Clinton, Obama Surrogates Debate Science Policy

http://news.yahoo.com/s/cq/20080217/pl_cq_politics/politics2672884

Clinton, Obama Surrogates Debate Science Policy
By Peggy Girshman, CQ Staff
Sun Feb 17, 2008

Boston, Mass Feb. 16 - It wasn't in primetime. In fact, it wasn't broadcast at all. The audience wasn't hand-picked to equally represent the candidates. But a weekend debate at the American Association for the Advancement of Science between science advisors to the Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama campaigns was strikingly similar to forums between the candidates.

A spokesperson for the AAAS said that the organization had put together the session "at the last minute" and that John McCain's science advisor had declined due to scheduling problems and that they had not received any reply to the invitation from the Mike Huckabee or Ron Paul campaigns

On lapels throughout the convention corridors were buttons emblazoned with "Science Debate 2008" . They're the product of a campaign to urge a public debate "in which [all] the U.S. presidential candidates share their views on the issues of the Environment, Medicine and Health and Science and Technology Policy."

Representing Clinton, in suit and tie, was Tom Kalil, a Washington veteran who was Deputy Assistant to former President Bill Clinton for Technology and Economic Policy. He came with a power-point presentation highlighting the challenges in science and technology policy and proposing specific future Clinton administration plans.

Kalil blasted the Bush administration's policies, saying that the president has listened to his political advisors while distancing himself from his own science advisors. "The OSTP [Office of Science and Technology Policy] has been banished to bureaucratic Siberia," he said.

Obama's adviser, Alec Ross, in shirt sleeves, didn't look much older than the graduate students in the audience. He's also the executive vice-president of One Economy, a nonprofit corporation that seeks to expand broadband technology into poor areas.

Echoing a central Obama theme, he began with a sweeping indictment of how science policy is influenced by lobbyists in Washington, saying that Obama would act to limit that influence.

"We must use all technologies to open up the federal government, making it transparent" to all, he said. He was shorter on specifics than Kalil, often referring audience members to the Obama campaign Web site for detail.

Both men promised hefty increases in spending on basic research, with Kalil saying Clinton would double the budget, within ten years, of the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the basic and applied research at the Department of Defense and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Ross said Obama would double federal spending for basic research over five years.

Much of Obama's plans rely on technological solutions to problems, including investing $10 billion a year to computerize medical records and spending $150 billion over 10 years to develop more biofuels, hybrid vehicles and transitioning to an electricity grid that is run with digital controls rather than the relatively slow electromechanical switches and relays used today..

To encourage more American students to study science and technology, Kalil promised Clinton would triple the number of graduate student fellowships - a popular notion with the Ph.D.-laden crowd. In a not-so-subtle jab at Obama, he noted several times that Clinton was "the only candidate" who has given a speech about science policy, on the 50th anniversary of Sputnik Oct 4th to the Carnegie Institution of Science.

Either Clinton or Obama would reverse the Bush administration ban on federal funding of certain embryonic stem cell research and both have multiple plans to ameliorate climate change through technological advances, carbon trading and more engagement with other nations.

Both representatives promised more scientific freedom, ending what they characterized as extensive political interference in science and technology policy decisions. Ross said "instead of having politicians make those decisions, let's have scientists make those decisions," and Kalil adding Clinton "is committed to signing executive orders to prevent political appointees from muzzling scientists."

Just as in other Obama-Clinton debates, the campaigns seemed to agree on most everything except whether Washington knowledge and experience is a hindrance to or a facilitator of change.

The campaigns appeared to disagree on what to do about the abundance of foreign students (68 percent) in U.S. science graduate schools. Clinton advisor Kalil, who is also the special assistant to Chancellor at University of California at Berkeley for Science and Technology, worried that not enough American students are embarking on science careers, saying "U.S. science and technology leadership is at risk."

Ross said Obama wanted to increase the number of foreign students in U.S. graduate school and would "give them a path to citizenship." In addition, Kalil said the Clinton had the plans in place to pay for increased scientific funding and Ross said Obama would pay for his program by cutting defense and Iraq War spending.

The "Science Debate 2008" effort is cosponsored by the AAAS, the Council on Competitiveness and the National Academies of Sciences - the most prominent U.S. scientific organizations. The Web site features support for the debate from hundreds of individuals and organizations, including 25 Nobel Laureates, university presidents, national scientific-technological organizations and corporate leaders, among them Norm Augustine, former CEO of Lockheed Martin and currently on President Bush's science advisory panel. The steering committee is co-chaired by Reps. Vernon J. Ehlers, R-Mich., and Rush D. Holt, D-N.J.

So far, no candidate has accepted the debate offer and Ross and Kalil were noncommittal about the prospect of the Philadelphia debate, scheduled for April 18, just four days before the Pennsylvania primary.