Washington

Congress is poised to spike a White House plan to transfer the Sea Grant programme from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The National Sea Grant College Program, which supports research into pollution, sea-food safety and fisheries management, is strongly supported by members of Congress from coastal regions, who want NOAA to stay in charge.

At a hearing on 28 February of a subcommittee of the House of Representatives' science committee, scant support was voiced for the transfer, and four of the five witnesses strongly opposed it. They argued that the hallmark of Sea Grant — its links to local communities and organizations — would be lost if it moved to the NSF.

The House resources committee has already approved a bill that would keep the programme at NOAA for another five years, and the science committee is likely to follow suit. Rick DeVoe, president of the Sea Grant Association, says a bill in the Senate will be developed soon.

“We are optimistic that the House will be able to bring legislation to the floor in the coming months that will reauthorize Sea Grant at NOAA and provide the programme with a robust funding increase,” says Carolyn Thoroughgood, president of the Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education, which lobbies for oceanographic research. But the funding increase, at least, remains uncertain, congressmen say.

If the transfer is derailed in Congress, it will be the second time this year that a plan by the White House Office of Management and Budget to widen the NSF's remit has failed. Its proposed transfer to the NSF of three Smithsonian Institution research centres was abandoned in January (see Nature 415, 252; 2002).