Final Report to the
IEEE-USA Government Fellowship Committee

Martin M. Sokoloski, Ph.D.

June 2005

I spent the calendar year of 2004 in the office of U.S. Representative Rush Holt, 12th District in New Jersey. As reported in the mid-year report, Rep. Holt is a former AAAS congressional fellow, a physicist and a former assistant director at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. He is a member of the Select House Committee on Intelligence and the House Education and the Workforce Committee.

I formulated, organized and managed in the 108th Congress, the new Congressional Research and Development Caucus [R&D Caucus] , co-sponsored by Representatives Rush Holt and Judy Biggert (R-Il-13). It was established to provide a view of research and development funding that transcends the purview of individual committees and to increase the awareness of members and staff on issues related to research such as:

• The economic, societal, and security benefit derived from federal R&D investment.
• Technological innovations that have resulted from federal investment in R&D.
• The importance of a balanced R&D portfolio, with appropriate distribution of resources between the physical, engineering, and health sciences.
• Yearly trends in R&D budget numbers.

It was also established to support:

• The work of existing Committees and members with jurisdiction over the National Science Foundation, DOE, EPA, Department of Defense, Department of Commerce, National Institutes of Heath and other agencies supporting research and development efforts.
• Federal agencies that support research and development efforts.
• Federal policies that foster and encourage research and development in the private sector of our economy, and to provide a primary point of contact for scientific professional societies and others with interest in R&D issues, to provide a forum for a wide range of issues of interest to the scientific community and serve as an informational resource for decision-makers in the area of R&D

and to provide a forum for the support and creation of legislation affecting the research and development community.

At the end of the 108 Congress, it had over 40 Congressional members. As I departed the office, I helped organize the Advisory Committee [AC] for the R&D Caucus to ensure its success, continuation and support. The AC is comprised of public interest and private sector organizations from the science, engineering, technology and educational sectors dedicated to informing Congress and the public on important national and global issues regarding research and development affecting the United States. The IEEE-USA is a founding member of the AC and sits on the Planning Committee which provides guidance to the R&D Caucus and logistical support for the AC events and initiatives. The Caucus web site is at http://www.researchcaucus.org/.

In 2004, we held a total of ten highly successful Caucus briefings sponsored by professional societies such as the Federation of American Scientists, The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the R&D Tax Credit Coalition, the Federation of Materials Society, the Optical Society of American, the International Society of Optical Engineering, the American Institute of Physics and, of course, the IEEE-USA. With help from Prof. Steve Watkins, the other 2004 IEEE-USA fellow in Rep. Rohrabacher’s office, we, the IEEE-USA and the American Institute of Astronautics and Aeronautics in concert with the AC organized at the last moment an R&D Caucus luncheon briefing by Dr. Peter Diamandis, President of the Ansari X-Prize Foundation on “The X-Prize and Zero G: Start of the Personal Spaceflight Revolution”. Rep. Rohorabacher is a Caucus member and member of the Congressional Science Committee. This luncheon was spurred forth by the successful flight of Burt Rutan’s SpaceShipOne backed by Microsoft cofounder Paul G. Allen’s Mojave Aerospace Ventures. It completed the required twice-in-two-weeks space shot to earn the US $10 million Ansari X Prize. The following days, Rep. Rohrabacher introduced H.R.5382, “To promote the development of the emerging commercial human space flight industry and for other purposes”. It became Public Law No: 108-492. I believe the luncheon caucus, heavily attend by Congressional aides, was partly responsible for garnering support in the House for H.R. 5382. A web sit for the act can be found on: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d108:2:./temp/~bssbeeg:@@@D&summ2=m&

I also collaborate and help plan the House Biomedical Research Caucus of which Rep. Holt is a member. This Caucus has been in existence for over a decade.

Since Rep. Holt was attempting to restore the capabilities of the old Office of Technology Assessment whose funds were cut out following the Republican control of Congress under Newt Gingrich, I wrote bill, H.R. 4670, to create the Center for Scientific and Technical Assessment. It would give the Governmental Accountability office, whose abilities and neutrality are respected by parties, the mandate and resources to study the impact of technology on matters of public concern, including implications for economic, national security, social, scientific, and other national policies and programs. The bill had 16 co-sponsors, including Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Science Committee. The bill was referred to this committee and scheduled for hearings in September 2004. This was a very exciting time; I had interacted with the House Science Committee in preparation of a list of experts to testify on the bill. Unfortunately, Rep. Boehlert became ill and had to undergo by-pass surgery in September. The hearings were cancelled. The bill will need to be reintroduced in the 109 Congress.

Dear Colleague (DC) letters that are sent to members of congress urging them to sign on to a particular cause are part and parcel of the office. I helped write a DC signed by over 140 members of Congress urging that the National Science Foundation be funded at the highest possible level in the FY 2005 budget. I also worked to get Rep. Holt on H. RES. 550, expressing the sense of the House of Representatives relating to the extraordinary contributions resulting from the Hubble Space Telescope to scientific research and education, and to the need to reconsider future service missions to the Hubble Space Telescope. He was one of 76 co-sponsors.

I wrote a chapter for Rush Holt entitled, "How Should Government Regulate Stem-Cell Research? Perspective of a Scientist-Legislator" for inclusion in the book, The Grand Bargain: Ethics and the Pharmaceutical Industry in the 21st Century. The chapter deals with the fact that governments are often faced with the difficult task of legislating on bioethical issues upon which many scientific, philosophical and religious leaders are unable to reach unified consensus or closure. The book is slated for publication in 2005.

Finally, because of Representative Holt’s filled calendar, I have addressed various groups, such as the Council of Scientific Society Presidents, on the role of the federal government in areas of science, engineering and technical policy.

In retrospect I greatly appreciated the welcome extended by Rep. Rush Holt; the Chief of Staff, Jim Papa; Legislative Director, Bill Goold and all aides in his office. I also enjoyed myself in visiting Holt’s district office where I marveled at the devotion, energy and commitment of the staff. The new Holt Congressional fellow is Dr. Valerie Thomas from the American Physical Society. She came aboard in October of 2004 and took advantage of three months of overlap.

In addition, I had frequent meetings with other IEEE-USA Engineering Fellows and American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows. Like my fellow IEEE-USA fellows, I found this networking to be a valuable resource and I highly commend our Government Fellows Program. This fellowship may have lasted for a year, but it has created for me a lifetime commitment to the political process on the Hill.
 

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