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Democratic-led Congress could shake up funding for science agencies.
When the Democrats take control of Congress in January, they will also gain control over the nation's purse strings. Scientists should take note.
Federal agencies that fund the bulk of the nation's research, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF) and NASA, will all have to answer to new Congressional overseers. Some agencies will see little change in their budgets when control shifts from the Republicans to Democrats, says budget policy expert Kei Koizumi of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. "Historically, science funding has not been a partisan issue," he says.
But Democrats will probably leave lasting financial marks on some other areas of science. "It will be a fascinating time," says Joel Widder, a former Senate staffer now at Lewis-Burke Associates, a science lobby firm in Washington, DC.
