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January 16, 2015
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CONGRESS AND THE BUDGET
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SEQUESTER IN THE CROSS-HAIRS
 The
GOP chairs of House and Senate armed services committees are opposed to
the across-the-board cuts that would occur if Congress fails to reach a
budget agreement within caps set by the 2011 Budget Control Act. "I'm
pretty much open to any solution that would fix sequestration," House
committee chair Mac Thornberry (R-Tex.) says. Politico
interprets the statement as meaning Thornberry is not ruling out a tax
hike if needed to pull off a budget deal. The panel's top Democrat,
Adam Smith of Washington, has "vocally advocated for the repeal of
sequestration," CQ reports. Senate Armed Services chair John McCain
(R-Ariz.) "is also a critic of sequestration cuts to the military." He
won't get any argument from the White House. Bloomberg reports
that President Obama will propose a 7 percent budget increase, with
defense and nondefense sectors each getting about $34 billion more than
allowed by the BCA caps.
APPROPRIATOR'S DOZEN: Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), right, though seen as lacking the hard-charging
drive of his predecessor as Senate Appropriations chair, Barbara
Mikulski (D-Md.), nonetheless sounds intent on getting all 12 spending
bills through the Senate -- and even allowing floor time for
amendments. CQ reports that Cochran will use as his model the fiscal
2006 appropriations cycle, when he last headed the panel. That year saw
even the divisive Interior-Environment bill enacted a full two months
before the start of the next fiscal year. He'll get support from
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who "has vowed to set aside
plentiful floor time for spending bills."
r&D on drones: The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee plans a hearing
next Wednesday afternoon on unmanned aerial systems R&D, with
testimony from, among others, John Lauber, co-chair of the National
Research Council Committee on Autonomy research for Civil Aviation;
John Hansman, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, and
senior NASA and Federal Aviation Administration officials. In the
Senate, the first hearing of the GOP-led Commerce, Science, and
Transportation Committee will be on "Protecting the Internet and consumers through congressional action."
IN THE (GREEN) CARDS: Reintroduced
bipartisan Senate legislation would, say its sponsors, increase access
to green cards for high-skilled workers by "expanding the exemptions
and eliminating the annual per-country limits for employment-based
green cards." It also allows the number of H1-B visas to grow
"depending on the demands of the economy," lifting the current 20,000
cap on advanced-degree exemptions. Fees could be used to "promote
American worker training and education." The Association of American
Universities reports that the bill "contains a number of provisions AAU has advocated."
ESEA REAUTHORIZATION: The Elementary and Secondary Education Act, also known as No Child Left Behind, is
getting serious attention despite deep political divisions over the
Common Core and regular testing. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) new
chair of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, will
lead a hearing
Wednesday entitled "Fixing No Child Left Behind: Testing and
Accountability." He has been circulating a draft with the working
title, "Every Child Ready for College or Career Act." It calls for
states to adopt "challenging" academic standards, which would need to
be aligned with higher ed entrance requirements.
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DATA
POINTS
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18- TO 34-YEAR-OLDS ARE . . .
. . . BECOMING BETTER EDUCATED
Percentage of bachelor's-degree holders.
Median earnings for full-time workers (in 2013 inflation-adjusted dollars).
. . . more likely to live with a parent
Percent with income below the poverty level in the previous 12 months.
. . . postponing marriage
Percentage of 18-34-year-olds who never married.
. . . MORE LIKELY TO BE MINORITIES
Percent of population 18 to 34 who reported their ethicity and race as something other than non-Hispanic white.
SOURCE: Bureau of the Census, Young Adults Then and Now.
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THE ADMINISTRATION AND RESEARCH AGENCIES
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 THE STEM WORKFORCE . . . is the topic of a forthcoming report by the National Science Board
-- a companion to the 2014 Science and Engineering Indicators. Judging
from a conference call today to which the public was allowed to listen,
the NSB expects it to be "quite powerful" and useful to the nation.
Report drafters struggled with a definition of STEM and the distinction
between STEM and science and technology (S&T). Members also
lamented that much of the data will be five years old when the report
is published. Exactly when that will be is still uncertain.
NOMINATIONS ARE DUE jAN. 20 for the Vannevar Bush Award,
a tribute to a U.S. citizen who has demonstrated "outstanding
leadership and accomplishment in at least two" of five criteria.
'REsponders of the future': That's
the subject of a "national conversation on homeland security
technology" that the Department of Homeland Security wants to foster.
DHS seeks insights on situational awareness; communications; command,
control, and coordination; responder health, safety, and performance;
logistics and resource management; and training and exercise needs. Join the talkfest.
FASTER INNOVATION TO FIGHT CANCER: The
National Institutes of Health hopes to "accelerate the translation of
technologies, methods, assays or devices, and/or systems for
preclinical or clinical
molecular diagnosis, in vitro imaging or spectroscopy that are designed
to solve a targeted cancer problem." Academic-industrial partnerships
are encouraged to apply. Find out more.
FREE WORKSHOP: The
American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, together
with the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering
and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences is holding
the fifth in a series of workshops on "validation and qualification of
new in-vitro tools and models for the pre-clinical drug discovery
process." It's Feb. 12 at NIH. Learn more.
JUST ABOUT ANY RESEARCH that's
energy-related, "potentially disruptive," and "transformational" can
compete in the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy's Open 2015
funding opportunity. The agency plans to spend up to $125 million;
individual awards will range from $1 million to $10 million.
Areas can include electricity generation (renewable and non-renewable),
storage, and distribution; energy efficiency for  buildings,
manufacturing and commerce, and personal use; and all aspects of
transportation, "including the production and distribution of both
renewable and non-renewable fuels, electrification, and energy
efficiency in transportation." Notices of intent are due Feb. 20;
concept papers Feb. 27.
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NATIONAL ACADEMIES
WHAT WORKS: The National Research Council has issued a primer on
undergraduate teaching and learning in science and engineering,
addressing which strategies are most effective in developing students'
knowledge and skills and how practitioners can apply these strategies
to their own courses or suggest "new approaches within their
departments or institutions." It claims "the best thinking to date."
Sections include "Clarifying the Muddiest Points in an Engineering
Class" and "Science and Engineering Practices and Authentic
Experiences."
e4u2 is the second Engineering for You video contest sponsored
by the NAE. The grand prize is $25,000 and the deadline is March 2.
It's intended to highlight "how engineering will create a more
sustainable, healthy, secure and-or joyous world by addressing the NAE
Grand Challenges for Engineering."
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PUBLIC
POLICY
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FALLING OFF THE PERCH: An editorial in the journal JAMA
warns that "the U.S. position as a global leader in biomedical research
is being undermined." One indicator after another "demonstrates
numerous other countries outpacing the United States in their
commitment to research." U.S. medical research spending rose only 0.8
percent per year between 2004 and 2012.
IN A SIMILAR VEIN, the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology finds that
"shorfalls in federal funding and rising administrative costs have
constrained research budgets." While "a highly productive system of
research training has generated a growing population of scientists,"
research institutions "are requiring more of their scientists to seek
external funds to support research activities and pay salaries."
A SURVEY by
the American Institute of Physics seeks "informal feedback about
employment opportunities at [Department of Defense] science and
engineering laboratories." The aim is to "help identify areas for
potential investigation that will ensure DoD labs are able to recruit
the best available science and engineering talent." AIP asks that the survey responses be turned in by Feb. 13.
173,807: That's the number of solar workers in the United States, according to the 2014 jobs report
by the Solar Foundation. The industry added 31,000 jobs last year. But
a CQ article quotes the report as saying that with the 30 percent
investment tax credit on the report due to shrink to 10 percent in
2017, the industry "is likely to slow or may even experience
significant job losses."
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ASEE
& COMMUNITY NEWS
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REGISTER NOW FOR THE PUBLIC POLICY COLLOQUIUM
The annual event of
the Engineering Deans Council brings deans together in Washington D.C.
with policymakers, members of Congress and their staffs, and leaders of
research agencies.
ATTENTION, DEANS AND DEPARTMENT CHAIRS Please
help ASEE provide high-quality professional development to engineering
and engineering technology faculty by answering a few questions about how much you would be
willing to pay for faculty professional development and what areas of
professional development you are most interested in for your faculty.
Click the link below to access the survey.
cALL FOR NOMINATIONS - ASEE MID-ATLANTIC SECTION: The
section annually recognizes an outstanding engineering or engineering
technology educator from the section with a Distinguished Teaching
Award. This individual is then nominated by the section for ASEE's
National Outstanding Teaching Medal. The section award, presented at
the spring meeting, consists of a $500 honorarium and a certificate of
recognition. The awards chair is Paul Butler (PButler_OCC@hotmail.com).
The section's next meeting will be April 10-11 at Villanova University.
HAVE THE LAST WORD: Do
you have a strong argument to make about some aspect of engineering
education or the profession? Submit an op-ed-style essay for the Last
Word section of Prism. Read the guidelines.
ETLI 2014 VIDEOS: A playlist of videos
from the Engineering Technology Leadership Institute includes a short
testimonial video, two panels, and Greg Pearson of the National Acadmy
of Engineering.
VIDEO INTERVIEWS:
Leaders at NSF and the Navy Discuss the Future of
Engineering
Watch interviews with NSF Assistant Director for
Engineering Pramod Khargonekar, who talks
about exciting
NSF projects and opportunities for ASEE members, and Rear Admiral David Johnson, who discusses
the
importance of technology to the U.S. Navy and where naval research is
headed. The videos are part of
ASEE’s Advanced
Research Monitor Interview Series.
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EDITOR:
Mark Matthews; MASTHEAD DESIGN by Francis Igot.
To read previous issues of Capitol Shorts, click here.
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