Some members of Congress have raised objections to what they see as a steadily diminishing role for the National Science Foundation (NSF) in mathematics and science education, a shift that backers of the agency say curtails innovation and increases the potential for political interference in school research. At a May 3, 2006, hearing of the House Science Committee, members of both parties said that recent cuts to the mathematics and science education portion of the NSF's budgets are a particularly troubling sign. They also criticized the Bush administration for not specifically supporting a stronger role for the independent federal agency in the president's $380 million mathematics and science education initiative, unveiled earlier this year.