Science policy involves considerations of two fundamental human activities: science and policy. People make decisions in pursuit of valued outcomes, so thinking about science policy necessarily implicates science, its close associate science-based technology, and ethics. Although science policy is a topic central to all societies, particularly developed countries that devote significant public resources to science, for two reasons the focus here is on the United States. First, the United States is responsible for the largest share of global spending on science and technology. Second, for better or worse, the budgetary leadership role of the United States in science and technology since World War II has shaped how people around the world think about science, policy, and politics.

To place United States science and technology expenditures into context, consider that according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2003 the United States provided 38 percent of...