National Science Foundation cancels political-science grant cycle

[Bill USA]

http://www.nature.com/news/nsf-cancels-political-science-grant-cycle-1.13501

2 August 2013

US Senator Tom Coburn (Republican, Oklahoma) helped to insert language in a law that restricts federal political science research funding.

US political scientists are usually busy in early August, polishing proposals for grants from the US National Science Foundation (NSF). But not this year.

Less than one month before an annual mid-August application deadline, the funding agency has scrapped new political-science funding for the rest of 2013. The NSF declines to explain its reasons for eliminating the grant call, one of two that typically take place each year. But leaders in the field are blaming Congress, which on 21 March passed a bill requiring that NSF-funded political-science research benefit either national security or economic interests.

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The NSF’s decision removes one of the main financial lifelines for political-science research. “This is somewhere between devastating and crippling,” says Henry Farrell, a political scientist at George Washington University in Washington DC and an author of the Monkey Cage, a widely read political-science blog. But Farrell blames the political climate rather than the funding agency for the cut. “The NSF is in an extremely awkward situation,” he says.
(more)

The GOP came up with a new twist on Book Burning during the latest showdown (i.e. shakedown of our democracy) to avoid a Government shutdown. To avoid shutting down the Government the Democrats had to approve threatening researchers from engaging in research that would focus on the GOP's favorite method of obstruction: filibustering everything (another approach is the endless stream of nonsensical amendments - each of which require discussion and a vote). This way you just "burn" the books (i.e. scientific research) before they are written!


Tom Coburn Amendment Limiting National Science Foundation Research Funding Passes Senate

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/21/tom-coburn-national-science-foundation_n_2921081.html

A measure limiting National Science Foundation funding for political science research projects passed the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, quietly dealing a blow to the government agency.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) submitted a series of amendments to the Continuing Appropriations Act of 2013, the Senate bill to keep the government running past March 27. One of those amendments would prohibit the NSF from funding political science research unless a project is certified as "promoting national security or the economic interests of the United States."

[font color="red"]"Studies of presidential executive power and Americans' attitudes toward the Senate filibuster hold little promise to save an American's life from a threatening condition or to advance America's competitiveness in the world," [/font]Coburn wrote in a letter to NSF director Subra Suresh last week explaining his proposal.

Coburn's NSF amendment was approved by the Senate during a voice vote on Wednesday afternoon.
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[lunasun]

1. This is somewhere between devastating and crippling,” says Henry Farrell, a political scientist

sick