Washington

President Bush. Credit: C. DHARAPAK/AP

George W. Bush's re-election on 2 November and his party's increased clout in Congress leave him in an even stronger position to set the national agenda on research, say science lobbyists.

The administration's scientific A-team looks set to stay — Elias Zerhouni is likely to remain the director of the National Institutes of Health and Bush appointee Arden Bement is on course to run the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The day after the election, Paul Gilman, head of research and development at the Environmental Protection Agency, said that he was leaving for a position in the private sector. The agency's chief, Mike Leavitt, has only held his post for a year, but some agency officials suggest that he may now move to a cabinet-level position, possibly as secretary of the interior.

Bush's energy secretary, Spencer Abraham, is also likely to move. “I would be very, very surprised if he stuck around for another four years,” says one physics lobbyist. An Associated Press report suggests that Abraham may take Norman Mineta's job as transportation secretary.

Bush's science adviser, Jack Marburger, has given no indication of his plans.

Bement, the director of the National Institutes of Standards and Technology, was selected by Bush in September to lead the NSF. Formal nomination and confirmation by the Senate should come quickly, allowing Bement to assume permanent control of the agency, which he has been running as acting director since February.

Zerhouni, who is two-and-a-half years into a six-year term, is widely expected to stay on. His boss, the health secretary Tommy Thompson, has said in interviews that he may leave, although no official announcement has been made.

And observers of NASA predict that its administrator, Sean O'Keefe, will stay — at least until the space shuttle is flying again. John Logsdon, head of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University in Washington DC, suspects that, after that, O'Keefe “would like another position, more related to national security”.

Additional reporting by Geoff Brumfiel.