http://blog.aas.org The Steady State of the Union Fri, 11 Jul 2008 20:46:11 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Tune in to C-SPAN tomorrow morning, because H.Con.Res. 375, honoring the goal of the International Year of Astronomy, is scheduled for floor time. You can see the full House schedule (PDF link) via the House Majority Leader's site. Update It should be taken up around 10:45AM, but that's an estimate. ... http://blog.aas.org/2008/07/08/iya-house-resolution/ The National Science Foundation has an excellent statistics in the appendices to the 2008 Science and Engineering Indicators Report. I used the excel versions of Tables 4-1, Gross domestic product and implicit price deflators: 1953–2007, and Table 4-32, Federal obligations for total research, by detailed S&E field: FY 1986–2007 ... http://blog.aas.org/2008/06/30/science-spending/ Or more specifically they passed "Motion To Concur In House Amdts To Senate Amdt To House Amdt To Senate Amdt To H.R. 2642." As described previously, this includes funding for the NSF, NASA, and DOE Office of Science. The money is included in a very broad war supplemental ... http://blog.aas.org/2008/06/27/senate-passes-supplemental/ FYI has an excellent summary of NASA funding in the Commerce, Justice, Science appropriations bill in the Senate. You can also read the entire Senate Report. I'll try to write more about this later in the week - for now I will, like the FYI newsletter, quote the introduction ... http://blog.aas.org/2008/06/26/nasa-funding-in-senate-appropriations-bill/ Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) introduced H. Con. Res 375 to the House last week, a concurrent resolution honoring the International Year of Astronomy and encouraging the public to attend IYA activities. You can read resolution text here. http://blog.aas.org/2008/06/26/international-year-of-astronomy/ In the span of a minute, the Senate Commerce, Justice, and Science committee passed the Senate version of the NASA Authorization Bill of 2008. You can read the committee press release here. When the text of the bill is available online, I'll update this post. http://blog.aas.org/2008/06/24/senate-commerce-committee-approves-nasa-authorization-bill/ The compromise supplemental funding bill does indeed include money for science. Specifically: NASA - The amended bill includes $62,500,000 for Science, Aeronautics and Exploration. NSF - Research and Related Activities - The amended bill includes $22,500,000 for Research and Related Activities, of which $5,000,000 shall be available solely for ... http://blog.aas.org/2008/06/19/supplemental-2/ The NASA Authorization Bill,HR 6063, passed the House yesterday by a vote of 409-15. The bill authorizes (but does not appropriate) higher funding for NASA, and spells out the agencies mission as the agency prepares for a new administration in 2009. Noteworthy in the bill: Budget Authorization 12.8% higher than ... http://blog.aas.org/2008/06/19/nasa-authorization-bill-passes-409-15/ This was in today's monthly AAS electronic newsletter, but it's worth posting here too. The Decadal Survey process is underway, and nominations of candidates for the chair are being solicited from the community. You can read the full announcement at the Board of Physics and Astronomy page, and ... http://blog.aas.org/2008/06/10/nrc-decadal/ The New York Times has an article and quotes from a joint interview on the three Ph.D. physicists in the US House of Representatives. Those would be Rush Holt, (D-NJ), Vern Ehlers (R-MI), and the the newest addition, Bill Foster (D-IL). Now we just need an astronomer in there. http://blog.aas.org/2008/06/10/physicists-in-congress/