Americans are tired of writing a blank check to the NSF to pay for foreign vacations

The National Science Foundation is facing renewed scrutiny over how it awards grants, including one for $275,000 to study the “social impacts” of tourism in Norway’s northern tip, as the House takes up the agency’s request for more funding.

The full House is set to vote next week on science funding across the federal government, including the NSF's request to up its budget from $7.3 billion to $7.7 billion.

But the Republican-led House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology is scrutinizing that request and pointing to such grants as the Norway project. Congressional critics question why the NSF funded researchers to travel 4,000 miles to the Norwegian tourist community of Finnmark, particularly when Alaska is a similar destination and in the United States.

“Americans are tired of writing a blank check to the NSF to pay for foreign vacations,” committee Chairman and Texas GOP Rep. Lamar Smith told FoxNews.com. “Taxpayers’ dollars should focus on national priorities, not European excursions.”  More

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