HR 2225 Passed in House - the National Science Foundation for the Future Act

Yesterday the House considered HR 2225, the National Science Foundation for the Future Act, under the suspension of the rules process. The bill passed by a bipartisan vote of 345 to 67. Even though 67 Republicans voted against the bill, there was no negative comment uttered on the floor of the House during the debate on the bill.

It is unlikely that the Senate will take up the version of this bill that was passed in the House. The Senate passed S 1260 earlier this month and that bill also provided authorization for the National Science Foundation, and much more. Even where the two bills do the same thing, authorizing funding for the NSF for instance (see HR 2225, §4 and S 1260, §2116) there are significant differences between the two bills.

What the Senate is likely to do (if) when they consider this bill is to substitute the language from S 1260 for the House version and then pass the bill. The House would be unlikely to accept the Senate language. This would lead to a conference committee working out the many differences between the two bills. I expect that we will receive the combined language sometime this fall. It will be interesting to see what cybersecurity language comes out in that bill.