like many other high-potential technologies, it can also be used for harm by both malicious and well-intentioned actors.” Murdick agreed with Chowdhury regarding the need to recognize both sides of technology, saying “we need to learn when to trust our AI teammates and when to question or ignore them.”
During the hearing, Chairman Lucas made the point that, “these advances do not have to come at the expense of safety, security, fairness, or transparency,” and that no one, including the nation as a whole, should have to compromise their values to reap the benefits of AI technology. This hearing is likely to be just one of many that the Science Committee will hold concerning artificial intelligence. And, at present, Congress is full of ideas, proposals, and legislative ideas on how to handle AI. Case in point, the day before the hearing, Senate Majority Leader Schumer (D-NY) announced his “SAFE Innovation Framework” for potentially regulating the technology. This is far from the last word on the matter from Congress, so the computing research community will need to stay involved and be aware of matters. CRA will continue to monitor this issue and report on any new developments.
Research Security, defined by NSF as, “safeguarding of the U.S. enterprise against the misappropriation of research and development,” has become an issue of importance in government circles, particularly in Congress, over the past few years. Several parts of the Federal Government have taken steps to counter threats, and perceived threats, from foreign adversaries, with China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran being the main countries of concern. There are several examples of these efforts, such as the Department of Justice now shuttered “China Initiative;” several pieces of legislation, such as the Chips and Science Act, passed by Congress directing Federal research agencies to develop policies and procedures to combat these threats; and in the closing days of the Trump Administration, National Security Presidential Memorandum 33 (NSPM-33), directing OSTP to develop guidance to clear up conflicts of interest, so research agencies know where researchers are receiving support, while also providing a framework of penalties for deliberate noncompliance or evasion of these requirements. Much of these efforts are directed at the Chinese central government, who is seen as both the main geopolitical rival to the United States and a country engaged in exfiltration of US taxpayer funded research efforts and findings.
Hence NSF’s research security announcement. The guidelines prohibit NSF program officers from engaging with principal investigators (PIs) directly on any research security matters. Instead, NSF staff are required to forward any concerns to the OCRSSP, who will look into the discrepancies. As well, OCRSSP will not engage directly with PIs; instead, they will engage with the PI’s institution (Section 6.2, page 10). Within the document, NSF makes a point that OCRSSP’s use of these analytics are designed only to identify, “potential compliance inconsistencies,” and are not actual “investigations.” Investigations are considered part of the Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) mission and are more serious. There is particular emphasis that “human oversight” (Section 10, page 15) is present at all levels of analysis and must be well documented; “no information on individuals may be reported and no adverse action may be taken based solely on a potential inconsistency without human verification of the matching criteria.” Finally, in Section 8 (page 12), which covers permissible and prohibited practices, OCRSSP staff are not allowed to make inquiries that are, “explicitly or implicitly designed to return the identities of individuals of a specific national origin or racial identity.” There are several examples included in Section 8 on prohibited practices.
It appears that NSF has struck a careful balance with their guidelines. It restricts activities between NSF and the institutions, sparing PIs from dealing with NSF directly or with a heavy-handed OIG investigation, while being very clear on permissible and prohibited practices by OCRSSP and NSF program staff. The prohibition on broad racial, ethnic, or citizenship searches should satisfy a key concern about the agency’s research security efforts (ie: that they could easily be fueled by racial or ethnic profiling), while also keeping humans in the loop for oversight. In practice, how the research community responds to these new practices will depend on how OCRSSP staff conduct themselves in clearing up the discrepancies they find. But it appears, at the moment, that the right guardrails are in place. CRA will continue to monitor the situation and keep tabs on how the other research agencies roll out their research security plans in the near future.
Over the weekend, President Biden and House Speaker McCarthy (R-CA) agreed to a deal over the nation’s debt limit and federal spending. That deal, and its accompanying legislation, is quickly approaching its fate, with a vote late Wednesday in the House of Representatives. That is the make-or-break point; if the legislation can’t pass the closely divided House, it will not make it through the even more closely divided Senate. But what is in this legislation?
The deal that was struck has impacts on the Federal budget. Both the White House and House Republicans released breakdowns of what was agreed to. As with past budget deals, it keeps the defense vs nondefense pots of federal spending. Non-defense spending will be kept “roughly flat” for Fiscal Year 2024 (ie: the year that starts on Oct 1 and is currently being worked on by Congress) and will increase by 1 percent for FY2025. Defense spending will increase by 3.3 percent for FY2024 and 1 percent for FY2025. There are no caps set after FY2025, only, “non-enforceable appropriations targets,” according to the White House document.
As a bit of an aside: there is also an unusual section of the legislation which imposes a 1 percent cut on current Federal funding in the event a continuing resolution is passed by Congress. Given that Congress has consistently not been able to pass the federal budget on time, we are likely to see this happen come October 1st.
Perhaps of most significance for a “debt limit deal,” it also suspends the nation’s debt limit until the 2025 calendar year, bypassing next year’s Presidential election.
Finally, the deal also has several provisions unrelated to the nation’s debt limit or the overall Federal budget. These include such things as work requirements for people on food assistance programs, fast-track approval of a West Virginia natural gas pipeline, protecting veterans’ healthcare spending, cuts to the IRS’ budget, and rescinding unspent COVID related spending, among other provisions.
How does this impact research funding: while the deal doesn’t explicitly cut scientific research, it makes a difficult budget situation worse. With nondefense spending, which includes most of the federal research funding portfolio, kept flat for this coming fiscal year, it will make fully funding the Chips & Science Act more unlikely. Science had a particularly good write-up on the impacts, with reactions from people within the science policy community.
But will the deal be passed into law? It’s hard to tell at this point. There is a lot of grumbling on both sides: Progressive Democrats feel it cuts too much from social programs; Freedom Caucus Republicans feel it doesn’t cut spending enough; defense hawks feel defense spending is too constrained; and environmentalists are unhappy with this fast-track approval for natural gas pipeline. One way of looking at it is this is natural grumbling to a compromise where everyone got something, but not everything. Or it could be the beginning of the legislation’s demise and the nation defaulting on its debt; with Congress so closely divided, it’s hard to say at the moment. The House will be voting on it today and all eyes in Washington are watching the proceedings closely. We’ll update should events change.
UPDATE 6/2/23: The Senate passed the debt limit deal last night, sending it to President Biden’s desk for signing into law. During floor consideration in the Senate, Senate Majority Leader Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader McConnell (R-KY) issued a joint statement and had it included in the Congressional Record:
JOINT STATEMENT FROM SENATE LEADERS
We share the concern of many of our colleagues about the potential impact of sequestration and we will work in a bipartisan, collaborative way to avoid this outcome.
Now that we have agreed on budget caps, we have asked Appropriations Committee Chair Senator Murray and Vice Chair Senator Collins to set the subcommittee caps and get the regular order process started.
To accomplish our shared goal of preventing sequestration, expeditious floor consideration will require cooperation from Senators from both parties. The Leaders look forward to bills being reported out of committee with strong bipartisan support. The Leaders will seek and facilitate floor consideration of these bills with the cooperation of Senators of both parties.
Schumer, in additional remarks, went further, saying that this legislation (edited for brevity): “does nothing to limit the Senate’s ability to appropriate emergency/supplemental funds to ensure our military capabilities are sufficient to…respond to ongoing and growing national security threats, including Russia’s ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine, our ongoing competition with China…or any other emerging security crisis; nor does this…limit the Senate’s ability to appropriate emergency/supplemental funds to respond to various national issues, such as disaster relief, or combating the fentanyl crisis, or other issues of national importance.”
News reports are categorizing the joint statement and Senator Schumer’s remarks as essential to get defense hawks to back the deal. But what do these statements do in relation to what was just passed into law?
Put simply, Congress can pass a new law that suspends previously enacted legislation. In this case, the Senate could pass supplemental funding bills that suspends or go around these agreed-to caps. But such legislation would then have to move to the House of Representatives, controlled by Speaker McCarthy and the Republican House Caucus, for consideration. In all likelihood, the House would not agree to such a move, calling it a violation of the debt limit deal, and the legislation would be dead. Of course, the House could surprise everyone and agree to such a move, suspending the deal that was just agreed on. Again, there is no law Congress can pass that it can’t suspend, as long as both chambers agree (and the President will sign into law).
This doesn’t mean these caps aren’t in place, or that they can be ignored out-of-hand. What it means is that going around or suspending the caps will require another agreement between the President, House Republicans, and the Senate. It’s an exit clause, of sorts, but not an easy one to use. We’ve been through this before with past budget-debt-limit deals, where funding caps were suspended or raised. The unfortunate reality is that the research community will have to cope with two years of budget caps again. On the brighter side, if past is prologue, there will likely be another grand budget deal negotiated at the end of the year (though such an outcome is not guaranteed). We’ll keep following the federal budget and will report on any new developments, so please keep checking back for updates.
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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.
House Defense Policy Legislation Contains Proposed Onerous Reporting Requirements for Scientists Performing Defense Research
/In: Defense R&D Highlights, Impediments to Research Highlights, People, Policy, R&D in the Press /by Brian MosleyLast week the House of Representatives passed their version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Also known as the defense policy bill, this is yearly, must-pass legislation that covers policy and spending requirements at the Defense Department. The bill included a number of controversial amendments around social issues included to garner the support of harder line members of the House Republican caucus. The bill also includes an amendment creating an onerous new reporting requirement for anyone engaging in research with the DOD.
Proposed by Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), the amendment would require any researcher (which is defined broadly and could include undergrads) taking part in DOD funded research to disclose, on a publicly accessible federal government website:
PIs would have to disclose this information at the time of application and within 90 days of a new person coming onto the project. Additionally, each PI would yearly need to disclose, “any direct, indirect, formal, or informal collaboration that…either independently or as the lead of the covered program, [the PI] enters into with any third party persons or entities, including the identity and nationality of the third party collaborator, the nature of the collaboration (whether direct, indirect, formal or informal) and the terms and conditions of such collaboration.” Banks’ rationale for such heavy-handed rules is to respond to and stop the Chinese government’s attempts to exfiltrate the results of federally funded research. Beyond the data disclosure, there is no other obvious mechanism included to mitigate any potential research security risks.
Science Magazine covered the subject and quoted Alex Aiken, of Stanford University and Vice Chair of the CRA Government Affairs Committee. “Yes, research security is a real issue,” says Alex Aiken, “But this seems excessive. What purpose would it serve? And why should it all be made public?”
In addition to the burden, there are concerns that such a reporting requirement could give away information on the state of the federal defense research system. As Dr. Aiken said, “Public disclosure means foreign governments can use the information, too…And I’m sure those countries would learn a great deal about the network of connections of the U.S. research community from these disclosures.”
CRA is highly concerned about this language being included in the NDAA. Research security is a serious issue, and agencies like DOD and NSF have been working with the research community to identify ways to mitigate those risks without damaging the collaborative research ecosystem that has been so immensely productive for the nation. It’s not clear that language like this will strengthen those efforts — instead it appears to add a remarkably onerous burden on all researchers working on Defense problems without providing any mechanism for actually mitigating risks. CRA plans to work with our friends and allies, both in Congress and the policy community, to lay out the case that this language is likely to cause more harm than good to the nation’s defense research community.
The defense policy bill passed the full House of Representatives last week. We now will wait to see the Senate version of the NDAA; it is expected to be made public soon with an eye to passing through the chamber next week. While the Senate version is unlikely to contain similar language — and our understanding is that the DOD has also indicated it has issues with it as well — ultimately both chambers will have to agree upon the provisions that will end up in the final bill, and the Banks language will be a part of that negotiation. CRA will continue to track this matter and will report on any new developments.
FY24 Appropriations Update: House Appropriators Recommend Flat Funding for Energy Department Research Programs
/In: Funding, FY24 Appropriations, Research /by Brian MosleyContinuing our coverage of the Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) federal budget process, we turn to the House 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. Unfortunately, the House Appropriations Committee is recommending flat funding for the DOE SC research accounts.
Under the House’s plan, the Office of Science would be funded at the same amount it was funded in FY23: $8.10 billion. Within the Office of Science, the Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program, which houses the majority of the computing research at DOE, would receive an overall cut of 4.7 percent – going from $1.07 billion in FY23 to $1.02 billion for FY24. Regular readers will recall that the President’s budget request from March recommended an 8.6 percent increase to the Office of Science and a 4.7 increase for ASCR.
There is some good news in the details for ASCR. Much of the decrease is from planned reductions in the exascale construction accounts. What has happened in past budgets is that the money that is moved out of those accounts, would then be shifted to the research side of the program. The House appropriators only did that in part this year, with about $10 million moved to the research subaccounts, while the remaining ~$50 million was placed elsewhere in the bill. From a research point of view, this would represent a slight increase.
Unfortunately, that’s where the good news ends. In the committee’s report, the House appropriators also zeroed out the budgets for the Reaching a New Energy Sciences Workforce (RENEW) and Funding for Accelerated, Inclusive Research (FAIR) programs, whose aims are to expand and diversifying the researcher workforce and institutions that DOE works with for the research they perform. No justification was given in the report beyond describing them as part of the Justice40 Initiatives, a priority of the Biden Administration. As well, during the full committee markup, an amendment from Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) was adopted on a party-line vote which would prohibit, “funding for any Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office, training, or program,” at the Energy Department.
Finally, the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy, or ARPA-E, would also be flat funded, receiving $470 million for FY24, the same amount it received in FY23. No details were given in the committee’s report for ARPA-E’s budget.
What’s going on here? With regard to funding levels, this is the House Republican Caucus moving forward with their agenda in line with the May Debt Limit Agreement. Their stated aim was to get federal spending under control, and this funding bill is working to that end. With regard to eliminating the DEI programs, this is likely both finding funds to put toward more favored projects, as well as political attacks on Administration priorities. Given the character of legislative work in the House, where it is a majority rules system, the House Republicans have the ability to push their agenda through the chamber.
The House Appropriations Committee approved their bill on June 22nd; next step is for it to go before the full House chamber for passage. Once the bill clears the House floor, we have to wait and see what happens with the Senate slate of funding bills. It is safe to say that the Senate Democrats will not agree with the House’s plans. In fact, they are likely to be far apart. That will set up its own difficult dynamic for closing out Fiscal Year 2024. A continuing resolution is an almost certainty right now, and a lapse in government spending (ie: a government shutdown) is looking very possible. But we are far enough from the end of the Federal fiscal year (October 1st) that outcomes could change. Please check back for more updates.
FY24 Appropriations Update: The House’s Defense Research Budget is Very Bad, Even Though It Is Better than the Administration’s
/In: Funding, FY24 Appropriations, Research /by Brian MosleyFollowing the Debit Limit Agreement that President Biden and House Speaker McCarthy (R-CA) signed at the end of May, the appropriations process for Fiscal Year 2024 started up in earnest. That agreement, which set specific funding marks for defense and nondefense spending, is already appearing to break down, with the House Appropriations Committee saying that the agreed to spending “marks,” were actually “ceilings” that they could work under. In response, the Senate Appropriations Committee has said they will adhere to the funding strictures set in the agreement. This sets up a difficult dynamic where the House and Senate will likely have wildly different budget plans, making a final, compromise decision on FY24 spending very difficult, if not impossible. All the same, that disagreement has not stopped the process from moving forward in both chambers.
The House Appropriations Committee has taken the lead and begun its work to craft their spending plans and legislation. As we have done in years past, CRA will examine the House and Senate’s budget plans for each federal research agency of note to the computing community and provide a summary and breakdown. The first agency to check is the Department of Defense (DOD) and the House’s defense appropriations bill.
Taking a step back, DOD’s Science and Technology (DOD S&T) 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. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a section under the Defense Wide account.
Regular readers will recall that the Administration’s requested budget for these accounts, released in March, was very bad. Unfortunately, the House appropriators’ plan, while better than what the Administration proposed, isn’t an objectively good budget. This situation has recurred several times over the last few years, with the House appropriators working from the Administration’s request but not from the agencies’ previous year’s budgets. While Congress has ultimately passed into law healthy budgets for defense research, given the previously mentioned budget agreement, general federal funds are likely to be hard to come by this year; so, where does that leave accounts like these?
Getting into the details of the House’s plan, Basic Research (6.1) would receive a significant cut of 13.4 percent compared to its FY23 levels. The account would decrease from $2.92 billion in FY23 to $2.53 billion for FY24, a reduction of $399 million. There is no good news in the details: the individual services all received cuts to their 6.1 programs (Army: -14.9 percent; Navy: -4.6 percent; Air Force: -3.8 percent; and Defense-wide: -20.2 percent). And, digging a little deeper into the details, none of the service’s “University Research Initiative” subaccounts would see plus ups, only cuts.
The Applied Research (6.2) account is in much the same shape; objectively bad compared to last year’s budget but good compared to the Administration’s request. The full account would see a 13.7 percent cut compared to last year’s budget, decreasing from $7.80 billion in FY23 to $6.73 billion under the House’s plan (a loss of $1.07 billion).
Finally, the Advanced Technology Development (6.3) account would also receive a cut under the House’s framework. It would go from $11.71 billion in FY23 to $9.33 billion in FY24, a cut of $1.57 billion (or -13.4 percent).
Finally, DARPA would not escape the bad budget numbers under the House’s plan. The agency’s budget would increase from $4.06 billion in FY23 to $4.12 billion in FY24, an increase of only 1.5 percent (or +$60 million). For all intents and purposes, the DARPA is flat funded. President Biden had recommended $4.39 billion for the research agency, which would have been an 8.1 percent increase.
As with the last several years, CRA and our colleagues in the research advocacy community will continue to make the case that support for these fundamental and applied research lines are critical to ensuring the Defense Department has the technology base it needs to meet the threats we face now and in the future. We will have to wait and see what the Senate’s plans are for defense research; hopefully they are better.
What happens next? The bill was approved by the full House Appropriations Committee on June 22nd. It now heads to the full House for consideration, where it is likely to be passed. Then we will have to wait for the Senate to release their plan for the Defense department. The good news there is that the Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to release their mark in regular order, something they have not done in several years. However, the general view in Washington is that the appropriations process will break down at the conference stage. That is because of the previously mentioned disagreement with overall funding levels; both chambers are working with different numbers, and they are far apart. This is looking to be a very long and difficult year for the Federal budget; please keep checking back for more updates.
Congressional Hearing Asks Tough & Important Questions About Artificial Intelligence
/In: Artificial Intelligence, People, Policy, Research /by Brian Mosley[Editor’s Note: This post was written by CRA’s new Tisdale Policy Fellow for Summer 2023, Fatima Morera Lohr.]
On Thursday, June 22 the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology held a hearing on Artificial Intelligence: Advancing Innovation Towards the National Interest to discuss different ways the federal government can utilize Artificial Intelligence (AI) in a, “trustworthy and beneficial manner for all Americans.” The committee heard from several witnesses from government, academia, and industry about the risks and benefits of the technology and, “how to promote innovation, establish proper standards, and build the domestic AI workforce.”
In his opening statement, Science Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-OK) highlighted that, even though the United States is in the lead in AI research, the gap with other countries is narrowing. In particular, he called attention to a Stanford University report which, “ranked universities by the number of A.I. papers they published,” and, “found that nine of the top ten universities were based in China;” only one U.S. school was on the list, at number 10 (MIT). At the same time, Chairman Lucas made clear that advances in AI do not have to come at the expense of, “safety, security, fairness, or transparency.” At several points during the hearing, Lucas, other committee members, and the witnesses discussed “embedding our (ie: American) values in the technology will be key and have long last[ing] impacts.” Finally, Chairman Lucas talked about the national interest need to ensure the country has a, “robust innovation pipeline that supports fundamental research, all the way through to real-world applications,” and that, “the academic community, the private sector, and the open-source community,” need, “to help us figure out how to shape the future of this technology.”
Following the chairman’s remarks, Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren’s (D-CA) opening statement supported Lucas’ view that the federal government needs to, “strike a balance that allows for innovation and ensures the U.S. maintains leadership.” She continued that, “at a minimum, we need to be investing in the research and workforce to help us develop the tools we will need going forward.” Rep. Lofgren finished her opening statement by listing several challenges that she wanted to tackle in the hearing: intersection of AI and intellectual property, research infrastructure and workforce challenges, and what the Science Committee should focus on in this field.
The witnesses represented views from government, industry, and the academic research communities, and the panelists shared how each area is tackling their unique challenges with adapting and adopting AI. Dr. Jason Matheny, President and CEO of RAND Corporation, who has experience at OSTP and the National Security Council in the Obama Administration, provided a view on government actions. Dr. Shahin Farshchi, General Partner at Lux Capital gave an investor perspective from industry. Clement Delangue, Co-founder and CEO of Hugging Face, had a different industry outlook, being an entrepreneurial immigrant to the United States. Dr. Rumman Chowdhury, Responsible AI Fellow at Harvard University, presented the researcher’s perspective. Finally, Dr. Dewey Murdick, Executive Director of the Center for Security and Emerging Technology, provided a think tank view on the matter. They reiterated the need for the federal government to continue supporting research in AI in order for the country to continue being the world leaders, while simultaneously reaping the benefits and mitigating the risk of the technology.
All witnesses shared the view that the country needs to become more comfortable with the idea that AI is here to stay. There was also discussion about the positive impact technology can have for the country, when used correctly. Matheny spoke about the role the federal government can play in, “advanc[ing] AI in a beneficial and trustworthy manner for all Americans,” and outlined the different actions the federal government could take in order to make AI as trustworthy as possible. The need to provide researchers with resources was also a common theme, echoed by both Farshchi and Matheny, particularly if the U.S. wants to stay in front of China.
Delangue commented on the need for open systems since, “open systems foster democratic governance and increased access, especially to researchers, and can help to solve critical security concerns by enabling and empowering safety research.” He also commented on how not all the data is available even by open research organizations. On the other hand, Chowdhury spoke about the duality of AI, how it can be both useful and harmful; “while it has immense capability, like many other high-potential technologies, it can also be used for harm by both malicious and well-intentioned actors.” Murdick agreed with Chowdhury regarding the need to recognize both sides of technology, saying “we need to learn when to trust our AI teammates and when to question or ignore them.”
During the hearing, Chairman Lucas made the point that, “these advances do not have to come at the expense of safety, security, fairness, or transparency,” and that no one, including the nation as a whole, should have to compromise their values to reap the benefits of AI technology. This hearing is likely to be just one of many that the Science Committee will hold concerning artificial intelligence. And, at present, Congress is full of ideas, proposals, and legislative ideas on how to handle AI. Case in point, the day before the hearing, Senate Majority Leader Schumer (D-NY) announced his “SAFE Innovation Framework” for potentially regulating the technology. This is far from the last word on the matter from Congress, so the computing research community will need to stay involved and be aware of matters. CRA will continue to monitor this issue and report on any new developments.
NSF Releases Guidelines for Research Security Analytics Practices
/In: Impediments to Research Highlights, Policy, Research, Security /by Brian MosleyLast week the National Science Foundation released their long-anticipated guidelines covering their internal guidance for research security data-related practices. In their announcement, NSF said these, “guidelines are one of several NSF activities demonstrating that the principles of open science can align with research security standards.” The guidelines were released on the website of the Office of Chief of Research Security Strategy and Policy (OCRSSP).
Research Security, defined by NSF as, “safeguarding of the U.S. enterprise against the misappropriation of research and development,” has become an issue of importance in government circles, particularly in Congress, over the past few years. Several parts of the Federal Government have taken steps to counter threats, and perceived threats, from foreign adversaries, with China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran being the main countries of concern. There are several examples of these efforts, such as the Department of Justice now shuttered “China Initiative;” several pieces of legislation, such as the Chips and Science Act, passed by Congress directing Federal research agencies to develop policies and procedures to combat these threats; and in the closing days of the Trump Administration, National Security Presidential Memorandum 33 (NSPM-33), directing OSTP to develop guidance to clear up conflicts of interest, so research agencies know where researchers are receiving support, while also providing a framework of penalties for deliberate noncompliance or evasion of these requirements. Much of these efforts are directed at the Chinese central government, who is seen as both the main geopolitical rival to the United States and a country engaged in exfiltration of US taxpayer funded research efforts and findings.
Hence NSF’s research security announcement. The guidelines prohibit NSF program officers from engaging with principal investigators (PIs) directly on any research security matters. Instead, NSF staff are required to forward any concerns to the OCRSSP, who will look into the discrepancies. As well, OCRSSP will not engage directly with PIs; instead, they will engage with the PI’s institution (Section 6.2, page 10). Within the document, NSF makes a point that OCRSSP’s use of these analytics are designed only to identify, “potential compliance inconsistencies,” and are not actual “investigations.” Investigations are considered part of the Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) mission and are more serious. There is particular emphasis that “human oversight” (Section 10, page 15) is present at all levels of analysis and must be well documented; “no information on individuals may be reported and no adverse action may be taken based solely on a potential inconsistency without human verification of the matching criteria.” Finally, in Section 8 (page 12), which covers permissible and prohibited practices, OCRSSP staff are not allowed to make inquiries that are, “explicitly or implicitly designed to return the identities of individuals of a specific national origin or racial identity.” There are several examples included in Section 8 on prohibited practices.
It appears that NSF has struck a careful balance with their guidelines. It restricts activities between NSF and the institutions, sparing PIs from dealing with NSF directly or with a heavy-handed OIG investigation, while being very clear on permissible and prohibited practices by OCRSSP and NSF program staff. The prohibition on broad racial, ethnic, or citizenship searches should satisfy a key concern about the agency’s research security efforts (ie: that they could easily be fueled by racial or ethnic profiling), while also keeping humans in the loop for oversight. In practice, how the research community responds to these new practices will depend on how OCRSSP staff conduct themselves in clearing up the discrepancies they find. But it appears, at the moment, that the right guardrails are in place. CRA will continue to monitor the situation and keep tabs on how the other research agencies roll out their research security plans in the near future.
The Debt Limit Deal and How it Could Impact Research Funding
/In: Funding, FY24 Appropriations, Impediments to Research Highlights, Policy, Research /by Brian MosleyOver the weekend, President Biden and House Speaker McCarthy (R-CA) agreed to a deal over the nation’s debt limit and federal spending. That deal, and its accompanying legislation, is quickly approaching its fate, with a vote late Wednesday in the House of Representatives. That is the make-or-break point; if the legislation can’t pass the closely divided House, it will not make it through the even more closely divided Senate. But what is in this legislation?
The deal that was struck has impacts on the Federal budget. Both the White House and House Republicans released breakdowns of what was agreed to. As with past budget deals, it keeps the defense vs nondefense pots of federal spending. Non-defense spending will be kept “roughly flat” for Fiscal Year 2024 (ie: the year that starts on Oct 1 and is currently being worked on by Congress) and will increase by 1 percent for FY2025. Defense spending will increase by 3.3 percent for FY2024 and 1 percent for FY2025. There are no caps set after FY2025, only, “non-enforceable appropriations targets,” according to the White House document.
As a bit of an aside: there is also an unusual section of the legislation which imposes a 1 percent cut on current Federal funding in the event a continuing resolution is passed by Congress. Given that Congress has consistently not been able to pass the federal budget on time, we are likely to see this happen come October 1st.
Perhaps of most significance for a “debt limit deal,” it also suspends the nation’s debt limit until the 2025 calendar year, bypassing next year’s Presidential election.
Finally, the deal also has several provisions unrelated to the nation’s debt limit or the overall Federal budget. These include such things as work requirements for people on food assistance programs, fast-track approval of a West Virginia natural gas pipeline, protecting veterans’ healthcare spending, cuts to the IRS’ budget, and rescinding unspent COVID related spending, among other provisions.
How does this impact research funding: while the deal doesn’t explicitly cut scientific research, it makes a difficult budget situation worse. With nondefense spending, which includes most of the federal research funding portfolio, kept flat for this coming fiscal year, it will make fully funding the Chips & Science Act more unlikely. Science had a particularly good write-up on the impacts, with reactions from people within the science policy community.
But will the deal be passed into law? It’s hard to tell at this point. There is a lot of grumbling on both sides: Progressive Democrats feel it cuts too much from social programs; Freedom Caucus Republicans feel it doesn’t cut spending enough; defense hawks feel defense spending is too constrained; and environmentalists are unhappy with this fast-track approval for natural gas pipeline. One way of looking at it is this is natural grumbling to a compromise where everyone got something, but not everything. Or it could be the beginning of the legislation’s demise and the nation defaulting on its debt; with Congress so closely divided, it’s hard to say at the moment. The House will be voting on it today and all eyes in Washington are watching the proceedings closely. We’ll update should events change.
UPDATE 6/2/23: The Senate passed the debt limit deal last night, sending it to President Biden’s desk for signing into law. During floor consideration in the Senate, Senate Majority Leader Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader McConnell (R-KY) issued a joint statement and had it included in the Congressional Record:
Schumer, in additional remarks, went further, saying that this legislation (edited for brevity): “does nothing to limit the Senate’s ability to appropriate emergency/supplemental funds to ensure our military capabilities are sufficient to…respond to ongoing and growing national security threats, including Russia’s ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine, our ongoing competition with China…or any other emerging security crisis; nor does this…limit the Senate’s ability to appropriate emergency/supplemental funds to respond to various national issues, such as disaster relief, or combating the fentanyl crisis, or other issues of national importance.”
News reports are categorizing the joint statement and Senator Schumer’s remarks as essential to get defense hawks to back the deal. But what do these statements do in relation to what was just passed into law?
Put simply, Congress can pass a new law that suspends previously enacted legislation. In this case, the Senate could pass supplemental funding bills that suspends or go around these agreed-to caps. But such legislation would then have to move to the House of Representatives, controlled by Speaker McCarthy and the Republican House Caucus, for consideration. In all likelihood, the House would not agree to such a move, calling it a violation of the debt limit deal, and the legislation would be dead. Of course, the House could surprise everyone and agree to such a move, suspending the deal that was just agreed on. Again, there is no law Congress can pass that it can’t suspend, as long as both chambers agree (and the President will sign into law).
This doesn’t mean these caps aren’t in place, or that they can be ignored out-of-hand. What it means is that going around or suspending the caps will require another agreement between the President, House Republicans, and the Senate. It’s an exit clause, of sorts, but not an easy one to use. We’ve been through this before with past budget-debt-limit deals, where funding caps were suspended or raised. The unfortunate reality is that the research community will have to cope with two years of budget caps again. On the brighter side, if past is prologue, there will likely be another grand budget deal negotiated at the end of the year (though such an outcome is not guaranteed). We’ll keep following the federal budget and will report on any new developments, so please keep checking back for updates.