Research spending could be lone bright spot for U.S. science after election sets up divided government

The Republicans are hoping to take back the House of Representatives and the Democrats are hoping to retain the Senate, despite the fact that they lost control of Congress. The U.S. research community could be in for a rough ride over the next two years.

Republican control of the House increases the likelihood of political stalemate and precluding new policy initiatives by either party.

The traditional bipartisan support for research funding won't be jeopardized by the partisan battles. The new Congress may come together to provide stable budgets for federal research agencies if they are correct.

This week's elections didn't generate a "red wave" that would have given Republicans the strength to roll back parts of Biden's agenda Although there are more than a dozen races yet to be decided, they are poised to regain the House by perhaps only a half dozen seats. Democrats need 50 seats to hold onto control of the Senate. A win in the Georgia election next month will give Democrats a 51st seat, which will allow them to move presidential nominations and do more to advance Biden's agenda.

The Republican-led House won't advance the party's agenda. Republicans will be able to passmessaging bills, legislation that has no chance of becoming law but that shows their political philosophy in the run up to the presidential election. Some Republican lawmakers want to ban federal funding for certain kinds of research that could cause more dangerous pathogens or cut spending on environmental and climate research.

Anthony Fauci, the soon-to-retire head of the National Institutes of Health's infectious disease institute, will be grilled by House Republicans about his role in the country's response to COVID-19. They would like to use hearings to attack the Biden administration. It will be hard for Republicans to translate the investigations into policy.

The majority in the House will continue to be small. Science advocates hope that will lead to more bipartisan cooperation.

The current Congress is trying to finish work on a massive piece of legislation that would set spending levels for all federal agencies in fiscal year 2023, which began on 1 October. Congress has not passed individual spending bills for years as federal agencies are under a spending freeze.

If an agreement is not reached, the baseline for spending in each of the next two fiscal years could be changed. The high-water mark for science may be that number.

The new congress should do more for science. The National Science Foundation was called for in a recently passed law for double-digit funding increases. They would like to see the budget stay in line with inflation. The outcome will be decided by who leads the appropriations panels in the Senate and House, as well as decisions by party leaders on overall spending levels.

The likely chair of the House science committee is Representative Frank Lucas. Lucas has a history of working with Democrats to craft broadly bipartisan bills.

The science committee is expected to scrutinize how the Biden administration is implementing the research provisions in the CHIPS act. Lucas reluctantly voted against it after Republican leaders decided to enforce party discipline. New programs to spread federal research spending to regions of the country traditionally receiving little of it and to accelerate the commercialization of basic research discoveries are among the law's most popular provisions.

Reauthorization of a major bill governing U.S. agricultural research policy is one of the issues important to Lucas.

As Lucas reaches across the aisle, the retirement of the science committee's current chair and 15-year veteran could mean dealing with a younger generation of Democrats on the panel. If the panel becomes a minority party, Representative Suzanne Bonamici is in line to be the top Democrat. Representative Haley Stevens, who just won a third term and who now leads the panel's research subcommittee, is seen as a rising star.

It's likely that continued comity will occur on the research. A former Republican appropriator expects his former colleagues to view the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke as the government's crown jewel. Charlie Dent, who retired from the House in 2018, is on the board of Research!America, an advocacy group for medical research. Dent says that the retirement of Roy Blunt means that a new champion in the Senate is needed.

John Culberson, a Texas Republican who chaired the House spending panel that oversees the National Science Foundation and NASA, said that researchers shouldn't expect everything they want from the new Congress. Culberson believes Republican lawmakers who are likely to occupy key positions in the next Congress understand that increased support for basic science and space exploration are good for the economy. As much science as the country can afford will be funded by them.