The House and Senate are poised this week to complete work on a $43 billion conference report that would create a special agency within the Energy Department to spur research into breakthrough energy technologies.
A conference report finalized Tuesday night would establish the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy as part of H.R. 2272, a measure aimed at improving the quality of U.S. research and science education to increase economic competitiveness.
The bill draws on reports by the National Academy of Sciences and the Council on Competitiveness. Both cautioned that the United States risks losing its position as a scientific leader as global economic development increases.
Both chambers expect to approve the conference report this week, conferees told reporters yesterday. The House will likely vote on the report today, with the Senate taking up the agreement tomorrow, said Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.) and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.).
While the White House has criticized several provisions included in the Senate version of the bill that survived in the conference report -- including ARPA-E -- the lawmakers said they do not fear a veto.
"The president, in his State of the Union, called on Congress to respond to this challenge. The White House and government agencies have worked closely with us," Alexander said. "I would be very surprised if the president doesn't sign this with a flourish."
And as the House prepares to take up Democrats' comprehensive energy bill later this week, Gordon said he believes the competitiveness effort "may be the most important energy bill we pass all year."
He added: "If we're really going to become energy independent, it's going to take a bump in technology and this is where that can occur."
As it now stands, the bill would authorize research funding and new education programs recommended by the president.
Lawmakers also revised ARPA-E language -- modeled after the military's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency -- to assuage White House and Republican concerns that the agency would divert money from the Energy Department's Office of Science.
Under the conference agreement, ARPA-E would be funded through its own budget request and Treasury account, separate from those for DOE, though its director would report to the Energy secretary. The bill authorizes $300 million for the agency in fiscal 2008 and appropriations as necessary for 2009 and 2010.
Conferees also agreed to an amendment by Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) that would require Senate confirmation for the ARPA-E director, rather than an appointment by the Energy secretary.
The agency would be required to submit an annual report to Congress detailing its activities. The bill also gives Congress the option to terminate ARPA-E after four years, based on the recommendation of the President's Committee of Advisers on Science and Technology.
Enactment of the competitiveness bill would essentially render moot similar ARPA-E language included in House Democrats' energy bill.
H.R. 2272 also would require new policies to prevent suppression or distortion of research at federal science agencies and includes provisions related to ongoing research at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Under the measure, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Office of Management and Budget and the heads of federal civilian science agencies would have 90 days after the bill is enacted to issue "an overarching set of principles to ensure the communication and open exchange of data and results ... and to prevent the intentional or unintentional suppression or distortion" of federal research.
Within 180 days after the bill is enacted, OSTP would be required to demonstrate that all federal civilian science agencies have developed agency-specific policies for public release of scientific research.
The provision comes after widespread reports of suppressed or distorted scientific results at federal science agencies, including NOAA and NASA.
The bill also directs NOAA, NASA and the National Science Foundation to establish a program aimed at developing "advanced technologies and analytical methods" to ensure U.S. leadership in basic and applied oceanic and atmospheric research.
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