Posted on behalf of Roberta Kwok
Stimulus package dollars have barely begun to flow out of US science agencies, but agency representatives are already being pressed to pledge that they will closely monitor spending for waste and fraud.
At a hearing today, members of the US House Committee on Science and Technology asked “accountability officers” from four science-funding agencies how they would guard against mismanagement of Recovery Act money.
“None of our witnesses today have done wrong,” said Rep. Brad Miller (Democrat, North Carolina), chairman of the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight. “But we want to hear from you how you’re going to do right.”
Cora Marrett, acting deputy director of the National Science Foundation, said the agency would not compromise its usual review process to move research proposals quickly through the system. Matthew Rogers, senior advisor for the Department of Energy, said some programmes will distribute money in phases to ensure that projects are meeting milestones.
NSF received $3 billion in Recovery Act funds, while DoE got $40 billion for projects including battery research, electric grid improvements, and home weatherproofing. NASA, also represented at the hearing, got $1 billion. The Department of Commerce, which oversees the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, will allocate $830 million of its $7.9 billion fund to that agency.
Because the stimulus bill was created with little oversight, there is a “huge potential” for abuse of funds, said Rep. Brian Bilbray (Republican, California). “We’ve got to make up for that,” he said.
When asked whether NSF would consider which parts of the country were most in need of jobs during grant proposal evaluation, Marrett said the agency had already mapped the locations of projects under consideration. “We are paying close attention to the quality of the work that’s coming to us,” she said, and will consider whether the work “is in fact represented across all parts of the nation”.
Miller asked Ellen Herbst, senior advisor for recovery implementation at the commerce department, whether any stimulus funds would be used to prop up the over-budget and behind-schedule National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System. Herbst confirmed that the agency would allocate some money to NPOESS to “reduce technical and schedule risk”.
Ranking Republican Paul Broun (Georgia), said he wanted reassurance from DoE that the grant process would not assume that global warming is caused by humans. If the agency does not fund proposals to “look at the other side”, he said, “there’s no scientific integrity there”. He added, referring to agency head Steve Chu, “I see a tremendous lack of that in the attitude of the Secretary”.
Rogers replied by saying that energy efficiency projects were good investments for Americans. “I don’t think the issue is about global warming or not,” he says.