NIST Appropriations Bill Set for House-Senate Conference
With versions of its fiscal year 1995 appropriations bill passed by both the House and the Senate, the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is positioned to get a hefty increase in funding. NIST is funded in H.R. 4603, the Commerce, Justice, State and Judiciary Appropriations bill. Although neither chamber would give it the full 79.7 percent increase requested by President Clinton, NIST would do well under either version of the bill. The next step is to schedule a conference to reconcile differences in the two bill versions.
Funding for NIST includes its in-house intramural research, construction and renovation of its facilities, and funding for extramural programs. These comprise the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) of cost-sharing grants to industry, and technology outreach programs such as the Manufacturing Extension Partnership to disseminate manufacturing technologies, the State Technology Extension Partnerships (STEP), the LINKS program for outreach data and communications systems, and the Malcolm Baldridge Quality Award. The reports accompanying the House and Senate bills provide the following (selected) NIST recommendations (in millions of dollars):
FY94 |
Budget |
House |
Senate |
|
Approp |
Request |
Level |
Level |
|
Total: |
520.2 |
935.0 |
840.1 |
878.7 |
Intramural: |
226.0 |
316.0 |
279.4 |
260 |
ATP: |
199.5 |
451.0 |
431.0 |
441 |
Manu. Extension Ctrs: |
27.2 |
37.1 |
38.1 |
85.2 |
LINKS: |
--- |
17.0 |
17.0 |
17.0 |
STEP: |
3.0 |
6.0 |
6.0 |
8.0 |
Facil. Construction: |
61.7 |
100.0 |
64.7 |
64.7 |
The Senate report also provides programmatic detail for research WITHIN THE INTRAMURAL PROGRAM BUDGET, including the following areas (the House does not provide this breakdown):
Physics |
26.7 |
27.5 |
--- |
27.5 |
Mat. Sci./Engr. |
43.3 |
61.7 |
--- |
48.5 |
Electrical Engr. |
29.5 |
30.0 |
--- |
30 |
Manufacturing Engr. |
13.6 |
32.3 |
--- |
22.3 |
Chem. Sciences |
22.2 |
32.8 |
--- |
37.8 |
Applied Math/Computing |
7.0 |
7.3 |
--- |
7.3 |
The Senate committee report notes that the recommendation for the ATP program “should enable NIST to run three competitions, providing at least an additional 200 ATP awards.” Funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership “will enable NIST to: (1) add six new manufacturing technology centers; (2) create at least an additional 35 new smaller manufacturing outreach centers; and (3) provide additional STEP grants.”
The House committee’s report “supports the establishment of specific defined program area competitions and the efforts of NIST to work with industry to determine the most appropriate focus areas. Recognizing that many of the best proposals for the Advanced Technology Program may not fall into these program specific categories, the Committee remains supportive of the general award competitions.” The committee also “encourages NIST to be more proactive in its efforts to achieve an equitable geographic distribution of ATP funding.”
