On August 9, 2022, President Biden signed into law the CHIPS and Science Act.  The law, which had bipartisan support from both the U.S. House and Senate, has several provisions affecting scientific research which may impact ASPET members.  Chief among them are:

• Authorization of $81 billion for the National Science Foundation (NSF), which would effectively double the budget of the NSF by FY2027
• $4 billion authorized across FY2023 to FY2027 to repair and modernize U.S. national laboratories
• Codification of the Chief Diversity Officer position at NSF to provide guidance and lead NSF’s strategic planning to broaden diverse participation of individuals and institutions in NSF-funded activities
• Language directing NSF to increase funding for Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) institutions to up to 20% of research funding (currently set at 13%) over 7 years

While Congress will still need to appropriate the funds, the authorization of doubling the budget of NSF is very much in line with ASPET’s past advocacy efforts to encourage funding increases to the Foundation.