Senator Schumer Proposes $100B “National Science & Technology Foundation”

(AIP.org) Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke this week about a draft proposal to create a “National Science and Technology Foundation” that would spend $100 billion over five years on research related to technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and 5G telecommunications.
Referring to the proposal as in a “discussion draft” stage, Schumer said it has not yet been “firmed up” and that its proponents have not settled on how to structure the entity. However, he said the current idea is for it to be a “subsidiary” of the National Science Foundation that would work “in concert” with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and be governed by a board of directors.
According to Schumer, the objective would be for the entity to spend $100 billion over five years, with funding flowing to universities, companies, and other government agencies. For comparison, NSF’s annual budget is currently $8.1 billion while DARPA’s is $3.4 billion.