National Science Foundation Wastes Billions of Dollars

At this point one would think that the federal government has found every conceivable way to waste money.  But, a new report by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), “The National Science Foundation: Under the Microscope”, which details how the national Science Foundation (NSF) squanders billions of dollars on silly research projects and mismanagement, shows the federal government’s never ending creativity in wasting tax dollars.The good news is that with major news networks like Fox picking up on the story,the NSF may be forced to address the problems.

The NSF was established in 1950 to “to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense…”  They carry out their mission by giving grants to “support scientists, engineers and educators directly through their own home institutions (typically universities and colleges.  Researchers and academics have held the NSF in high esteem for its peer review process and ground breaking research into areas such as cloud computing and nanotechnology.  That reputation may begin to change.

Unbeknownst to taxpayers, and many members of Congress, the NSF has been funding some silly research projects.  According to the report, the following is a list of questionable (that is being nice) grants, including:

• $1,500,000 to study how long you will have to wait if you trust your laundry folding to a robot;
• $559,681 to study how long a shrimp can run on a treadmill;
• $476,000 to study how often do people lie in text messages and online messaging;
• $161,522 to study how members of Congress can improve their approval ratings through town hall meetings; and
• $79,998 to study why the same teams always dominate the March Madness college basketball tournament

Mismanagement is also pervasive throughout NSF.  A few of Sen. Coburn’s findings include:

• “One senior executive spent at least 331 days looking at pornography on his government computer and chatting online with nude or partially clad women—costing the taxpayers between $13,800 and $58,000;
• Two romantically involved NSF employees go on 47 get-a-ways on NSF’s dime. A senior manager at NSF went on 47 trips in a two and a half year period with a direct subordinate, at a total cost of $144,152 in NSF funds;
• Senior level NSF official took or extended taxpayer-funded trips totaling $11,283 for romantic liaisons with women in Paris, Tokyo, and Vancouver; and
• In their spare time NSF employees have been jello-wrestling in Antarctica at the NSF research station McMurdo station.”

Not only does the NSF have quite a bit of work to do to fix its problems, they seem to have too much money to do it with.  According to the report, “NSF currently is sitting on $1.7 billion that has expired. This represents a significant amount of resources that could have either been directed towards scientific research or returned to the Treasury for purposes of debt reduction.”

Sen. Coburn has the following recommendations to get the NSF back on track:

• “Establish Clear Guidelines for What Constitutes ‘Transformative’ and ‘Potentially Transformative’ Science
• Set Clear Metrics to Measure Success and Standards to Ensure Accountability
• Eliminate NSF’s Social, Behavioral, and Economics (SBE) Directorate ($255 million in FY 2010)
• Consolidate the Directorate for Education & Human Resources ($872 million in FY 2010)
• Use It or Lose It: NSF Should Better Manage Resources It Can No Longer Spend or Does Not Need and Immediately Return $1.7 Billion of Unspent, Expired Funds It Currently Holds
• Reduce Duplication: Develop a Strategic Plan to Streamline Federal Research and Development
• Provide the NSF Inspector General Additional Resources and Place a Greater Emphasis on the Office of Inspector General’s Findings

Now that taxpayers, and presumably Congress, know what the problems are at NSF they can be corrected and the NSF can return to providing useful research.