Things to Remember About the Stimulus

February 8th, 2009

Posted by: admin

Noting the various online urgings over science funding and the stimulus this weekend, I have a few quick observations:

Some people are confusing the stimulus with the budget.  The explanatory postings at ScienceDebate (scroll down to LATER) suggest this disconnect  – people don’t get that funding in the stimulus is in addition to amounts in the budget.  Some advocacy is at least a little misleading on this point.  We’re dealing with a supplementary bill, much like those that handled appropriations for Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as Hurricane Katrina.  If a program is zeroed out in the stimulus, that doesn’t mean it disappears.

Science advocates are still better being reactive than proactive.  Noise from the communities was loudest this past weekend, when it had been telegraphed for a long time by President Obama that he was seeking a stimulus bill.  Why not mobilize the masses for a push starting January 21st rather than February 6th?  Hopefully they can ride whatever momentum they have, since they’ll need it.

Get ready for two more rounds.  Next month the continuing resolution that funds the government will expire.  Most funding for the last half of this fiscal year will be debated over the next few weeks.  If science is a tempting target for cuts in the stimulus, I have a hard time seeing a different outcome over the budget for the second half of FY 2009.  And we should see a preliminary FY 2010 budget by the end of February.  Sadly, appropriations is now a perpetual, rather than an annual, process in Washington, and science advocates need to shift tactics and employ better strategies to adjust to this state of affairs.

5 Responses to “Things to Remember About the Stimulus”

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  1. Anne Says:
    February 8th, 2009 at 7:16 pm

    Thanks for posting this. I was taken by surprise by the reactions of liberal friends too, who lamented the “cutting” of funds from “chronically underfunded” environmental programs. I think the news reports were partly to blame, as the original bill is pretty enormous and complicated, but the “cuts” were easier to publish in bullet lists over the weekend. I’m eager to see scientists enact the very same inventories that households are having to make these days, to root out any waste and become prepared to lobby Congress with organized, thoughtful priority lists. I want to see this because I root for science, and I want to see scientists organize, and I want to see our scientific institutions become leaner, stronger and maximally effective. So far my position is not very popular in the blogosphere.

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  2. David Bruggeman Says:
    February 8th, 2009 at 8:30 pm

    Anne,

    Could you clarify for me what you mean by “my position is not very popular in the blogosphere”? Taken one way, it suggests the blogosphere is very anti- your institutional interests. My experience, however, suggests the blogosphere (and science advocates) aren’t terribly focused on those interests.

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  3. docpine Says:
    February 8th, 2009 at 8:53 pm

    My read on Anne is that she means that there is not much push on the blogosphere for scientific institutions to clean up their act to become “leaner stronger and maximally effective”. So far the scientific interests seem to be “feed more bucks to the institutions as they are or you are bad and anti-science- we don’t need to change”. This is what I call the “baby bird school of science funding.” In other words, our beaks are open and we’re squeaking.. that’s all you need to know.. Mom.

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  4. RickM Says:
    February 8th, 2009 at 9:09 pm

    I’m not sure I agree with your characterization that some people have confused the “Stimulus” with the budget. I think the process (that word is a vast overstatement of what they have done) the Congress has embarked on is extremely confusing as they are mixing supplementary items, and other line items that rightly belong in the normal budegtary process. This in itself is wasteful.

    The federal funding process for individual entities is wasteful as well, and their is little true discipline in it. If you’ve ever witnessed the spending spree that occurs within every federal agency near the end of every fiscal year, you’ll understand how corrupt it truly is.

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  5. stan Says:
    February 9th, 2009 at 7:58 am

    Science spending is not stimulus. It shouldn’t be in this bill. Of course, 99% of what is in the bill isn’t stimulus and shouldn’t be in the bill. As Rahm Emmanuel noted, they have a crisis and they intend to exploit it to the max to spend money they could never spend without the cover of a crisis.