The House of Representatives recently voted to discontinue the American Community survey, some form of which has been collected since the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, as well as the 2012 Economic Census. Do you believe it is an appropriate role for the government to collect and make available to the public basic, factual information on the state of the country and the economy as a public good so that companies and citizens can use the information to make data-based decisions?

Nuclear power plants require lots of cooling water. Plans to build two in Georgia do not seem to account for the recent droughts. How can we justify building systems that require even more water when many parts of the country do not have enough to drink or farm?

Advancing technology creates ever great demands on materials with highly specific properties. The rare earth elements are a case in point, where China currently controls 97% of the world's production. There are clear risks from such reliance on a single source for materials that are critical to particular technologies. What can and should the US government do to address this vulnerability?

America is at present muddling through; and a massive replacement of our energy infrastructure is not taking place, in part because private equity can not cost justify it. Similarly the DOE is not allocating the huge funding needed to catalyze such renewal because it is not yet a front-burner priority. How much serious money (in billions) will be in your 2014 budget to launch such a renewal? Where have you made available, to both press and public, the detailed reasoning behind this estimate?

Civilian nuclear waste is piling up at a great rate. government has dawdled on its legal responsibilities at Yucca Mountain. What do you propose to do about this issue to keep the waste problem from being dumped upon our grandchildren, who have no opportunity to vote you out of office?

Fossil carbon is running out. With what do you propose to replace it? And when are you going to jump start a major program to transition to that replacement? Please do NOT propose nuclear until the waste disposal issue has been resolved and extant waste is being smoothly transferred to its permanent resting place.

One guesstimate is that a transition to a renewable future will cost each year for the next century 3% (give or take a factor of two) of the GDP. Who gets stuck with this bill, and where do you propose that he find the money?

Often, and especially with climate change, the consensus formed by thousands of scientists is rejected by politicians who claim that the existence of a few skeptics indicates that the "jury is still out," and hence both sides can be ignored. Considering there are still skeptics of gravity, clearly this skepticism must be disregarded at some point. What should the consensus satisfy such that you will reject the claims of skeptics?

The OTA served Congress well and in recent years would have blunted the most outlandish notions that arise from the members from time to time. It could be ignored as is the CBO occasionally, but a few facts from a credible OTA might still bleed into the debates.

There are those who say that research funding is the prime economic driver of our economy. Is it? How much? What would cuts in research do to our economy in the long and short term?

Private contractors have taken a bigger role in our space efforts. We saw that during the shuttle program. Their primary role is to make profits. But has that caused us to lose our long-term vision for mankind's role in space?

Should the Navy come up with a replacement for the NR-1 nuclear-powered research submarine? The NR-1 is out of service now after a long fruitful career. It was so slow it needed to be towed to where it would operate. The next generation of a vessel like that which could operate independently would be an asset to underwater research, even in this age of ROVs and AUVs.

During the Bush years Admiral Watkins (former chairman Joint Chiefs) led the Presidential Oceans Commission which came up with numerous policy recommendations to improve the way the government deals with all aspects of the ocean (R&D, military, fisheries, law enforcement, minerals, education, Law of the Sea, etc.) among all the government agencies and private sector groups that have a stake in the oceans. The Pew Charitable Trusts also came up with a complementary Oceans Commission. Barack Obama is trying to implement a National Oceans Policy now. Will you support the recommendations and implement them?

How would you foster a national perspective in which STEM achievements are as desirable as sports or pop music to American students? How would you help new STEM graduates find rewarding jobs or start new businesses?