COMPETES Act revived?

A legislative measure that would increase funding to the National Science Foundation and other federal science agencies may get a second chance at passage after Republicans attempted to linkurl:kill the bill;https://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/57409/ last week. Rep. Bart GordonImage: United States CongressChairman of the linkurl:U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology;https://science.house.gov/ Bart Gordon (D-TN) announced yesterday (18th May) that he'd be reintro

Written byBob Grant

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Rep. Bart Gordon
Image: United States Congress

Chairman of the linkurl:U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology;https://science.house.gov/ Bart Gordon (D-TN) announced yesterday (18th May) that he'd be reintroducing the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010, and that the bill would be considered "under suspension" by the committee today. The "under suspension" move means that the bill cannot be amended and that it must pass through the committee with two-thirds of the vote, rather than a simple majority. House Republicans have already amended this version of the bill, linkurl:H.R. 5116,;https://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c111:1:./temp/~c1110fOY2s:: shortening its reauthorization period from five to three years and inserting language that bans the use of the act to pay salaries of federal employees disciplined for looking at pornography at work (a reference to NSF staff who were caught doing so). "While I certainly would have preferred the stability a five-year authorization would have given our science agencies, I am willing to compromise with the Minority, in the interest of getting a good bill through the House and to our colleagues in the Senate," Gordon said in a linkurl:statement.;https://science.house.gov/press/PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=2840 "This legislation is too important to our nation's scientific and economic leadership to let it fall victim to political gridlock." __Editor's Note (18th May): Gordon's attempt to pass the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 through the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology has failed. The reintroduced bill got 261 votes in committee, 12 votes short of the two-thirds majority it needed to pass.__
**__Related stories:__***linkurl:News in a nutshell;https://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/57409/
[17th May 2010]*linkurl:News in a nutshell;https://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/57389/
[3rd May 2010]*linkurl:Life sciences lose in State of the Union;https://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/54254/
[29th January 2008]

Meet the Author

Bob Grant

From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.

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