FY 1996 Budget Request: National Institute of Standards & Technology

A total of $1.023 billion has been requested for Fiscal Year 1996 for the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology. This is a 19.8 percent increase over the current appropriation of $853.8 million. Consistent with President Clinton’s belief in high technology’s ability to create jobs and improve competitiveness, the Administration has regularly requested significant growth for NIST. Congress has complied by granting increases, although somewhat less than requested. However, some key Republicans have opposed NIST’s cooperative efforts with industry.

The NIST programs consist of in-house laboratory research, and technology development and outreach programs including the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) and the Manufacturing Extension Partnerships (MEP). A NIST news release states that the increases will “bring its programs closer to the funding levels required for the programs to have their maximum impact on U.S. economic growth.”

A total of $490.9 million is requested for the ATP, an increase of 14.0 percent. According to NIST’s budget “Highlights,” the program “provides cost-shared funding to individual companies and industry-led joint ventures for the development of high-risk, potentially high-payoff technologies. The program’s sole aim is to develop enabling technologies that otherwise would not be pursued at all or in the same market-critical time frame because of technical risks and other obstacles that discourage private-sector investment.”

For the MEP, $146.6 million is requested, an increase of 61.8 percent. The “Highlights” states that “America’s smaller manufacturers are the backbone of the U.S. economy.... The Manufacturing Extension Partnership helps these companies succeed in the marketplace through a network of regional and local extension centers providing hands-on technical assistance.... The results are stronger, more competitive smaller manufacturers producing more exports and retaining or expanding jobs....”

A total of $310.7 million is requested for NIST’s intramural laboratory research, representing an increase of 17.5 percent. All areas of intramural research are designated for growth, with Physics research receiving an increase of 2.3 percent to $28.1 million, and Materials Science & Engineering increasing 9.0 percent, to $54.3 million. The “Highlights” notes that “NIST laboratory research supplies the measurement foundation that U.S. industry depends upon to develop, produce, and market its products and services. Since the Institute’s establishment,...it consistently has provided U.S. industry with world-class standards, evaluated data, and measurement methods and technologies.”

In addition, $69.6 million (a 7.7 percent increase) is requested for construction and major renovation of NIST’s laboratory facilities. The 30- and 40-year-old facilities, the “Highlights” says, “suffer from a lack of environmental controls,...and from a variety of safety and systems capacity problems.”

NOTE: FYI #21 stated that overall support for federal academic R&D would grow by 7% in the FY96 budget request. The Administration has corrected that figure to 1%.