The budget resolutions that the House of Representatives and the Senate
will debate this week are, at best, imperfect predictors of this fall's
appropriations bills. As proposed broad-brush taxing and spending blueprints
for the next fiscal year, the budget resolutions are the first indicators
of congressional reaction to the Administration's FY 2006 budget request,
and they provide an early sense of the direction of future spending.
The House and Senate will debate budget resolutions this week that
consist primarily of figures on different categories of spending. One
of these budget categories, or functions, is for General Science, Space,
and Technology. Most physical science research spending is found in
this $24.6+ billion category. The House and Senate budget resolutions
would increase spending in this function by 1.3%. This is a dollar increase
of $310-$320 million for all budgets in this category. NASA is seeking
an increase of $386 million in FY 2006. The House Budget Committee states
that within this function "the Budget Committee assumes full funding
of the President's request for NASA."
Leading up to the writing of the budget resolutions were the "Views
and Estimates" provided by authorizing committees. The House Committee
on Science filed such a document earlier this month. The absence of
the usual companion document was of note; House Democrats on the Science
Committee did not write their own report. Ranking Democratic Member
Bart Gordon (D-TN) explained, "Although this committee is historically
bipartisan, this year was unusual in that Democrats found the statements
of the Chair to be so on point that we wanted to join him to send a
stronger message to the Administration, Budget Committee and Appropriators
that the science and technology budget the President submitted is not
the best we can do even under the current fiscal circumstances. We have
to do better." This bipartisan spirit is a testimony to House
Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) and Gordon's leadership
of this committee, and the work of the committee's staff on both sides
of the aisle.
The committee's Views and Estimates can be accessed at: http://www.house.gov/science/committeeinfo/06Views.pdf
The 26-page publication states "The Committee believes the proposed
funding for basic research is insufficient. Funding short-term development
at the expense of longer-term basic and applied research is not advisable,
and neglects those portions of R&D where government support is most
crucial. The Committee also believes that the budget must fully consider
appropriate balances between defense and non-defense R&D spending
and between biomedical and non-biomedical spending. At $71 and $29 billion,
respectively, the R&D budgets of DOD and the National Institutes
of Health (NIH) account for more than 75 percent of the total R&D
budget." Later in the document the committee characterized
the FY 2006 request for the DOE Office of Science as "inadequate"
that will do little to bring physical sciences funding into parity with
life sciences funding. The committee "strongly supports" the
budget request for NIST core laboratory programs and facilities, but
was "disappointed" in the recommendations for the Advanced
Technology Program and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership. Regarding
the National Science Foundation, the committee called the overall budget
request "inadequate," saying it was "especially disturbed"
by the proposed cuts in NSF's Education and Human Resources Directorate.
There was a range of opinion regarding the Administration's request
for NASA, the document stating: "The Committee is divided over
the NASA budget request as of now even though there is broad support
for the basic thrust of the Space Exploration Vision outlined by the
President on January 14, 2004. Key questions include the relative priority
of NASA funding as compared to that of other science agencies; the adequacy
of funding for science and aeronautics within NASA; and the future of
the NASA workforce."
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