The Astronomy Policy Ecosystem

This wiki page is designed to provide information on and external links to institutions that have influence on Astronomy Policy in the United States. Astronomy Policy is taken to include the appropriations process (where the budgets of government institutions that provide funding for astronomy are developed and set), the advice process (whereby external bodies give advice to government agencies) and any regulatory processes (e.g. the FCC setting constraints on radio frequency use).

Each section below covers a class of institutions with a brief description of their role and external links to resources related to these institutions.

Astronomy is funded from many different sources, not all of which are governmental. Substantial influence is wielded by your colleagues on proposal referee panels, AAS prize committees, postdoctoral prize selection committees, etc.

1. NSF
2. NASA
3. DOE
4. Air Force
5. Navy
6. Army
7. Private Universities
8. Public Universities and Colleges
9. Private Donors/Foundations

Advice is provided from many different sources. This is where much of the power and influence are wielded. Check the urls for lists of the current composition of the committees and boards, your colleagues who are in special position to influence your fate.

http://www.nationalacademies.org/ An independent body constituted to provide advice to the government on science (National Academy of Science), engineering (National Academy of Engineering) and medicine (Institute of Medicine). Composed of individual members and staff that support “Boards”, that have “Committees” (and Committees that can be jointly constituted, like the CAA – listed below). The “principal operating agency” of the National Academies is the National Research Council. The Institute of Medicine jointly administers the NRC with the other two academies. NRC reports, including the Decadal Studies (see below) are written with certain formal guidelines established by the NRC including reports by anonymous referees to which the body responsible for the report must respond item by item in detail.

• Space Studies Board http://www7.nationalacademies.org/ssb/

Usually provides advice in the form of studies and reports on NASA-related issues, including space flight concerns, not just science.

1. The SSB is composed of senior representatives from the university community, the aerospace industry and those with past government experience. There are typically a few astronomers at any one time, but also representatives from other sciences such as biology, medicine, and materials science, ex-astronauts, and those with past leadership positions in NASA and industry.
2. The SSB frequently responds to specific calls for advice from NASA, but also sometimes to requests from Congress. Although the SSB works closely with NASA, the board values and actively implements its independence.
3. Among the issues recently addressed by the SSB are the Columbia disaster, the status of the Shuttle program, science on the International Space Station and the science component in the President’s Exploration Vision, the possibility of a robotic servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, review of NASA roadmaps the status of the Chinese space program, balance in NASA’s science program and NASA workforce issues.
4. Members of the SSB, about twenty-five people who serve three-year terms, are selected through a nominations and screening process within the NRC, with attention paid to discipline, geography, industry/academia balance, and gender/minority balance. Members are often, but not necessarily members of the National Academy of Science. The Chair is a member of the science community. The functions of the SSB are overseen by an Executive Director who is a staff member of the NRC and aided by other NRC staff.
5. The SSB meets three times per year for two and a half days.
6. See the url above for a list of recent reports.

• Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey Committee (aka the Decadal Survey Committee)

http://www7.nationalacademies.org/bpa/aanm.html Formed every decade to undertake creation of the Decadal Survey. Jointly formed by CAA and BPA (see below)

1. Funded by NASA and NSF and occasionally other sources
2. The Decadal Survey is the “Gold Standard” both for astronomy and other disciplines for a self-study that involves intense community interaction and consultation with the resulting setting of priorities. The process involves intense competition among competing aspirations and missions and some “blood letting” in the process. This process and particularly the resulting set of priorties is highly admired by Congress which must fund the recommended projects and by NSF and NASA that tries to implement them. A current conversation in our community is how to respond on a timescale shorter than a decade when the environment (Columbia disaster, Exploration Vision) changes substantially. New priorities need to be set, but the process of the Decadal Survey is so important that it must be respected (see CAA below)
3. The Decadal Survey is headed by a Chair (or, once, the most recent Astronomy and Astrophysics in the New Millennium, by Co-chairs) appointed by the NRC. The Chair officiates over a committee of about ten senior astronomers representing a variety of disciplines who are also chosen by the NRC. The committee supervises the process and produces the final report with its crucial priority rankings. There are also a substantial number of sub-committees members also appointed by the NRC in consultation with the Chair and main committee?? that focus on separate sub-disciplines. The main committee and the sub-committees together involve perhaps 100 astronomers. The main committee and sub-committee are responsible for a broad consultation with the community, holding “town hall” meetings, accepting white papers and evaluating community opinion.
4. This process requires about a year to complete and is usually begun in the seventh year of the decade preceeding the one to which the report pertains.
5. See the url above for the most recent report.

• Board on Physics and Astronomy

http://www7.nationalacademies.org/bpa/index.html

1. Broadly focused on science concerns, covers mainly NSF and NASA issues
2. Includes various subcommittees including the Committee on the Origins and Evolution of Life and various others.
3. The members of the BPA are appointed by the NRC and comprise physicists and astronomers, others?
4. See the url above for a list of recent reports.

• Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics

http://www7.nationalacademies.org/bpa/caa.html

1. Joint committee of SSB and BPA, issues letter reports and Reviews, including the mid-course review of the Astronomy Decadal Survey.
2. This committee is composed of about 12 senior astronomers appointed by the NRC. The committee is headed by Co-Chairs, one of whom is a member of the Space Studies Board.
3. The committee typicall meets several times per year for 2 days.
4. This committee and its Co-Chairs are a strong voice to the senior management at NASA, especially at the level of the Science Division.
5. See the url above for a list of recent reports.

• Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy

http://www7.nationalacademies.org/cosepup/

1. A wide-ranging committee that issues reports on topics such as enhancing postdoctoral scholar positions, ethics of science, women in science etc.
2. The committee typically meets several times per year for a day or so.
3. See the url above for a list of recent reports.

• Committee on the Origin and Evolution of Life

http://www7.nationalacademies.org/coel/

1. This committee addresses issues related to astrobiology and associated topics in the planetary exploration program.
2. This committee is composed of about 15 members chosen by the NRC to serve three-year terms through a nominations and screening process with attention paid to discipline, geography, industry/academia balance, and gender/minority balance. Members of the committee are astronomers, biologists, geologists and chemists.
3. The committee is headed by Co-Chairs, one of whom sits on the Space Studies Board and one of whom reports to the Board of Medicine.
4. COEL meets three times per year for two and a half days.
5. This committee has a special role to oversee the astrobiology program at NASA, especially the NASA Astrobiology Institute and its various nodes.
6. Recently, the SSB has taken an active interest in the activities of COEL, but the interest from the Board of Medicine is essentially nil.

There are two basic types, “FACA” and non-”FACA”. Usually these commitees are constituted by agencies to get useful input from the community in question.

1. Constituted under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, must follow certain rules such as how their members are chosen, public comment periods, open meetings and avoidance of conflict of interest.
2. Examples include:

• The Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee (AAAC)

http://www.nsf.gov/mps/ast/aaac.jsp This committee was established when the suggestion was made by the Administration that NASA should assume the role of funding all of US astronomy research, including that currently done by NSF. The astronomy community successfully defended against that proposition with the suggestion that NSF and NASA astronomical research should be coordinated rather than combined. The AAAC was constituted at the recommendation of an NRC/BPA report (U. S. Astronomy and Astrophysics: Managing an Integrated Program, NRC, 2001) by Congressional mandate to perform that function. Because of its interest in issues of cosmology, particle astrophysics, and “dark energy,” DOE also became a partner in this enterprise. This gives this committee an especially powerful and important role in oversight and advice to the federal agencies responsible for astronomy funding, overlapping with the SSB and CAA. The AAAC provides a yearly report to Congress and draws substantially on NRC reports, especially the Decadal Survey.

1. The committee is comprised of 13 members who are appointed to their positions. 4 members are selected by the Director of NSF, four by the NASA Administrator, 3 by the Secretary of Energy and 2 by the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
2. The chair is selected by the committee membership.
3. The committee meets four times per year.
4. The committee issues a status report to Congress and the heads of the respective agencies once per year.

• NASA Advisory Council (NAC)

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/oer/nac/advmembers.html The NASA Advisory Council is the top-level committee constituted to advise the NASA Administrator and top-level NASA management. The NAC represents a broad range of interests and disciplines, but with relatively modest input from astronomers.

1. The committee and its chair are appointed by the NASA Administrator.
2. The committee meets several times per year.
3. The Chair of the Space Studies Board is a de facto member
4. The NAC is constituted so that it is the sole source of input and advice from the scientific community to the Science Mission Division of NASA. The members also comprise topical committees, of which the Science Committee is most relevant to the interests of astronomers.
5. Several subcommittees report to the science committee

http://science.hq.nasa.gov/strategy/subcomm.html These are : Astrophysics, Heliophysics, Earth Science, Planetary Science

• Department of Energy discipline advisory committees (HEPAP, BESAC, etc.)
• National Science Foundation Mathematics and Physical Sciences (MPS) Advisory Committee

1. Formed when needed by Presidential order or Congressional direction

• President’s Council of Advisors on Science and TEchnology (PCAST - ‘permanent’)
• President’s Commission on the Implementation of the (NASA’s) Exploration Vision (expired)

• Not bound by FACA rules
• Setup by agencies to accomplish something or to serve, in essence, like a FACA Committee, though it is not one (e.g. NSF no longer supports FACA Committees below the Directorate level)

Scientific Associations act as advocates for their particular discipline or membership base. Most have headquarters in Washington, D.C. and many maintain staff responsible for government relations and tracking policy issues.

1. American Astronomical Society http://www.aas.org/ The professional society for astronomy and closely related sciences.
2. American Physical Society http://www.aps.org/ The professional society for physics.
3. American Geophysical Union http://www.agu.org/ The professional society for geophysics and closely related fields (including ocean sciences and magnetospheric physics.

Lobbyists are professionals trained to represent entities in the policy process. They can significantly alter the priorities of the President and Congress as well as modify budgets both in the Office of Management and Budget and in Congress.

Any individual may contact and communicate with any government person they want to. Individuals, especially to a member of Congress carry great weight. Few scientists participate in the legislative process. If more did, scientific interests would be more important to Congress.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/ Acts directly through setting policy, issuing orders or introducing legislation for considration by Congress. The agency responsible for developing budgets is the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

http://www.omb.gov/ The OMB is an office of the Executive Office of the President responsible for the management and budgeting of all government agencies.

1. It has a very flat management structure, one person does many things and is responsible for many government programs, e.g. NASA science and NSF are both overseen by one person each.
2. Issues a budget each year near state of the union address, which contains policy directions etc.
3. Top level issues can severely impact our field...e.g. tax cuts, wars, natural disasters, that are not under OMB’s control.

http://www.ostp.gov/ Responsible for setting broad policy agenda for the President.

For astronomy the important ones are the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/, the National Science Foundation (NSF: http://www.nsf.gov/) and the Department of Energy (DOE: http://www.doe.gov).

1. Agencies are the implementors of government programs. They act through execution of their goals and implementation of the President’s directives.
2. Agencies interact each year with OMB to establish budget
3. Must testify before Congress to defend budget and when oversight by Congress is mandated/implemented

A new associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate has been named. Alan Stern took over in May 2007 and has begun to invigorate the SMD through new appointments. The draft organizational chart is provided here.

• Colleen Hartmann, Deputy AA
• Todd May, Deputy AA for flight programs
• Yvonne Pendleton, R&A
• Paul Hertz, Science Policy, Process, and Ethics Officer
• John Mather, Chief Scientist
• Ken Ledbetter, Chief Engineer
• Roy Maizel, Management and Policy Division
• R. Fisher, Heliophysics
• Mike Freilich, Earth Science
• James L. Green, Planetary Science
• John Morse, Astrophysics

The Congress is composed of two houses of elected representatives. The Senate is composed of two members for each state, while the House of Representatives has numbers of representatives for each state in proportion to their population.

1. Acts through passage of laws and oversight
2. Authorization legislation establishes why something is being done and what should be done in the future
3. Appropriations legislation provides the funding for programs and serves as the Nation’s checkbook. If a program (authorized or not) does not receive appropriations, it cannot function.
4. Congress provides oversight through hearings, letters of inquiry and other means.