Climate science and budget disputes will likely loom large this week as House lawmakers have the chance to grill National Science Foundation and National Institute of Standards and Technology officials on their 2012 research requests.

The two science agencies, along with the Energy Department's Office of Science, have had budget boosts in recent years to fund R&D through the America COMPETES Act, and both are set up to be in the center of partisan tug-of-war matches over 2011 and 2012 spending (Greenwire, Nov. 3, 2010).

On Thursday, the House Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee will meet to hear from NSF Director Subra Suresh on that agency's budget for next year. Likely to be at issue: its 13 percent requested spending increase over fiscal 2010 levels, and the potential effects of the 10 percent cut in the House-passed 2011 spending plan compared to 2010 levels.

The president's fiscal 2011 spending plan would have boosted NSF spending by 8 percent over the previous year.

Research at NSF has been included by the White House in the administrationwide push for innovation, especially on clean energy technology, to be boosted rather than slashed as a means for the country to grow its way out of the current economic doldrums. GOP lawmakers do not necessarily see it that way, and those spending increases have been a point of budget contention.

But appropriations subcommittee Chairman Frank Wolf (R) of Virginia has been a strong supporter of science spending in the past and spokesman Dan Scandling said he will do his best to shield NSF from painful cuts. The chairman "has been very supportive of the sciences through the years and continues to be," Scandling said. "They'll try and keep the sciences at a level that's not devastating."

NSF and NIST are likely to face a tougher reception Friday from Science, Space and Technology Chairman Ralph Hall (R-Texas).

Hall has been critical of the administration's multi-agency support for climate science programs and says he personally is not convinced that man-made global warming has been proven "beyond a reasonable doubt" (E&E Daily, Feb. 18).

In late votes on the House-passed 2011 spending bill, Hall was successful in blocking funds for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to establish a planned climate service.

Hall has also gone on record as being skeptical of the White House's plan to significantly expand R&D funding, noting that "increases in federal spending are not the same as prudent investment and do not necessarily lead to innovation."

That could put NSF programs for climate and energy research in the firing line later this week.

Other areas of NSF and NIST funding are likely to receive broader committee support.

Several NIST programs support technology manufacturing, an issue that attracts bipartisan support as lawmakers worry that inventions first developed in the United States are increasingly likely to be commercialized overseas. Other areas in NIST's jurisdiction, like coordination of standards for the smart grid, have similarly broad appeal.

Schedule: The Appropriations Committee hearing is Thursday, March 10, at 10 a.m. in Capitol room H-309.

Witness: Subra Suresh, director, National Science Foundation.

Schedule: The Science, Space and Technology Committee hearing is Friday, March 11, at 10 a.m. in 2318 Rayburn.

Witnesses: Subra Suresh, director, NSF; Ray Bowen, chairman, National Science Board; and Patrick Gallagher, undersecretary of Commerce for standards and technology and director, NIST.