The Next Frontier In The War Over Science - political control over research funding

[muriel_volestrangler]

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration and the scientific community at large are expressing serious alarm at a House Republican bill that they argue would dramatically undermine way research is conducted in America.

Titled the “Frontiers in Innovation, Research, Science, and Technology (FIRST) Act of 2014," the bill would put a variety of new restrictions on how funds are doled out by the National Science Foundation. The goal, per its Republican supporters on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, would be to weed out projects whose cost can't be justified or whose sociological purpose is not apparent.

For Democrats and advocates, however, the FIRST Act represents a dangerous injection of politics into science and a direct assault on the much-cherished peer-review process by which grants are awarded.

"We have a system of peer-review science that has served as a model for not only research in this country but in others," said Bill Andresen, the associate vice president of Federal Affairs at the University of Pennsylvania. "The question is, does Congress really think it has the better ability to determine the scientific merit of grant applications or should it be left up to the scientists and their peers?"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/06/war-on-science_n_5269527.html

You know that allowing Republicans to control research would destroy America's achievements in science.

[okaawhatever]

1. The Republican claim is bullcrap:

The goal, per its Republican supporters on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, would be to weed out projects whose cost can't be justified or whose sociological purpose is not apparent.

It's to stop any funding on climate change, stem cell research, and anything else the GOP corporate sponsors and religious fanatics don't agree with. They don't want science decided by scientists and normal Christians. Only corporate-approved science and religious fanatic-approved science need apply. We know how this works.