Schumer Expects Senate to Take Up Endless Frontier Act Soon

The Senate intends to take up the Endless Frontier Act next week in a package of legislation, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the floor Thursday. He’s hopeful for a Senate vote this month.

An amended version of the bill cleared the Senate Commerce Committee Wednesday (see 2105120063). Ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss.; Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind.; and Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., said in interviews they’re looking forward to passage, despite a contentious markup.

The House Technology Subcommittee passed its own version of the bill by voice vote Thursday. It would appropriate billions for science and tech R&D to boost U.S. competitiveness. The National Science Foundation for the Future Act (HR-2225) was advanced to the full House Science Committee. It’s the first comprehensive reauthorization of the National Science Foundation in a decade, said House Science Committee Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas.

The Senate Commerce Committee debated a Lujan amendment Wednesday, which restructured about $112 billion and diverts about 35% from NSF’s tech directorate, and which would help lead to10-18 new tech hubs. About $17 billion was redirected to the Department of Energy’s National Labs. About $17 billion remains for the tech directorate’s original funding. Young voiced frustration Wednesday about “whittling” down the directorate’s funding from about $100 billion as originally written.

Thursday, the legislator was positive. “We got a big, broad, bipartisan vote out of committee, so that bodes well for a nice bipartisan vote on final passage,” he said. “Schumer will continue to work with me, and we’ll see how the bill evolves on the floor, but clearly people value the national labs that are in their states. And they’re looking out for their own states’ interests, and that’s understandable, and that’s always been how this place works.”

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., co-sponsored the Lujan amendment. “I just didn’t want to have competing entities,” she said of DOE and NSF: The labs are doing “deep research” across the country, which is why supporters banded together.

Wicker said he feels “pretty good” about how well the original intent of the legislation has been preserved so far, though he had issues with the markup process. Lujan’s amendment was agreed to in its first iteration around midnight, hours before the markup, he said: “Not everyone was able to” properly offer input. “That’s generally not the way we do things in the Commerce Committee. ... I think we’re going to end up with a pretty good bill. We’re going to fund a lot more important research that will bring about results that we haven’t even dreamed of.”

Lujan noted the overwhelming support for the amendment and the underlying bill. The amendment passed 23-5 and the bill 24-4. Lujan is looking forward to DOE's and NSF's contributions on quantum computing, AI and other areas, he said, noting the bill increases the NSF’s budget “substantially.”

This is too expensive, said Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., who voted against the bill: “They’ve taken a good idea and made it so expensive it’s unaffordable.” Coupled with Democrats’ plans for infrastructure, she said, “it’s just too much money. We’re putting too much money into the economy too fast, and we need to let the economy cool off.”

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said he voted against the bill after failing to attach funding amendments with Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., also a no. “It’s about $100 billion that we don’t have,” said Johnson. “We’re just not in a good position to engage in industrial policy. I just don’t think we’re going to be capable of [accomplishing the legislation’s goal], but the main issue is it’s not paid for.” Scott said he will continue to push for amendments when the bill gets to the floor.