House SST Committee Holds Hearing on The State of U.S. Science and Technology
On February 5, the House Science, Space, and Technology (SST) Committee invited a panel of four experts across the science, research, and higher education communities for a hearing on the state of U.S. Science and Technology. The hearing explored the roles of public and private research and development (R&D) entities, strengthening national security, and addressing the recent freeze in federal funding enacted by the Trump Administration (see previous COSSA coverage). Witnesses included Heather Wilson, President of the University of Texas at El Paso and member of the National Science Board (NSB), Walter Copan, Vice President for Research and Technology Transfer at Colorado School of Mines, Sudip Parikh, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Publisher at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and Samuel Hammond, Chief Economist at the Foundation for American Innovation.
In his opening remarks, Chairman Brian Babin (R-TX) highlighted the importance of collaboration between the federal government, academia, and the philanthropic and private sectors to the U.S. science and technology enterprise. Despite not acknowledging the recent federal funding freeze, he underscored Congress’ role in protecting and promoting R&D investments through tax reform, reducing bureaucratic red tape, and safeguarding intellectual property rights. Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), however, expressed her discontent with the federal funding freeze, noting that, “for many decades there has been bipartisan consensus that the federal role in basic research is essential.”
Some Republican members of the committee echoed Chairman Babin’s statements, calling for strengthening public-private partnerships and facilitating federal R&D investments to reap the most effective results. Rep. Vince Fong (R-CA) inquired about the absence of federal cooperation barring greater participation from the private sector, to which Copan emphasized the need for stronger inter-agency collaboration with support from Congress to navigate such legislative hurdles. This need for continued federal funding and presence in the research sector was underscored by Copan’s earlier opening remarks stating that the high value and return rates of public sector R&D aren’t appropriately appreciated.
Recognizing the crackdown on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) practices (see COSSA coverage), Ranking Member Lofgren’s opening remarks emphasized the threat of China and underscored the need for federal investments in science and technology in addition to tapping into sources of scientific talent from all walks of global life to maintain U.S. global leadership. In agreement with Lofgren, some Democratic committee members stressed their concerns over the recent actions regarding DEI policies, federal R&D funding, and dwindling support of talent pipelines through higher education. To this end, Dr. Parikh agreed that “we are hurting our own enterprise with self-inflicted wounds,” referring to the U.S. closing itself off to international collaboration and the damage caused by the federal spending freeze to young scientists.
Statements from Chairman Babin, witness testimonies, and a recording of the hearing are available on the SST Committee website.
This article was contributed by COSSA Intern Sarah Wang.