NYGC Logo FOLLOW US How a Romney or Obama Win Would Affect Science Funding By Wynne Parry on Oct 25, 2012 Science funding was rarely mentioned during the presidential debates, and with less than a month till Election Day, genomics hasn't come up in national election discussions at all. Is it possible to predict what the consequences of a Democratic or Republican victory might be for science, and in particular for genomics research? Romney & ObamaSome consider President Obama's track record in office to be a favorable forecast for what a second term could bring. The Obama administration has ranked “fairly strong on science funding,” according to Matt Hourihan, R&D budget and policy program director at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. “They’ve tried to keep the need for investment in the spotlight in some key strategic areas,” he says in an email, noting that the administration’s funding requests have bumped up against a tight fiscal climate and appropriators in Congress with different priorities. Some areas have fared better than others since 2008. The National Institutes of Health has hung on, with its funding levels flat in recent years. And the administration's Bioeconomy Blueprint Plan, released earlier this year, includes some discussion of specific accomplishments and ongoing projects in the field of genomics. Obama administration officials do "care about innovation and they do care about medical research, but they don’t make it a national priority,” says Ellie Dehoney, vice president of policy and programs at Research!America, an advocacy organization that surveyed Obama, Romney and more than 100 other candidates about health and medical research issues. Obama's campaign statements express plans for strong financial support of science. And in response to questions posed by Science Debate 2012, the president says he is “committed to doubling funding for key research agencies.” Governor Mitt Romney says continued federal funding of research “would be a top priority in my budget.” But his budget plan, and the federal budget proposal authored by his running mate Representative Paul Ryan, would require cuts in discretionary spending, which includes the budgets of the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and other agencies that fund genomics. The AAAS offers a detailed analysis of the potential cuts under the Ryan plan. Those proposals, of course, are no guarantee of what the candidates would do if elected to the White House. And with all House seats and a portion of Senate seats up for election too in November, what sort of budget would get passed during the next administration is anyone's guess. The cuts entailed in the Romney and Ryan proposals are far from reality, according to Robert Cook-Deegan, author of The Gene Wars: Science, Politics, and the Human Genome and research professor of genome ethics, law and policy at the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy. “This is what has happened over the years, time and time again," he says. "Somebody takes a political stand: 'We are going to cut spending.' Then they bump up against the fact that lots of people have relatives who have cancer. … Suddenly the real politics of trying to push cuts through the NIH budget descend. Dehoney says, “I think Governor Romney will maintain support for basic research, but not at the level potentially the Obama administration will push for." She adds that Romney would also be more likely to dramatically reduce the amount of federal funding for translational research. Of the many government agencies involved in genomics, the NIH at least might have a degree of political immunity, Cook-Deegan says. “Republican and Democratic administrations both generally favor research and development. It’s been a little pocket of the federal government that hasn’t been partisan." The results of November’s vote could also have implications for reforms to the overburdened Food and Drug Agency, including changes to enable it to handle innovations produced by genomics. “The Republicans might be more willing to act," says Val Giddings, a senior fellow at The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank that has evaluated both candidates’ technology and innovation policies. But, he adds, "I don’t get the sense at all that they know what they would like to do or what would work. The present administration has a much better appreciation of the complexity of the issue.” Regardless of who wins the country’s top seat, he might have to contend with automatic budget cuts set to take effect in January. The White House has estimated that, if Congress fails to take action, those mandatory cuts will result in a greater than 8 percent reduction in government science program budgets. Wynne Parry is a journalist based in New York. She is a regular contributor to LiveScience.com, and her work has appeared in The New York Times, Scientific American, Discover Magazine and the New York Post. Login or register to post comments Share on facebook_likeShare on google_plusone_shareShare on linkedinShare on stumbleuponShare on emailMore Sharing ServicesShare learnconnect Monthly Blog Archive October 2012 (13) August 2012 (2) July 2012 (1) June 2012 (5) May 2012 (6) April 2012 (8) March 2012 (6) November 2011 (1) Most Recent Posts Stanford Researcher Predicted His Own Diabetes With Genome Study Oncologists Learn How to Use Patients' Complex Genomic Data We Are Not Alone: Exploring the Microbiome Inside Each of Us How a Romney or Obama Win Would Affect Science Funding Why a Cornell Physician Published His Genome Post Tags 1000 Genomes Community Meeting bioinformatics cancer Christopher E. 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How a Romney or Obama Win Would Affect Science Funding

Science funding was rarely mentioned during the presidential debates, and with less than a month till Election Day, genomics hasn't come up in national election discussions at all.
Is it possible to predict what the consequences of a Democratic or Republican victory might be for science, and in particular for genomics research?
Some consider President Obama's track record in office to be a favorable forecast for what a second term could bring. The Obama administration has ranked “fairly strong on science funding,” according to Matt Hourihan, R&D budget and policy program director at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. “They’ve tried to keep the need for investment in the spotlight in some key strategic areas,” he says in an email, noting that the administration’s funding requests have bumped up against a tight fiscal climate and appropriators in Congress with different priorities.
Some areas have fared better than others since 2008. The National Institutes of Health has hung on, with its funding levels flat in recent years. And the administration's Bioeconomy Blueprint Plan, released earlier this year, includes some discussion of specific accomplishments and ongoing projects in the field of genomics.
Obama administration officials do "care about innovation and they do care about medical research, but they don’t make it a national priority,” says Ellie Dehoney, vice president of policy and programs at Research!America, an advocacy organization that surveyed Obama, Romney and more than 100 other candidates about health and medical research issues.
Obama's campaign statements express plans for strong financial support of science. And in response to questions posed by Science Debate 2012, the president says he is “committed to doubling funding for key research agencies.”
Governor Mitt Romney says continued federal funding of research “would be a top priority in my budget.” But his budget plan, and the federal budget proposal authored by his running mate Representative Paul Ryan, would require cuts in discretionary spending, which includes the budgets of the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and other agencies that fund genomics. The AAAS offers a detailed analysis of the potential cuts under the Ryan plan.
Those proposals, of course, are no guarantee of what the candidates would do if elected to the White House. And with all House seats and a portion of Senate seats up for election too in November, what sort of budget would get passed during the next administration is anyone's guess.
The cuts entailed in the Romney and Ryan proposals are far from reality, according to Robert Cook-Deegan, author of The Gene Wars: Science, Politics, and the Human Genome and research professor of genome ethics, law and policy at the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy. “This is what has happened over the years, time and time again," he says. "Somebody takes a political stand: 'We are going to cut spending.' Then they bump up against the fact that lots of people have relatives who have cancer. … Suddenly the real politics of trying to push cuts through the NIH budget descend.
Dehoney says, “I think Governor Romney will maintain support for basic research, but not at the level potentially the Obama administration will push for." She adds that Romney would also be more likely to dramatically reduce the amount of federal funding for translational research.
Of the many government agencies involved in genomics, the NIH at least might have a degree of political immunity, Cook-Deegan says. “Republican and Democratic administrations both generally favor research and development. It’s been a little pocket of the federal government that hasn’t been partisan."
The results of November’s vote could also have implications for reforms to the overburdened Food and Drug Agency, including changes to enable it to handle innovations produced by genomics.
“The Republicans might be more willing to act," says Val Giddings, a senior fellow at The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank that has evaluated both candidates’ technology and innovation policies. But, he adds, "I don’t get the sense at all that they know what they would like to do or what would work. The present administration has a much better appreciation of the complexity of the issue.”
Regardless of who wins the country’s top seat, he might have to contend with automatic budget cuts set to take effect in January. The White House has estimated that, if Congress fails to take action, those mandatory cuts will result in a greater than 8 percent reduction in government science program budgets.
Wynne Parry is a journalist based in New York. She is a regular contributor to LiveScience.com, and her work has appeared in The New York Times, Scientific American, Discover Magazine and the New York Post.

Power, flooding trouble hits two NJ refineries; others restart

The second-largest refinery on the East Coast has suffered "some" flooding and a power outage because of Hurricane Sandy, while two smaller plants also lost power, as glitches threaten to slow the recovery in fuel supplies.
While the region's biggest plant, in Philadelphia, and several others were ramping up operations after escaping damage, other facilities, pipelines and terminals continued to struggle to restore supplies that had slowed to a trickle.
Phillips 66 said there was "some flooding in low-lying areas" of its 238,000-barrels-per-day Bayway, New Jersey plant, which had been shut on Monday as a precaution. The plant remains closed, the company said, and utility PSE&G said power was likely to be restored only in 24 to 48 hours.
News of trouble at Bayway, nicknamed the "gasoline machine" for its key role in supplying motor fuel to the New York City area, pared losses in gasoline futures, which had fallen by more than 2 percent as output recovered elsewhere.
Other power-related glitches also surfaced after the storm, which left more than 8 million customers without electricity.
As the storm moved north, a power outage shut Imperial Oil's 121,000-bpd Sarnia, Ontario refinery, but the company said it expected to restart units later in the day.
Hess Corp's 70,000-bpd Port Reading, New Jersey refinery, which had also shut ahead of Sandy, lost power and had no time frame for restarting.
Colonial Pipeline, a conduit that supplies as much as 15 percent of the East Coast's 5.2 million bpd of gasoline, diesel and fuel demand from Gulf Coast refiners, said the line had suffered no operational damage, but it had lost power at its Linden, New Jersey tank farm. It is bringing in portable generators to resume pumping fuel back to the region.
The flooding at Bayway, which had been seen by experts as the most vulnerable to Sandy's record 13-foot (4-meter) storm surge and subsequent power outages, is a potential second nightmare for Phillips 66, which had struggled to restore its Alliance, Louisiana refinery after Hurricane Isaac in August. That storm pushed more than 2 feet of floodwater into the plant.
PHILLY PLANTS SEEN OK
Barring major damage, most experts expected the region's fuel supplies could bounce back quickly after being almost completely halted ahead of Sandy, which came ashore on Monday evening with winds of up to 90 miles per hour (145 km per hour) and the storm surge, causing widespread power outages.
Benchmark New York gasoline futures prices, which rallied more than 6 percent ahead of the storm as traders feared a disruption in supplies, were still down 1 percent or three cents on Tuesday as the focus shifted to the likely cut in fuel consumption due to grounded flights and empty roads. U.S. crude oil futures rose slightly, reversing Monday's dip.
"For the moment you have a big black hole where there used to be oil demand," said Credit Suisse oil analyst Jan Stuart. He said 80 percent of the region's demand in the New York metropolitan area had been affected somehow.
"In the end, the demand deficit outweighs the supply deficit."
Airlines had canceled more than 15,770 flights in the past four days, flight-tracking service FlightAware said. Jet fuel consumption of an estimated 170,000 bpd at the three major New York area airports ground to a halt.
One trader offering to sell physical cargoes in the New York Harbor market found no buyers on Monday.
Operations in the Philadelphia area appeared set to resume quickly. Philadelphia Energy Solutions' 330,000-bpd refinery, the biggest in the region, escaped damage and was restoring operations, the company said, confirming an earlier Reuters report.
Industry intelligence group Genscape said its cameras detected the restart of key crude and vacuum distillation units in the Point Breeze section of the plant.
Delta Air Lines subsidiary Monroe Energy's 185,000-bpd Trainer, Pennsylvania plant continued operating through the storm, and was expected to reach full rates next week after a maintenance overhaul, a source said.
Major ports that supply the area with some 1 million bpd of imported fuel were starting to reopen. The Port of Boston opened without restrictions and was expected to unload a gasoline cargo later on Tuesday, an official said.
(Reporting by Janet McGurty; Additional reporting by Jonathan Leff and David Sheppard in New York, Jeffrey Jones in Calgary; Editing by Michael Urquhart, Chizu Nomiyama, Leslie Gevirtz and Dale Hudson)