Washington

With the Republicans wresting control of the US Senate from the Democrats in last week's mid-term elections, science leaders are starting to worry about the outlook for science funding in the United States.

Fears are growing that the Republican's dominance of both houses in the Congress will spell trouble for the future budgets of key science agencies. Prominent scientists are also worried that there will now be delays in the payment of grants and funds for building new facilities.

The priority for the Republican leadership over the next two months is the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. This means that long-standing disagreements over the 2003 budget are likely to wait until the new year.

“This will create some real problems for science,” says Mike Lubell, director of public affairs at the American Physical Society. This December, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was set to begin handing out grants from a massive $3.7-billion boost it had expected to receive as the final instalment of a five-year budget-doubling process. And the National Science Foundation (NSF) was hoping to start building several projects and facilities that may now be delayed.

A bill that would have recommended doubling the NSF's budget over the next five years may also be in peril because the White House is reportedly not in favour of it (see Nature 419, 657; 200210.1038/419657b).

The Republican takeover of the Senate will also stoke the debate over therapeutic cloning, says Kevin Wilson, director of public policy at the American Society for Cell Biology. In July of 2001, the House of Representatives passed a bill banning reproductive and research cloning. Since then the Senate has been debating whether cloning for research purposes should be allowed. That debate may shift under the leadership of Trent Lott (Republican, Mississippi), who is expected to take over as Senate Majority Leader, and who has opposed cloning in the past.

But a total ban is thought to be unlikely. “There are still some conservative Republicans who support research cloning,” says Joanne Padrón-Carney, director of the Center for Science, Technology and Congress at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Two such advocates, Arlen Specter (Republican, Pennsylvania) and Orrin Hatch (Republican, Utah), will chair committees that could prove influential in the debate.

Wilson still believes that the research community must redouble its efforts to convince Congress and the Bush administration of the virtues of research cloning. “Last year there was a threat of a comprehensive cloning ban,” he says. “That threat has become a little more real to us.”

The shift of power may signal difficult years ahead for research funding, scientists fear, as the recession and a possible Iraq conflict push research further down the priority list. “In the coming year,” says Lubell, “I think the discretionary budget for science is going to be exceedingly tight.”

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Victory: Republicans celebrate winning control of Congress in the mid-term elections.

B. ALKOFER/GETTY IMAGES