In a speech on March 16th, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) introduced The American Innovation Act (S. 747), which would supply $100 billion in funding for basic science research over the next decade. The bill proposes providing a 5 percent funding increases annually above inflation by lifting the sequester-level funding caps for five major federal science agencies; the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy's Office of Science, Department of Defense's Science and Technology Programs, National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Scientific and Technical Research, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Science Directorate. Senator Durbin emphasized the importance of providing scientists with consistent, robust funding for basic research, stating “The American Innovation Act will make funding for critical science research projects less political and more predictable. It will allow America’s smartest scientists and researchers to spend less time figuring out how to cut their budgets and more time finding new ways to produce clean energy and clean water and other solutions that the world needs. U.S. government support for scientific research has helped split the atom, defeat polio, conquer space, create the Internet, map the human genome and much more. I am introducing this bill so that we can continue to invest in the best ideas of our scientists and America will remain the land of the future for generations to come.”
As a member of the Task Force on American Innovation, The Geological Society of America showed its support for the bill in a letter to Senator Durbin, stating that “By putting funding for basic research…on a consistent, steady growth path over the next decade the American Innovation Act will help preserve America’s position as the global leader in scientific and technological innovation. The American Innovation Act will help close America’s innovation deficit, the gap between the actual level of federal investment in scientific research and what is needed for the United States to remain the world’s innovation leader.”
Durbin has also introduced a similar bill, The American Cures Act (S. 289), which would provide dependable funding increases for the National Institute of Health and other federal health research programs.
- Karen Paczkowski, GSA Science Policy Fellow