Sole source for science funding: yea or nay?

Government research funding in the USA is unusual, compared with other countries, because it's fragmented. Research programs are scattered throughout literally dozens of agencies. Since World War II, each agency has concentrated its funding in different areas and tailored its research style to meet its unique program needs. These programs could-and often did-support very long-term research in university laboratories, but at some level, the research had to correlate with the agencies' needs. The National Science Foundation has complemented the sharply focused support of individual agencies through broad support of fundamental research efforts across the board. This complementary structure has largely succeeded, and the pattern has always been supported by most folks in the science establishment. However, not everyone has been pleased. A few critics have always regarded US government science as chaotic and nearly unmanageable. As a result, some science policy experts and politicians have periodically suggested creating a larger, cabinet-level Department of Science to uniformly control research funding.<
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