94 - Governmental Funding for Science in the US (w/ Brian Redder!)
94. Governmental Funding for Science in the US
Scientific progress costs cold, hard cash. For US governmental agencies, many of which not-for-profit, this money comes from the taxpayer. How does this process work? Is one party more likely to support scientific progress? Let’s learn to be scientifically conversational.
General Learning Concepts
1) Discussion questions:
a. What are the three major branches of government in the United States?
b. What are governmental science agencies that rely or partially rely on governmental aid?
c. How does the president factor into the nation’s budget? How are cuts handled? How are edits handled? Is this information readily available to the taxpayer?
d. What is the timescale for this action? What are important dates required for setting a budget?
e. How are the budgets handled? What is required to fully pass a funding bill?
f. What is authorization? What is appropriation? What is the difference between them?
g. What are deliverables and why does the government want to support agencies that are capable of providing them? How does this impact policymakers?
h. Are there certain trends towards funding (positive or negative amounts of dollars) that are traditionally associated with particular parties in the US?
https://www.sciencepolicyjournal.org/uploads/5/4/3/4/5434385/pa8_kushi_s.pdf
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/when-scientists-donate-to-politicians-its-usually-to-democrats/
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/05/house-democrats-include-research-dollars-latest-pandemic-relief-package