In this report, highly critical of the National Science Foundation (NSF), Senator Coburn argued that poor management and practices at NSF have resulted in losses of over $1.2 billion due to “waste, fraud, duplication and mismanagement”, with a further $1.7 billion in unspent funds.[1] The report fingered several studies that exemplify “waste and duplication”; those cited in the press release included: “$80,000 study on why the same teams always dominate March Madness”, “$315,000 study suggesting playing FarmVille on Facebook helps adults develop and maintain relationships;” “$1 million for an analysis of how quickly parents respond to trendy baby names;” “$50,000 to produce and publicize amateur songs about science, including a rap called “Money 4 Drugz,” and a misleading song titled “Biogas is a Gas, Gas, Gas”;” “$2 million to figure out that people who often post pictures on the internet from the same location at the same time are usually friends;” and “$581,000 on whether online dating site users are racist.”[1] Ineffective management examples, cited in report, included “Hundreds of millions of dollars lost to ineffective contracting”; “$1.7 billion in unspent funds sitting in expired, undisbursed grant accounts;” “At least $3 million in excessive travel funds”; “A lack of accountability or program metrics to evaluate expenditures” and “Inappropriate staff behavior including porn surfing and Jello wrestling and skinny-dipping at NSF-operated facilities in Antarctica”.[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Science_Foundation:_Under_the_Microscope
President Obama Calls for $1B Increase in NIH Funding in 2016 Budget
Feb 02, 2015
GenomeWeb staff reporter
President Obama also has called for $7.7 billion in funding for the National Science Foundation, an increase of more than 5 percent over its 2015 funding;
The President’s budget kicks off negotiations over the FY 2016 budget, which will take place during the coming months in Congress.