US science faces big chill

Published online 4 January 2011 | Nature 469, 9-10 (2011) | doi:10.1038/469009a
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/1101...=NEWS-20110111

Yet the last-minute push stands in contrast to a record that in many ways fell short of the expectations raised when the Democrats took charge of Congress in 2006, and Barack Obama became president in 2008. A House bill that included a cap-and-trade scheme for carbon emissions died in the Senate last year. Another to explicitly permit federal funding of human embryonic stem-cell research never made it to a vote. Legislation to tighten controls on toxic chemicals was introduced but failed to gain momentum.

In the Congress that convenes this week, the House of Representatives will be in Republican hands, making it even more likely that politically volatile bills, such as those involving climate change, environmental regulations and stem cells, will fail to advance. Less certain is the extent to which science will be hit by the spending cuts promised by the Republicans.

Currently, most of the US government is in a fiscal holding pattern, kept afloat by a 'continuing resolution' that extends the 2010 budget until 4 March. For many agencies this is already bad news. At the $31-billion National Institutes of Health (NIH), for example, it means a hoped-for increase of $750 million in the 2011 budget has effectively evaporated.

The best possible outcome for the NIH in 2011 would be "to maintain funding at 2010 levels", says David Moore, senior director for governmental relations at the Association of American Medical Colleges in Washington DC. But as the Republicans have proposed reducing non-defence spending to 2008 levels, even that seems a remote prospect. "It is relatively easy to see some sort of across-the-board cut imposed on federal agencies," says Moore.

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