Commerce Dept. Funding Cut; Additional Cuts Loom in the Future
President Clinton has signed into law a bill slicing $90 million in current year funding from the Department of Commerce’s Advanced Technology Program. Funding for this program drops by 21% from $430.7 million to $340.7 million. Also contained in this rescission legislation, the savings from which will be used to offset the cost of military peacekeeping operations, was a $300 million reduction (or 68%) in funding for DOD’s Technology Reinvestment Project, as well as cuts in the National Information Infrastructure grants program. Commenting on these cuts Clinton said, “Regrettably, rescissions will reduce some of my Administration’s technology priorities, which serve as a foundation for America’s future competitiveness and national security. Nevertheless, reductions in this Act are less than those in earlier version of the bill.”
This cut in one of the Commerce Department’s highest profile programs may be an indication of what looms in the future for this agency, and for the entire department. On April 6, officials with the National Institute of Standards and Technology appeared before Senator Phil Gramm’s (R-TX) appropriations subcommittee to present their budget request. Gramm opened the hearing by cautioning that “we are in a very tight budget cycle,” a prediction seconded by Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM) who said, “this subcommittee is going to get a lot less money” in the FY 1996 appropriations process.
Undersecretary of Commerce Mary L. Good and NIST Director Arati Prabhakar gave stellar presentations on the Advanced Technology Program, causing Chairman Gramm to say, “I now have totally clear in my mind what you are talking about.” His questions about the program were largely philosophical, centering on the proper role of government in research and development. He expressed support for basic research, saying that the role of the federal government in this area is “beyond debate.” But in going beyond this stage he asked, “where do you draw the line,” and “where does the government role end, and the private sector begin” in the development of technology. It is not, he said, “a clear cut decision.” To this Good replied that “we won’t survive if somebody does not do the five year stuff, the ten year stuff...I think we have no choice.”
Gramm ended what was a friendly, fairly brief hearing by warning that the budget process, which starts in May following the return of Congress, is not going to be an easy one. Among the first indications about what lies in store for the Advanced Technology Program, and the Commerce Department itself, may be the House Budget Committee’s budget resolution. This resolution charts over-all federal spending, and it is rumored that it will be released around May 10. Also coming into play is a plan being advanced by a House leadership balanced budget task force. House Rules Committee Chairman Gerald Solomon (R-NY) will introduce a bill on May 2 that would balance the federal budget by the year 2000 (two years earlier than previously scheduled.) Among this bill’s provisions are the elimination of the Departments of Commerce, Energy, and Education.
