President Obama's plan to steer more money to research will face scrutiny in the House this week, as deficit-minded Republicans hold hearings on the administration's proposed budgets for the National Science Foundation, the Pentagon's research activities and the White House's own science office.

The budget blueprint for fiscal 2013 includes $140.8 billion for research and development, a $2 billion increase over the current year, and it includes a 5 percent increase in nondefense spending. Some of the biggest beneficiaries would be energy research programs, which Obama has labeled as key to building a clean energy industry in the United States.

The National Science Foundation would get $7.4 billion, a 5 percent increase, including $203 million for a research program called Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability.

Republicans on the House Science Committee have gone after the administration for boosting climate change research, even as other science research has remained relatively popular on both sides of the aisle.

Chairman Ralph Hall (R-Texas) praised the work done by NSF and other science funding agencies during a hearing on Obama's budget earlier this month but said the United States has done $40 billion in climate research with "nothing to show for it."

"This continued focus for the federal government's limited research dollars slows our ability to make innovative and perhaps life-altering advances in other equally, if not more important, disciplines," he added.

NSF Director Subra Suresh will testify before the Research and Science Education Subcommittee, which is chaired by Missouri Republican Mo Brooks.

With the military increasingly viewing its reliance on fuel as a vulnerability, the services are increasing their research on alternative energy and ways of making equipment more efficient.

The Air Force, which just released its strategy document for future energy research, would get $290 million for energy research and new acquisitions under Obama's budget. Meanwhile, the Army would see about $150 million for battlefield energy research alone. But the Navy, whose secretary took harsh criticism from Republicans at a recent budget hearing for his alternative energy push, would see its non-combat energy research budget cut from a little over $70 million in fiscal 2012 to about $55 million in fiscal 2013 (Greenwire, Feb. 23).

OSTP to fend off cuts

John Holdren, who is Obama's top science adviser as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, will testify on his office's budget before the House Appropriations subcommittee that deals with science agencies.

In recent years, Holdren has had to battle with Republicans to avoid major cuts to his office's budget.

Last year, the House passed a spending bill that would have cut OSTP's budget by more than half, from $6.6 million to $3 million. The final spending deal between Congress and the Obama administration split the difference and funded the office at $4.5 million.

GOP criticism has centered on an OSTP program that coordinates research with China on topics such as nuclear energy, the environment and space.

Holdren brushed off those concerns during a hearing last week, saying the office will protect U.S. intellectual property but will help China where it aligns with American interests.

"It is in our interest to avoid nuclear reactor accidents in China," Holdren told members of the House Science Committee. "It is in our interest to avoid the theft of nuclear materials from Chinese facilities. ... It's in our interest to work with China to help them reduce their emissions of pollutants that affect our well-being. Those are the kinds of focuses in which we engage with China in a cooperative way" (Greenwire, Feb. 17).

Obama's proposed budget would send $5.8 million to OSTP in fiscal 2013.

House Science schedule: The hearing is tomorrow at 10 a.m. in 2318 Rayburn.

Witnesses: NSF Director Subra Suresh and Ray Bowen, chairman of the National Science Board.

House Appropriations schedule: The hearing is Wednesday, Feb. 29, at 2 p.m. in H-309 Capitol.

Witness: OSTP Director John Holdren.

House Armed Services schedule: The hearing is Wednesday, Feb. 29, at 3 p.m. in 2212 Rayburn.

Witness: Zachary Lemnios, assistant secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering; Marilyn Freeman, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Research and Technology; Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. Mathew Klunder, Office of Naval Research; Steven Walker, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for Science, Technology, and Engineering; and Deputy Director Kaigham Gabriel, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Reporter Annie Snider contributed.