I’m not surprised at all.  I can personally only think of a couple more likely acts he would perform in the course of his presidency.  This was a huge no brainer.

The only realistic question is why it took so long?

The whole issue is one that irritates me more than it outrages me.  ESCR is second only to Global Warming as one of the biggest wastes of time and frauds in the scientific community.

First of all, people keep saying Bush banned it.  He did not, he banned Federal funding. 

In fact, to be more precise, Federal funding was actually not banned entirely, it was simply restricted.  The ban was on funding of NEW lines of Research, not all research.  Federal funding has continued on existing lines.  No one seems to recall that.

So the truth is that Obama did not restore it, he expanded it.  It never actually stopped.

Hear that on the news anywhere?

And frankly no one has shown why federal tax dollars are needed for it anyway.  Why not let private research fund it, as it does, or states, as some do?  Why do they need to suck at the federal teat?