When America endeavors to tackle an ambitious project, we speak in terms of moonshots or a "Manhattan Project for X." The assumption is that vast government resources, directed toward some objective, can yield results on the scale of the Moon landing or the atom bomb. But federal research funding is more complicated than throwing dollars at our problems. And with Congress poised to inject American science policy with an adrenaline shot of funding, I've brought Tony Mills back on Political Economy to discuss the bills working their way through the House and Senate.

Tony is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he studies the federal government’s role in scientific research and innovation, as well as how to integrate scientific expertise into our governing institutions.