Interesting People mailing list archives
how sausage is made
From: Dave Farber <dfarber () me com>
Date: Sun, 16 May 2010 12:35:55 -0400
Begin forwarded message:
From: Jim Turner <jameshturnerjr () gmail com> Date: May 16, 2010 12:19:02 PM EDT To: dave () farber net Subject: Re: [IP] A Note from Dr. Mary L. Good on the Future of the America COMPETES Act... Please Get Involved Now
Dave, The House Democratic Leadership has not announced what comes next on the COMPETES reauthorization, but further consideration of HR 5115 subject to a rule being granted is listed as a possibility on the House of Representatives floor schedule for this coming week. I would guess if further consideration of COMPETES happens this coming week, it will be Wednesday or Thursday. Under last week's rule for consideration of COMPETES, 54 amendments were made in order and I think 52 passed. The Rule also allowed for a motion to recommit by someone who is "opposed to the bill in its current form". For the past three and a half years, as the Minority party, the Republicans have made the motion to recommit something embarrassing or that splits the Democrats. In bills like this one, it generally has dealt with coal, and is written in a way that it is a tough vote for someone in a coal producing state. The last short while, these motions have escalated and even bills like COMPETES that were bipartisan last Congress are fair game today. A motion to recommit if it passes, is the House sending the bill back to committee and telling it to rewrite the bill in a specific way. The motion to recommit had all of the cuts in it that are described by Mary Good. It also had a provision that required agencies funded under the bill to fire employees who are found guilty of watching pornography and barring funds to campuses that do not allow military recruiters on them. There had been no discussion either of pornography or military recruitment in Committee or on the House floor, so Democratic members and probably rank and file Republicans outside of their leadership probably had no inkling about what was coming. The Republicans do not share motions to recommit in advance, so Members had to make an instant decision on what they are going to do. They had to vote ten minutes after the motion was revealed. Members had the choice of either voting "for pornography and against the military" or voting for increased funding and new programs in the bill. Members chose to stampede away from the text they had been perfecting for two days with half of the House Democrats and over half of the Democrats on the Committee voting for the motion. Vern Ehlers is the only Republican who was willing to vote against the motion. Chairman Gordon had scheduled a press conference right after anticipated passage so I don't think he saw it coming. The vote does not represent the true sentiment of the House had the pornography and recruiting amendments not been there. Substantially the same bill had passed in the Science Committee by a margin of almost three to one just two weeks earlier. The Republicans were not the only ones who placed limits on research programs for political purposes. The day before, on close to a party line vote, the Democrats had supported a successful amendment that would force agencies to hold up grant money to public universities who did not give unions all the information they wanted when they wanted it, in response to a UAW effort to organize post-docs in California. After the motion passed, the Leadership pulled the bill by postponing the vote on final passage. This is appropriate because the House through the motion to recommit had asked the Science Committee to work further on it. I can see two possibilities when floor consideration resumes. The Committee can send the Republican version back to the floor, hold the vote on final passage, and defeat the bill. This would show that the Members' intent was not to freeze these programs, but rather to be tough on pornography. Then a new rule could bring a new bill forward, perhaps the text of the bill before the motion to recommit with the pornography and military recruiter provisions included. The new rule would greatly limit debate and perhaps would even be a self-executing rule where if the rule passes, the underlying bill passes as well. Alternatively, the Science Committee could send back a version of the bill that does not reflect the wishes of the Congress as expressed in the motion to recommit. and the Rules Committee could issue z new rule that revises the rules for further consideration of HR 5115. I expect this second option would lead to the Republicans closing down the floor for the rest of the week and perhaps longer with procedural motions, but I don't expect either option to be pretty procedurally. The Democrats have to be assertive or else they are going to face similar situations when any other major bill comes up. The Republicans are going to be outraged if and when their victory is snatched from them. In his last statement during the debate, Mr. Gordon said that over 1000 organizations had expressed their support for the bill. I think it is important that there is as strong a showing of disappointment. If such a vote is followed with silence, then the path of least resistance becomes to let the clock run out on the legislation. Enactment of this bill was not a certainty even before last week's actions, and it becomes much harder now that things have turned so partisan. Time already is short for getting the bill done so an even bigger push is necessary to get it across the finish line. Jim Turner On Sun, May 16, 2010 at 10:54 AM, Dave Farber <dfarber () me com> wrote: Begin forwarded message:From: "Dr. Mary Lowe Good" <astranews () jangomail com> Date: May 16, 2010 8:44:24 AM EDT To: dave () farber net Subject: A Note from Dr. Mary L. Good on the Future of the America COMPETES Act... Please Get Involved NowA NOTE FROM DR. MARY GOOD Dear Friend of ASTRA: WHAT HAS HAPPENED: The full U.S. House of Representatives voted to recommit the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 on Thursday, May 13 on a 292-126 vote. This was a setback for many in our community. It occurred on an amendment by Ranking House Science & Technology Committee Member Ralph Hall (R-TX), who had previously warned about what he called "excessive spending" contained in the bill, H.R. 5116. Other provisions of Hall's proposal included: . Freezing all funding to FY 2010 appropriated levels for the National Science Foundation (NSF), DOE Office of Science, and the National Institutes of Standards & Technology (NIST). . Striking any new programs added to the original COMPETES Act. In effect, this would end several new initiatives like Energy Innovation Hubs and other prototype programs at the three agencies affected. . Ending the authorization at FY 2013 rather than FY 2015. WHAT'S NEXT? All Members of the U.S. House need to hear from us, IMMEDIATELY, both individually and through our various organizations, businesses and universities. Supporters of the bill have told ASTRA that it is going to come back this week - or soon thereafter - probably under a different bill number, with the funding restored and the programs restored. Then there will be another vote. This vote will be a critical decision by the U.S. House for our country's future. ACTIONS FOR NOW: 1. Get informed! Decide whether or not you yourself support this legislation. Bipartisan support for this bill is essential. Partisan differences over R&D funding are a great threat to our nation's future viability. Public education about the consequences of such trends needs to be focused on all concerned. ASTRA, among scores of organizations, is now able to provide timely, daily updates on issues and developing news through use of our two Web Sites. Please use them. (www.usinnovation.org and www.aboutastra.org) ASTRA has supported efforts like the COMPETES Act for a decade. We have used facts-based advocacy to make the case. For more details about what this bill would do for the nation's science, engineering and technology infrastructure and workforce, see an article compiled by MIT's Washington Office staff located here: http://www.usinnovation.org/files/UpdateAmerica%20COMPETESforCVD2010.pdf 2. Download our recently updated ASTRA State R&D Sheets and the STEM Ed Report Cards and forward them to your Member in the U.S House. These sheets are "value neutral." They objectively measure and depict the current importance of federal R&D funding to your own state's and your Congressional District's economy, your kids' future, and our country's economic competitiveness and innovation capacity. Please go to: http://www.usinnovation.org/state/state_rd_list.asp and use these materials. 3. Communicate with your own Member of the U.S. House immediately! One easy way to do so it for you to send an e-mail or just telephone your Representative's office. Simply use the handy Web tool provided by the U.S. House Clerk's Office found below. Follow the instructions provided by the link, and you will be connected to your Representative's office. You can e-mail, or make a phone call: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml Consider these talking points - and keep them simple by focusing on a few of them. Also, tell your Representative how your own experience as an individual fits into these talking points, if applicable - for example, how your business has benefitted from R&D investments, the role federal support played in your own education and careeer, how your local economy has benefitted by jobs from such investments, etc. . A key element of America's 21st Century economy - a robust workforce of trained scientific and engineering talent - cannot be allowed to leave our shores. Jobs and industries will surely continue following this talent migration if we under-invest in R&D. . Past federal investment in our scientific and engineering ecosystems was an essential element in creating the most effective economic engine in world history. R&D is the fuel for future U.S. jobs, economic growth, promoting national security and raising our standard of living. . The COMPETES Reauthorization Act is a bill that lays the basis for sustained funding increases in our nation's often neglected science, engineering and technology resources. Increases are needed now because of prior under-investment during the past generation. Under the guise of "saving money" we have suffered the consequences of not investing enough in our future. . Now is NOT the time, given our fiscal predicament, to stop INVESTING in America's "seed corn" - our world class R&D infrastructure. If anything, it is the time to INCREASE strategic investments to leverage our resources and talents. . Sabotaging our innovation future now by reducing the amount of future R&D funding is dangerous - and a false economy. Why undermine our own country's abilities to compete and innovate globally? . Our private sector simply lacks the capital and incentives to pick up the slack, especially in basic R&D investments. Wall Street and investors punish companies that are not riveted upon nearly immediate returns on capital. We cannot change that philosophy in the short term. . Prior under-investment in the science & technology community is one of the very reasons our country is in peril of losing our former dominance in many world markets and in scientific and engineering competence. COMPETES is an effort to catch up to where we should have been many years ago. . Let's not make science R&D a partisan issue. Please urge Congress to maintain its long-standing bipartisan support for science and engineering R&D funding. It's a matter of highest national priority. PLEASE SEND THIS MESSAGE ON TO OTHERS: This message has been sent to approximately 45,000 scientists, engineers, researchers, university employees, students, technology workers, policy makers, small business owners, researchers, individuals, and others on our "Friends" list. An estimated 175,000 people will be contacted by this message. Please send this on to any friends, associates and family who may share our interest in passing this critically important legislative measure... Urge your own professional, trade and civic organizations to look at this issue as well. Ask them to weigh in - perhaps they will want to express an opinion. If so, the time to do so is now, not after the horse has left the barn. Thank You! Mary Good This e-mail was sent by ASTRA, located at 1155 16th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036 (USA). To receive no further e-mails, please click here or reply to this e-mail with "unlist" in the Subject line.Archives -- Jim Turner, Senior Counsel and Director of Energy Programs Association of Public and Land Grant Universities 1307 New York Avenue NW, 4th Floor Washington, DC 20005 jameshturnerjr () gmail com 202-478-6049 APLU 202-684-5580 cell 703-534-0445 home 703-891-9432 efax
------------------------------------------- Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
Current thread:
- how sausage is made Dave Farber (May 16)