President Sends FY 1998 Budget to Congress

On February 6, the Clinton Administration sent its FY 1998 budget request to Congress. The Administration is walking a tightrope between efforts to balance the budget by 2002, rising entitlement costs, and providing money for discretionary areas of the budget such as science and technology. This FYI is the first of a series detailing the Administration’s request in areas of particular interest to the physics community.

Dr. John Gibbons, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, briefed a standing-room-only audience about the science and technology request. A comment he made towards the end of the briefing sets the tone for this year: “If we are going to balance the budget, everyone will have to take part in that process.”

Total FY 1998 federal research and development funding would rise 2%, or $1.6 billion, to $75.5 billion under this request. While this is significantly less than in previous years, under current conditions, this is generally seen as pretty good by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Some general indicators within the budget request are:

Of the agencies identified, R&D budget authority for the Defense Department would decline the most from the current year: -2%.

Department of Transportation and Department of Energy R&D would increase the most: +18% each. OMB explains that DOE’s budget includes an extra $1 billion in up-front funding for defense facilities acquisition.

Other R&D budgets would increase as follows: Commerce Department, +6%; National Science Foundation, +4%; NASA, +3%.

Under the request, total federal applied research funding : +4%; basic research: +3%.

Under the request, total federal civilian applied research: +6%; basic research, +3%.

Under the request, total defense applied research: -1%; basic research: +5%.

The administration’s budget would increase R&D support to universities by +2%.

Gibbons, and T. J. Glauthier of OMB discussed the funding outlook for the next five years. Gibbons stated that “the President’s baseline outyear budget plan proposes civilian R&D to grow by 2% (nominal) between 1998 and 2002.... Above this base, I fully expect some increases - including those required to launch exciting new initiatives - to be realized each year, at the time that year’s budget request is prepared and submitted to Congress.” According to Glauthier, OMB wants federal science agencies to have a steady, conservative funding profile for the next five years to better plan and manage their programs.

Gibbons concluded his prepared remarks by citing last November’s elections and said, "...what emerged is clear: The American public and the vast majority in Congress support a strong federal research program.... It is time to...rebuild the historical bipartisan support for a strategy to maintain America’s world leadership in science and technology into the 21st century. We need to put our disagreements aside and look for the common ground we once shared, the common commitments to keep America the world’s undisputed leader in S&T while bringing the budget to balance.”