From ScienceInsider, the story is here. But caution….this is an authorization bill not an appropriations (that is Congress is creating a empty box to potentially be filled with appropriated dollars), and second this is from the Senate side only. The House bill is not nearly as generous.
Category: DOE
More on National Labs reform….
David Malakoff’s excellent news piece in Science, here. My take: these are huge organizations. My 30 years or so in Washington has taught me that the inertia of these places is pretty large even relative to the zeal of powerful reformers.
DOE and its relationship to the National Labs…
New Secretary of Energy, Ernest Moniz, is moving on reform, the story from ScienceInsider is here.
Managing the US National Labs: a bipartisan call for reform
ScienceInsider has the story, here. The actual report is here [pdf].
Money quote from the Executive Summary: “The federal government must reform the labs from their 20th century atomic-energy roots to create 21st century engines of innovation. This report aims to lay the groundwork for reformby proposing a more flexible lab-management model that strengthens the labs’ ability to address national needs and produce a consistent flow of innovative ideas and technologies. The underlying philosophy of this report is not to just tinker around the edges but to build policy reforms that re-envision the lab system.”
2011 Science Budgets
From Science Insider–they aren’t looking good.
Discoverers and Discoveries 