Let’s remove politics from research legislation

Two pending science bills in the U.S. Senate could best be described as a tale of two vastly different pieces of legislation.

One would help increase the local talent pool of STEM graduates, providing hightech businesses with more opportunities to hire employees who possess the technical skills necessary to succeed in a 21stcentury economy. The other would hurt Texas’ ability to continue as a hub for businesses such as Apple, Texas Instruments, Intel and Qualcomm.

The state’s ability to attract, educate and retain qualified high-tech workers is crucial to its ability to keep American companies from relocating overseas. And that is why it is imperative that our lawmakers support the right piece of legislation that strengthens scientific research and the U.S. innovation enterprise.

Leaders of the Senate’s innovation and competitiveness working group — U.S. Sens. Cory Gardner, R-Colorado, and Gary Peter, D-Mich. — recently cosponsored the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act, which emphasizes the importance of the grant-review process, investing in basic research and STEM education for women and under-represented minorities, among other points. It also authorizes a much-needed 4 percent increase in funding for the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology in fiscal year 2018.

On the other hand, the Scientific Research in the National Interest Act — sponsored by House Science Chairman U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, before it moved to the Senate — does the opposite. It adds more bureaucracy to the grant-making process by mandating that grants be deemed “in the national interest.” Requiring scientists to meet the “national interest” criterion would most certainly dampen their creativity, decreasing their likelihood of developing bold, out-of-the-box ideas consistent with longterm, basic research. Additionally, it states that exploratory research — such as the decades-long effort that led to the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory) Scientific Collaboration’s first detection of gravitational waves — could be denied funding if it were deemed not in the national interest. Politicizing the process of scientific inquiry will not help America maintain its standing as a leader in technological innovation.

Therefore, I call upon two of Capitol Hill’s most powerful lawmakers — U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, chair of the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies, and House Science Committee Chairman Smith, to support a House bill consistent with the Senate’s American Innovation and Competitiveness Act. Amid so much political polarization concerning science policies, the act sets the right tone for future bipartisan efforts and ensures the stability of America’s scientific enterprise.

For decades, we have witnessed the benefits of science and technology, including innovations that have improved the quality of our day-to-day lives and increased our knowledge of the universe. Countless technologies that we find indispensable — such as the internet, computers, GPS and biofuels — were all sponsored by decades’ worth of federal investment in basic research.

In recent years, however, we have witnessed a steady decline in federal funding for research and development, thereby negatively affecting the United States’ lead in innovation. America’s global innovation rank has declined to 10th in the world, according to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, and foreign nations now account for more than half the patents granted annually in the U.S. Additionally, we continue to see a decline in the number of scientific publications from our country and in the number of Nobel Prizes awarded to U.S. scientists.

It is our duty as citizens of the United States to support more bipartisan efforts such as the bill sponsored by Gardner and Peters. If we want to restore America’s innovation leadership, we need to keep politics out of science.

Instead, we should focus on maintaining sustained, robust funding for scientific agencies that are crucial to addressing the myriad challenges facing our nation. Doing so will also enable us to encourage and support the next generation of scientists who are poised to discover the next big thing.