One roof for much of federal science.

One roof for much

of federal science?

Nearly any industrialized nation you can name has a ministry or commission of science -- except the United States. Here, most federal research is scattered across 10 agencies and departments. Jumbled and repetitive as this setup may seem, many scientists say it is one of the country's strengths. Now, Republicans are floating a proposal to fold much of federal science and technology research into a single department. House Science Committee chairman Robert S. Walker (R-Pa.), who is drafting a bill for the plan, says such a department would cut costs and red tape, improve coordination of research, and eliminate redundancy.

The new department would combine most federal research programs, including the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey's research, and the Department of Energy's energy research and nuclear weapons laboratories, Walker says. The National Institutes of Health and defense research would be excluded. Creating such a department could eliminate 5,000 federal jobs, potentially saving $50,000 or more per position, says a staffer for Walker. The notion of a cabinet-level science department is not new, nor has it been touted only by Republicans. Various administrations and congresses have batted the idea around at least as far back as Vice President Hubert Humphrey's day, notes Albert H. Teich of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Proponents say such a department could give the scientific community a stronger voice in influencing science policy. But Teich and other critics argue that the plan would destroy a unique aspect of American science: that a scientist can usually find support for a good idea, even if the first agency he or she talks to isn't interested in the research. Putting most science under one cabinet official could also make federal research more vulnerable to budget cuts and to politics, some say.

"You can always think of somebody who, if they became czar of science, it would be disastrous," says Yale physicist D. Allan Bromley, White House science adviser in the Bush administration.

Walker sponsored a similar bill in the last Congress, but it wasn't passed. This time, the plan may have a better shot. It fits Republican goals to eliminate four departments, including Commerce and Energy. Despite its drawbacks, a science department could provide a "life preserver" for the research arms of these departments, Teich observes.