Ron Paul (R-Tx.) released a new proposal to cut federal spending for research in a budget plan he says he will enact if elected president of the US in 2012, reports ScienceInsider's Jeffrey Mervis. The proposal "would wipe out large chunks of the government's research portfolio," Mervis says, erasing such programs as the Energy Department's $5 billion Office of Science, the $4.5 billion National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the US Geological Survey, among others. "Paul would also end funding for all research programs at the US Department of Agriculture, although the department itself would be preserved at its current budget. And he would pare roughly $7 billion from the current $30 billion budget for the National Institutes of Health," Mervis adds. The plan says nothing about the National Science Foundation.