"Our prosperity is no accident. The U.S. economy owes its strength
in large measure to its willingness to build innovation capacity through
the creation and growth of a world-class science and technology research
enterprise and a high-quality scientific and technical education infrastructure."
- Office of Management and Budget
Supporters of physical sciences research will find much to their liking
in the FY 2007 budget request that President Bush sent to Congress yesterday.
Under this request, funding would increase substantially for the Department
of Energy's Office of Science, the National Science Foundation, and
the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
The Administration has responded to long-standing concerns about the
historical stagnation in federal support for physical sciences research.
Under the president's American Competitiveness Initiative, overall funding
would increase by 9.3% or $910 million for NSF, the DOE Office of Science,
and NIST. The Initiative envisions funding for these agencies doubling
within ten years for a total investment of $50 billion in new money.
These increases become even more striking when viewed against other
budget requests in the submission. Total federal non security discretionary
spending would decline 0.5% under this request. Two-thirds of all federal
agencies would have less money in FY 2007 than they have in their current
budgets.
The FY 2007 R&D request was discussed yesterday at a White House
briefing by OSTP Director John Marburger and four senior administration
officials. Marburger opened the briefing by declaring this to be "a
very interesting time for science and technology." DOE Office of
Science Director Ray Orbach seconded that sentiment by calling yesterday's
budget release "a historic moment." Orbach, whose office would
receive a 14.1% increase, said the Administration's Initiative would
enable the United States to maintain its scientific preeminence. Orbach
said he was "extremely grateful" for the support which the
Administration had given in this request, and, looking ahead, for the
"sustained momentum" that a doubling of his budget would have
in coming years.
Marburger returned to the podium after Orbach departed for another
budget briefing. The OSTP director discussed at some length the Administration's
opposition to the rapid increase in earmarked R&D funds. Describing
the validity of merit-based peer review, he said of congressional earmarking,
"that is not the best use of taxpayer funds." As examples,
he cited $137 million in earmarked funds in the current facility construction
budget for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, $1 billion
in earmarked basic research and applied research defense projects, and
the 25% of the hydrogen initiative funds that were earmarked. The Administration
did not request funding for earmarked projects in its budget request,
Marburger said, resulting in sometimes misleading calculated percentage
changes when comparing the request with current spending. An OSTP document
released at yesterday's briefing stated, "To maximize the effectiveness
of federally-funded research, the President calls upon Congress and
the academic community to withhold securing research and facilities
funding through earmarks, particularly in the ‘American Competitiveness
Initiative' agencies [DOE Office of Science, NSF, and NIST]."
Also speaking at yesterday's briefing were NSF Director Arden Bement
and NIST Director William Jeffrey. Bement's budget would increase 7.9%
or $439 million to $6.02 billion. Said Bement, "This is a great
day for NSF, and that means it's a great day for the nation." If
this budget is approved by Congress, 500 more research grants would
be approved in 2007, providing opportunities for an additional 6,400
scientists, students, post-doctoral fellows, and technicians. A clearly
enthusiastic Jeffrey described his agency's request. After allowing
for earmarks, NIST's core budget would increase 24% or $104 million
above the current year.
An OMB document, "Analytical Perspectives, FY 2007" (see
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2007/)
identifies several Multi-Agency R&D Priorities: Combating Terrorism
R&D, Network and Information Technology R&D, Nanotechnology
R&D, Climate Change R&D, and Hydrogen R&D. This document
also provides the following statistics about the budget request as compared
to current year spending (note that these numbers do not subtract out
earmarked funds):
Federal R&D - Basic Research: Up 1%
Federal R&D - Applied Research: Down 7%
Federal R&D - Development: Up 7%
Federal R&D - Facilities and Equipment: No change
Federal Science and Technology Budget ( a category that "emphasizes
research; does not count funding for defense development, testing, and
evaluation; and totals less than half of Federal R&D spending"):
Down 1%
Various federal agency and department budgets tracked by FYI fared differently
in the FY 2007 budget request. Forthcoming issues of FYI will provide
information on these requests.
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