The President announced today that he will nominate Dr. Arden Bement as the new Director of the National Science Foundation. Dr. Bement, the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, has also been serving as acting Director of NSF since February of this year. The appointment comes just 3 days before the expiration of the 210-day statutory limitation on an individual serving as acting head of a federal agency.
In reacting to the news of the appointment, Rep. Bart Gordon of Tennessee, Ranking Democratic Member of the House Science Committee, said, “Dr. Bement has had a long and distinguished career in industry and academia, and as Director of NIST. The National Science Foundation, by culture and constituency, is very different from NIST, but I am confident that he will excel in his leadership of this important research agency.”
Mr. Gordon went on to say, “While I am pleased that NSF will finally have a full-time Director, I am concerned that the National Institute of Standards and Technology will not. NIST has not had a full-time Director for the past seven months. Though Dr. Hratch Semerjian has done an outstanding job in an acting capacity, an acting director is not a substitute for the real thing. NIST has been in severe budgetary crisis for the past four years, primarily because this Administration has tried to eliminate the Advanced Technology Program and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership and has barely provided NIST’s laboratories with level funding. Given NIST’s importance to the Nation’s industrial competitiveness, I am disappointed that the Administration did not nominate a new NIST Director as well.”
