Additional Information on Proposed FY 1998 DOD R&D Budget

Additional Information on Proposed FY 1998 DOD R&D Budget Later this week the House and Senate Appropriations subcommittees with jurisdiction over the Department of Defense budget, and the weapons budget for the Department of Energy, will individually convene to mark up their FY 1998 appropriations bills. As noted in FYI #79 , their bills will pay close attention to the defense authorization bills (passed by the House; still under consideration in the Senate.)

The Directorate for Science and Policy Programs of the American Association for the Advancement of Science has analyzed the authorization bills, and has calculated several important figures. Our thanks to them for distilling this legislation. Some of their findings follow (consult http://www.aaas.org/spp/dspp/rd/dodauth.htm for additional data):

DOD 6.1 Basic Research funding is authorized in the House bill to increase 8.2% over the current year to $1,163 million.

DOD 6.2 Applied Research funding in the House bill would increase 3.9% to $2,971 million.

DOD 6.1 + 6.2 (“technology base”) funding in the House bill would increase 5.0%, and by 4.4% in the Senate bill. The technology base budget accounts for almost half of the federal research dollars in mathematics, computer sciences, and engineering according to AAAS calculations.

Combined Department of Defense and Department of Energy - weapons program R&D funding would increase by 2.7% in the House authorization bill and 2.1% in the Senate bill. This R&D increase is higher than the percentage increase (about 1%) for the entire combined defense budget.

Both authorization bills provide more for theater missile defense systems than requested. The DOD Quadrennial Review “concluded that the fiscal year 2000 target could not be met with the current program budget” (see FYI #82 .) The administration does not oppose this additional funding.

Both the House and Senate bills authorize an additional 4.6% for DOE’s Stockpile Stewardship Program over the current year. However, they disagree with the Administration over providing total up-front funding for DOE’s National Ignition Facility, preferring to authorize it annually.

The bills also disagree with the Administration’s priority for DOD’s dual-use technology programs.

It will become apparent within the next week or so the degree to which the House and Senate appropriations bills, which provide the actual funding, agree with these authorization figures. These numbers will be detailed in a future FYI.