Cuts to US Science Loom

As Congress prepares a strategy to trim the national deficit by more than $1 trillion over the next decade, legislators suggest cuts to government research.

Written byBob Grant

| 1 min read

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Republicans at the helm of the US House of Representatives' Committee on Science, Space and Technology have released a plan to trim $1.5 billion from the 2012 federal research budget, outlining specific programs that should be cut or held at steady funding levels.

The plan was sent to the Congressional "Super Committee," which was created as part of a last-ditch deficit reduction/debt ceiling bill passed in August. The committee is tasked with devising a strategy to reduce the US deficit by $1.2 trillion in the next ten years.

In a 14-page letter, Republican leaders of the House Committee detailed cuts that took aim at new, Obama-backed research projects—such as programs designed to commercialize modes of alternative energy and a NASA satellite designed to track greenhouse ...

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Meet the Author

Bob Grant
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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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