Spending Cuts Threaten to Delay Research, Obama Tells Scientists

At a moment when scientists are on the brink of making breakthroughs that could significantly improve human lives, broad spending reductions that went into effect in March threaten to stall their progress for up to two years, President Obama told a gathering of scientists on Monday.

“Unfortunately, that’s what we’re facing right now,” Mr. Obama told an audience of researchers, scientists, and current and former government officials gathered for the 150th annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences. “Because of the across-the-board cuts that Congress put in place â€" the sequester, as it’s known in Washington-speak â€" it’s hitting our scientific research.”

In his 2014 budget, Mr. Obama proposed increasing spending on science and research by about 1 percent, to $143 billion, according to the scientific journal Nature. But his financing proposal, which was already unlikely to become law, now faces the shears of sequestration. Federal agencies have already had their budgets reduced by an average of 5 percent this year, with even more cuts expected next year.

As a result, Mr. Obama said, research is left in limbo.

“Instead of racing ahead on the next cutting-edge discovery, our scientists are left wondering if they’ll get to start any new projects, any new research projects at all over the next few years,” he said, “which means that we could lose a year, two years of scientific research as a practical matter because of misguided priorities here in this town.”

Mr. Obama said the country could not afford delays that would make it difficult to keep up with the pace of technological innovation or allow other nations to get ahead of the United States in science.

“And I say that, by the way, not out of just any nationalistic pride â€" although, obviously, that’s part of it,” he said. “But it’s also because nobody does it better than we do when it’s adequately funded, when it’s adequately supported.”

Echoing his speech at the White House Science Fair last week, Mr. Obama called for increasing investment in scientific research and development to levels “that we haven’t seen since the height of the space race.”

The National Academy of Sciences was established by federal charter in 1863, during the Civil War, with a mandate to advise the government on scientific matters. President Abraham Lincoln called on the academy’s scientists to help fix a problem with the compasses on the Union Navy’s ironclad ships.

The iron siding made the ships’ compasses unpredictable, “so it skewed navigation, and they were bumping into things and going the wrong way,” Mr. Obama explained. About a year later, on the advice of the scientists, bar magnets were installed on the ships to correct their navigation.

“So right off the bat, you guys were really useful. In fact, it’s fair to say we might not be here had you not â€" certainly I would not be here,” Mr. Obama said, alluding to his status as the first African-American president of the United States.

The academy is made up of more than 2,200 member scientists and 400 foreign associates. Members are elected annually and serve voluntarily, a fact that Mr. Obama jokingly said was “fortunate, because we have no money anyway.”

He also emphasized the need to keep science free from political influence and to finance education initiatives for young researchers and scientists, like those who participated in the science fair last week.

“I know you guys were smart when you were their age, but I might give them the edge,” he said before giving examples of some of the projects that students exhibited at the science fair.

“They were all dreaming to grow up and be just like you,” he said. “Maybe with a little less gray hair, but they shared your passion.”

The academy is friendly territory for Mr. Obama, who spoke at the organization’s annual meeting in 2009. Ralph J. Cicerone, the president of the academy, introduced Mr. Obama, comparing him to another president from Illinois: Lincoln, who signed the charter that created the body.

“Like President Lincoln 150 years ago, President Obama clearly understands the importance of science and technology to the future security and prosperity of our nation,” Dr. Cicerone said. “Since taking office, he has been unwavering in his commitment, for example, to science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, and in his support of the scientific community.”

Spending Cuts Threaten to Delay Research, Obama Tells Scientists

At a moment when scientists are on the brink of making breakthroughs that could significantly improve human lives, broad spending reductions that went into effect in March threaten to stall their progress for up to two years, President Obama told a gathering of scientists on Monday.

“Unfortunately, that’s what we’re facing right now,” Mr. Obama told an audience of researchers, scientists, and current and former government officials gathered for the 150th annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences. “Because of the across-the-board cuts that Congress put in place â€" the sequester, as it’s known in Washington-speak â€" it’s hitting our scientific research.”

In his 2014 budget, Mr. Obama proposed increasing spending on science and research by about 1 percent, to $143 billion, according to the scientific journal Nature. But his financing proposal, which was already unlikely to become law, now faces the shears of sequestration. Federal agencies have already had their budgets reduced by an average of 5 percent this year, with even more cuts expected next year.

As a result, Mr. Obama said, research is left in limbo.

“Instead of racing ahead on the next cutting-edge discovery, our scientists are left wondering if they’ll get to start any new projects, any new research projects at all over the next few years,” he said, “which means that we could lose a year, two years of scientific research as a practical matter because of misguided priorities here in this town.”

Mr. Obama said the country could not afford delays that would make it difficult to keep up with the pace of technological innovation or allow other nations to get ahead of the United States in science.

“And I say that, by the way, not out of just any nationalistic pride â€" although, obviously, that’s part of it,” he said. “But it’s also because nobody does it better than we do when it’s adequately funded, when it’s adequately supported.”

Echoing his speech at the White House Science Fair last week, Mr. Obama called for increasing investment in scientific research and development to levels “that we haven’t seen since the height of the space race.”

The National Academy of Sciences was established by federal charter in 1863, during the Civil War, with a mandate to advise the government on scientific matters. President Abraham Lincoln called on the academy’s scientists to help fix a problem with the compasses on the Union Navy’s ironclad ships.

The iron siding made the ships’ compasses unpredictable, “so it skewed navigation, and they were bumping into things and going the wrong way,” Mr. Obama explained. About a year later, on the advice of the scientists, bar magnets were installed on the ships to correct their navigation.

“So right off the bat, you guys were really useful. In fact, it’s fair to say we might not be here had you not â€" certainly I would not be here,” Mr. Obama said, alluding to his status as the first African-American president of the United States.

The academy is made up of more than 2,200 member scientists and 400 foreign associates. Members are elected annually and serve voluntarily, a fact that Mr. Obama jokingly said was “fortunate, because we have no money anyway.”

He also emphasized the need to keep science free from political influence and to finance education initiatives for young researchers and scientists, like those who participated in the science fair last week.

“I know you guys were smart when you were their age, but I might give them the edge,” he said before giving examples of some of the projects that students exhibited at the science fair.

“They were all dreaming to grow up and be just like you,” he said. “Maybe with a little less gray hair, but they shared your passion.”

The academy is friendly territory for Mr. Obama, who spoke at the organization’s annual meeting in 2009. Ralph J. Cicerone, the president of the academy, introduced Mr. Obama, comparing him to another president from Illinois: Lincoln, who signed the charter that created the body.

“Like President Lincoln 150 years ago, President Obama clearly understands the importance of science and technology to the future security and prosperity of our nation,” Dr. Cicerone said. “Since taking office, he has been unwavering in his commitment, for example, to science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, and in his support of the scientific community.”

N.B.A. Player Cites Representative Kennedy in Decision to Come Out

BOSTON â€" One bright June day last year, Joseph P. Kennedy III marched in Boston’s gay pride parade, waving energetically to the spirited crowd that had gathered along the route. At his side was Barney Frank, the gay congressman from the Fourth District of Massachusetts, whom Mr. Kennedy was campaigning to replace after he had announced his retirement.

As it turns out, Mr. Kennedy’s march made a deep impression on a former college roommate, Jason Collins, the N.B.A. center who on Monday came out as the first openly gay male athlete playing in a major American team sport. A coming-out essay he wrote was posted on the Web site of Sports Illustrated.

In the essay, Mr. Collins said it made him realize that he wanted to show the same kind of public pride as Mr. Kennedy, who made equality for gay, lesbian and transgender individuals part of his platform during his successful run for Congress.

I realized I needed to go public when Joe Kennedy, my old roommate at Stanford and now a Massachusetts congressman, told me he had just marched in Boston’s 2012 Gay Pride Parade. I’m seldom jealous of others, but hearing what Joe had done filled me with envy. I was proud of him for participating but angry that as a closeted gay man I couldn’t even cheer my straight friend on as a spectator. If I’d been questioned, I would have concocted half truths. What a shame to have to lie at a celebration of pride. I want to do the right thing and not hide anymore. I want to march for tolerance, acceptance and understanding. I want to take a stand and say, “Me, too.”

Mr. Collins came out to Mr. Kennedy a few weeks ago, and the two plan to march together in the pride parade this year, on June 8.

“For as long as I’ve known Jason Collins he has been defined by three things: his passion for the sport he loves, his unwavering integrity, and the biggest heart you will ever find,” Mr. Kennedy said in a statement. “I’m proud to stand with him today and proud to call him a friend.”

Lew Names Chief of Staff at Treasury

The Obama administration’s second-term staff reshuffling continued on Monday, as Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew named Christian A. Weideman as his new chief of staff. Mark A. Patterson, who has served in the role managing the Treasury Department’s day-to-day operations since President Obama took office in 2009, plans to depart at the end of May.

Mr. Weideman is a well-known presence in the department. A lawyer by training, he is currently the department’s deputy general counsel, and he assisted with Mr. Lew’s confirmation process this year. He has also served as an associate counsel to Mr. Obama and has worked at the Williams & Connolly law firm.

Mr. Lew, a budget expert and former White House chief of staff, took over as Treasury secretary after the long-anticipated departure of Timothy F. Geithner, an international finance expert who is now at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Cruz Breaks With Senate Tradition While Criticizing Colleagues

In his short time in the Capitol, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas has shown little regard for long-standing rules of decorum in the ultimate exclusive club, the 100-member U.S. Senate. But on Friday, the freshman Republican violated the club’s Omertà, publicly disclosing the closed-door dealings of the Senate Republican Conference â€" and trashing his colleagues in the process.

Stopping by a Texas summit of the Tea Party-aligned group FreedomWorks, Mr. Cruz called many of his colleagues “squishes,” forced to stand on conservative principles by the uncompromising stands of a triumphant trio of Republican “constitutionalists:” himself, Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky.

At stake was the gun control legislation that the Senate dragged down earlier this month. At issue for Mr. Cruz might be his exposure of a series of closed-door luncheons in which fellow Republicans took the three to task for announcing in advance that they would filibuster every single vote on the gun measure, including the simple motion to take up and begin debating the bill. Such meetings are expressly off the record.

“We’ve had probably five or six lunches with a bunch of Republican senators standing up and looking at Rand and Mike and me and yelling at the top of their lungs, I mean really upset,” he told the group to laughter and titters, according to a video posted by a Tea Party blogger and promoted by the liberal group People for the American Way. “And they said, ‘Why did you do this? As a result of what you did, when I go home, my constituents are yelling at me that I’ve got to stand on principle.’ I’m not making that up. I don’t even bother to argue with them. I just sort of let them yell.”

The cause for criticism was a letter the trio of Tea Party-backed senators had written a letter announcing their intention to filibuster gun safety legislation that was making its way through the Senate, meaning that even the motion to proceed to the gun legislation would take 60 votes. That gave President Obama an invitation to publicly demand fair consideration of the bill and proposed amendments â€" and a refrain, “they deserve a vote.” In the end, the filibuster on that motion was easily broken, 68-31, with 16 Republicans joining joining the Democrats. That proved to be the bill’s high-water mark. No other significant gun control amendment could muster 60 votes, the Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, of the majority leader, pulled it from the floor rather than press forward to a final filibuster vote that it could not overcome.

By Mr. Cruz’s account, the procedural vote to take up the bill had deeply divided the Republican conference, split between those who were prepared to keep gun control from even reaching the Senate floor and those who said the issue should be openly debated.

“Here was their argument,” Mr. Cruz said of his adversaries in the Republican Conference. “They said ‘Listen, before you did this, the politics of it were great. The Democrats were the bad guys. The Republicans were the good guys. Now we all look like a bunch of squishes.’”

“Well,” he said he responded, “there is an alternative. You could just not be a bunch of squishes.”

His account of those closed-door meeting does conflict with others. The New York Times reported on one blow-up when Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, angrily confronted the three senators about advertisements running in her home state accusing her of backing an Obama-backed gun grab. Those ads were financed by an obscure gun rights group with close ties to Mr. Paul. According to several aides familiar with the confrontation, Mr. Cruz defensively jumped in to say he had nothing to do with the ads. Mr. Paul, in contrast, stormed out, saying he felt subject to an Inquisition.

Friday’s speech was not the first time Mr. Cruz may have acted counter to some of the Senate’s norms. Earlier this year, he suggested a former Republican senator, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, might have accepted money from the nation’s enemies, prompting some Senate Democrats to accuse him of McCarthyism.

And last month, in a testy exchange in the Senate Judiciary Committee over guns, Mr. Cruz accused Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California and one of the Senate’s most senior members, of an insufficient understanding of the Constitution and its Second Amendment.

“I’m not a sixth grader,” she snapped back. “I’m not a lawyer, but after 20 years I’ve been up close and personal with the Constitution. I have great respect for it.”

“Senator Cruz’s speech further cements his reputation for grandstanding and representing the Tea Party instead of the people of Texas,” said Michael Keegan, president of People For the American Way. “Cruz is rapidly alienating senators on both sides of the aisle. He may be a darling of the Tea Party, but he’s a growing political liability for the G.O.P.”

“Senator Cruz promised 26 million Texans that he would fight for conservative principles every single day, and that’s exactly what he has done and will continue to do,” said Catherine Frazier, a spokeswoman for Mr. Cruz. “Privately and publicly, he is urging Republicans to stand for principle, and he is encouraged that in recent months so many Republicans are standing up for liberty. Whether on drones or guns or repealing Obamacare, Republicans have stood together and defended the Constitution, and, as a result, are winning the argument.”

Follow Jonathan Weisman on Twitter at @jonathanweisman.