Council on Education submits testimony on education budget

ASME's Council on Education has submitted testimony for inclusion of the hearing record of the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. The testimony focused on the Math and Science Partnership (MSP) program at the Department of Education.

The Council strongly urged appropriators to fully fund the MSP program at the authorized level of $450 million. In fiscal year 2002, MSP was authorized at $450 million, but appropriated at $12.5 million. Because the funding is under $100 million, the grants are competitive through the Department of Education, and all states do not have to receive funding.

The statement (02-20) can be found on ASME's Government Relations Web site, www.asme.org/gric.

Aerospace Division endorses legislation to boost R&D funding

The Aerospace Division of ASME recently sent a letter to Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., endorsing legislation he introduced to increase funding for aeronautics research and development (R&D).

The bill, H.R.4653, the Aeronautics Research and Development Revitalization Act of 2002, would increase funding for fiscal years 2003-07 for NASA's aeronautics R&D budget from $559.4 million to $1.15 billion, and for FAA's R&D from $245 million to $550 million.

Initiatives proposed in the bill would improve technologies to create aircraft with greater fuel efficiency, lower emissions, and fund rotorcraft R&D and supersonic transport. In addition, the bill establishes a focal point for aeronautics R&D within NASA by reestablishing an Office of Aeronautics reporting directly to the NASA Administrator.

Over the last decade, funding for NASA's aeronautics research and technology program has fallen by approximately 50 percent. The administration's fiscal year 2003 budget request of $541.4 million for aeronautics is a reduction of $58 million from fiscal 2002 appropriated funding.

In recent years, the Aerospace Division has expressed concerns that reducing federal funding for aviation research and technology will jeopardize the nation's leadership in providing the technologies needed to develop the next-generation aircraft, improve aviation safety and security, and attract the next generation of aerospace scientists and engineers.

The letter (position statement No. 02-21) is available at www.asme.org/gric/ps/ 2002/02-21.html. For more information about ASME's Aerospace Division, visit www.asme.org/divisions/aerospace/.

Energy Committee encourages override of Yucca Mountain veto

The Energy Committee of the Council on Engineering recently sent a letter to the full Senate, encouraging members to override Nevada Gov. Ken Guinn's veto of the president's recommendation of the Yucca Mountain site for permanent storage of civilian nuclear spent fuel.

In the letter, the Energy Committee said it "believes the risk of going forward with the development and engineering of the Yucca Mountain site is far less than the risk of maintaining the status quo."

The letter also addresses opponents' concerns about the risk associated with transporting spent fuel to the repository by discussing the technologically sophisticated casks that engineers have designed for this process.

The letter can be found at www.asme.org/gric/ps/2002/02-23.html. For more information, contact Francis Dietz at dietzf@asme.org.

— Melissa Murray
ASME Government Relations

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