NIST Fiscal Year 1994 Final Conference Report

The Commerce, Justice and State Appropriations bill, H.R. 2519, was signed into law by President Clinton on October 27. This bill contains fiscal year 1994 funding for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an agency of the Department of Commerce. NIST was favored with an increase of 35 percent over its 1993 budget. While not quite the astronomical 39.4 percent growth requested by the Clinton Administration, it is a very significant increase from a Congress that is looking hard for programs to cut. NIST’s good fortune illustrates the importance Congress and the Administration place on the economic potential of high technology and government-industry partnerships. The NIST budget is as follows:

FY93 Budget $384,007,000
Administration FY94 Request 535,200,000
FY94 Appropriation 518,710,000*

*The total of NIST’s intramural, extramural, and construction programs, detailed below, adds up to $520,210,000. However, an amendment in the conference report appears to transfer $1,500,000 from NIST to the Department of Commerce Working Capital Fund, thus reducing NIST’s total appropriation. How this reduction will be taken from the separate program areas is not clear.

Core (intramural) research programs will receive $226,000,000; the Administration request was for $241,000,000. No information is available yet on how much of this will go toward physics-related research. The conference report states: “The amount provided in the conference agreement will fully fund the adjusted base program for this account, and allows an additional $28,812,000 to be distributed among high priority program increases. The conferees expect NIST and the Department of Commerce to submit a notification of reprogramming to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees as soon as possible indicating the proposed distribution of this amount.”

Extramural programs at NIST will receive $232,524,000, but not without controversy. While the Senate provided this amount, the House had voted not to fund NIST’s extramural programs because they had not been authorized. However, the conferees voted to provide the full Senate allowance, which was equal to the budget request.

The extramural programs include the Advanced Technology Program (ATP), the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), and the Quality Outreach Program. ATP will receive $199,489,999; MEP will receive $30,235,000; and the Quality Outreach Program will receive $2,800,000.

Construction of facilities will receive $61,686,000, the full request.