Coordinating science : White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) influence in federal R&D budgets

Abstract

This thesis examines the role of the White House OSTP in the nation's budgeting for science and technology activities. Interviews conducted by the researcher with members of the White House staff as well as federal agency officials are the primary empirical support, with analysis of annual priority memoranda and presidential budget requests reinforcing the findings. The original contribution of this research is to highlight limitations of responsive competence despite presidential attempts to coordinate the R&D bureaucracy. In science policy, presidents obtain responsive competence by hiring entrepreneurial OSTP staff members in the areas that most align with their priorities. The centralized R&D coordination that OSTP does actually perform in budgets is highly constrained by legal authority, bureaucratic resistance, and the epistemic norms of the science policy community itself. The relationship of the President's Science Advisor with the Administration is an important confounder across presidencies