Public Policy - New & Notable

President's Budget Request Sustains S&T Investments
The President's FY2011 budget request calls for a 5.9% increase in overall federal spending on R&D (above FY2010 appropriated levels), keeping NSF, NIST and DOE's Office of Energy Sciences on the doubling path called for the in "Gathering Storm" report, but proposing to cancel the Constellation rocket, the centerpiece of NASA's human space flight program, in favor of technology development and robotic exploration.    budget highlights

Eye On Washington Newsletter - 21 Jan.
House Science Committee priorities, public access and scholarly publishing, cyberattacks, science and engineering indicators, IEEE-USA high tech immigration proposal and more.   current

Sign Up for Science, Engineering and Technology Congressional Visits
The annual Science, Engineering and Technology Congressional Visits Day (CVD) will be held on 28-29 April 2010and will focus on importance of sustaining federal investments in R&D.    more. 

NIST Unveils Smart Grid Standards Framework
NIST Director Patrick Gallagher announced the release of NIST's Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards, Release 1.0, at the IEEE Innovative Smart Technologies Conference on Jan. 19.     more. 

IEEE Launches Smart Grid Portal
On Jan. 19, IEEE launched the its Smart Grid Web Portal, an integrated gateway to Smart Grid intelligence, education and news designed for manufacturers, policymakers, educators, academics, governments, engineers, computer scientists, researchers and other stakeholders in the power and energy, information technology (IT), and communications industries.    more

Science and Engineering Indicators 2010 Report Released
Annual report by the National Science Board suggests that the state of U.S. science and engineering is strong, but that U.S. dominance of world science and engineering has eroded significantly in recent years, primarily because of rapidly increasing capabilities among East Asian nations, particularly China.     more

House Science Committee Outlines 2010 Priorities
The House Committee on Science and Technology will focus its efforts in 2010 on reauthorizing the America COMPETES Act, advancing clean energy technology, building the high-tech workforce, protecting natural resources, exploring space, building intelligent transportation infrastructures, using technology to enhance security, and restoring scientific integrity.    more

Scholarly Publishing Report Outlines Recommendations
on Federal Public Access Policy
A small panel of stakeholders convened by the House Science and Technology Committee in consultation with the President's Office of Science and Technology Policy has outlined a set of recommendations regarding federal public access policies that attempts to accommodate the interests of scholarly publishers while enhancing access to peer reviewed research publications.     more

White House Names Cybersecurity Coordinator
The White House has named Howard Schmidt, a cybersecurity advisor, president of the International Security Forum, and former security officer for Microsoft and Ebay, as the national Cybersecurity Coordinator, with responsibility for orchestrating government strategy for protecting the nation's information infrastructure.    more

OSTP Launches Policy Forum on Public Access
to Federally Funded Research
As part of open government initiative, OSTP invites public comment on the extent and under what circumstances research articles—funded by taxpayers but with value added by scholarly publishers—should be made freely available on the Internet.    more

Also see IEEE-USA's Eye on Washington

Updated:  02 February 2010
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