washington

Lewis: seeks double Clinton increase.

A key subcommittee of the US House of Representatives has proposed a funding increase for the National Science Foundation (NSF) of almost 7 per cent, suggesting that the agency could receive a substantial cash boost next year.

The foundation would get an extra $90 million to rebuild its research station at the South Pole, in the proposal agreed by the appropriations subcommittee chaired by Jerry Lewis (Republican, California).

The subcommittee's proposal has still to be passed by the full Appropriations Committee and the entire House, and then reconciled with a yet-to-be-determined Senate proposal. But the decision has already raised the hopes of scientific societies in Washington, which had called for a 7 per cent increase for the NSF earlier this year (see Nature 386, 7; 1997).

Officials of these organizations say the decision reflects a growing acceptance in the Congress that politicians will get credit for investing money in science — and indicates how the scientific community can have an impact on the process. “When people raise issues, the people in Congress do pay attention,” says Mike Lubell, head of public affairs at the American Physical Society.

Under a bill passed by Lewis's subcommittee on 17 June, the NSF would get $3.5 billion in the 1998 financial year which starts on 1 October next — 6.6 per cent more than last year, and just over twice the increase requested by the Clinton administration in February (see Nature 385, 569; 1997).

Most of the extra money would go to the Antarctic programme. But money for research in universities would also be increased by 4.3 per cent. The equivalent Senate subcommittee, which has been given a smaller allocation of money than Lewis's, is expected to offer less to the NSF. But advocates of the agency say they hope it will propose an increase greater than the anticipated rate of inflation.