"We want to double the NSF budget over the next five years" Senator
Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) told NSF Director Rita Colwell at last Wednesday's
appropriations subcommittee hearing on the FY 2002 budget request. Mikulski,
as the new chairman of the Senate VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies
Appropriations Subcommittee, and Ranking Minority Member Christopher
"Kit" Bond (R-MO) clearly want to increase the foundation's budget over
the 1.3% requested by the Bush Administration. Putting the NSF budget
on a doubling track would require an increase of about 15% or $600 million
in the new year, and later in the hearing Mikulski admitted that it
would be "very hard" to attain this goal.
"This is the first time in the NSF's 50-year history that an Administration
has requested Congress to cut NSF's research budget below the previous
year's level," Mikulski explained in her opening statement, calling
herself "disappointed" in the request. "I cannot believe this Administration
really thinks this R&D budget is the right one for the country," she
added. Bond characterized the request as "inadequate," and said that
he had expressed his views to Mitch Daniels, Director of the Office
of Management and Budget.
While Mikulski and Bond may have traded chairs on the subcommittee
on Wednesday, they share a common concern about the importance of R&D.
Both get along well, and demonstrate true bipartisan cooperation on
the programs under the subcommittee's jurisdiction, including their
well-publicized effort to double the NSF budget. The senators lauded
NSF's role in areas such as nanotechnology, plant genome research, education,
and information technology. Bond explained that in talking with physicians
in his state of Missouri, and former NIH Director Harold Varmus, he
had been told, "For NIH to do its job, NSF must be funded."
Mikulski and Bond pressed Colwell on several issues. Mikulski, saying
"Let's stick to the basics," wanted to know, for instance, what education
program funding would be cut to finance the Partnership for Math and
Science Education. "What is the value-added by this new partnership
program and does it outweigh the cuts being proposed in other NSF K-12
math and science education programs?" she asked. Expressing concern
that there is "little change," in math and science education, Mikulski
told Colwell that there seemed to be many "starts and stops" in NSF
education programs. Bond, renewing his call from a previous hearing,
asked Colwell, "what's your vision for what the foundation can achieve
in the long term?" Colwell described advances in high speed computing,
biotechnology, nanotechnology, and environmental research. Bond expressed
agreement, but also said, "I want to see some milestones."
Other concerns raised during this hearing included, by Bond, reform
in the peer review system, augmenting the supply of high technology
workers, support for nuclear engineering, and the NSF support of less
research intensive universities. Mikulski asked Colwell, without success,
how much the foundation had requested from OMB in its original submission.
"What do you really need?" Mikulski wanted to know. Colwell was very
circumspect in her answer, as she had been at the previous House appropriations
hearing. National Science Board Chairman Eamon Kelly, also appearing
as a witness, was not so constrained, telling Mikulski that the doubling
goal was appropriate. To which Colwell added, "doubling remains important
to us."
During her many years on the subcommittee, Mikulski has frequently
stated that their ability to increase the NSF budget, and other budgets
under the subcommittee's jurisdiction, depends on how much money the
subcommittee receives as its 302(b) allocation. That will be more important
than ever this year. There is definitely a "will," but it remains to
be seen if there is a "way" to increase significantly the National Science
Foundation's budget for the coming fiscal year.
Richard M. Jones
Public Information Division
American Institute of Physics
fyi@aip.org
(301) 209-3095
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