Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Congressional subcommittees with responsibility for determining how much money they should provide science and technology programs for FY 1999 are likely to find themselves between the proverbial rock and a hard place when Congress returns from the spring recess next week. At a time when the economy is booming, federal budget surplus projections multiplying, and congressional support for science and technology high, the outlook for federal R&D spending is sobering. Why are we in this predicament?

The reasons are two-fold. The Clinton Administration and Congress responded to the public outcry for a downsized federal government, and less federal spending, by enacting a law capping total discretionary spending for FY 1999 (among other years.) Essentially a freeze, money for budgets - like DOE’s general science program, the National Science Foundation, and NASA - is roughly the same for next year as it is this year. There have been unsuccessful attempts in the last few weeks to alter these caps. Many Members of Congress campaigned on the need to reduce government spending, and have vowed to resist any attempt that goes in the opposite direction. Creative accounting may find a way to get around the caps, but that is a major “if.”

Making this situation much worse is the six year, $214-217 billion, pork-laden transportation spending bill that is moving through Congress. Seemingly with a project for every congressional district, this bill will be funded next year under the same spending cap discussed above. The money to fund the road bill has to come from somewhere, and that means the other discretionary programs.

Combine these two conditions, and merely staying even with this year’s R&D spending could be a daunting challenge. That does not even count the shortchanging of the Army Corps of Engineers’ budget request that the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittees have to contend with, and the increasingly troubled outlook for a tobacco settlement.

These circumstances - the strict binding caps and the impact of the highway bill - affect every discretionary government program. In general, science and technology programs are likely to be treated a bit more kindly.

Your representatives and two senators are going to make some major decisions in the next few months. They will look to what their constituents are telling them.

Appropriators with responsibility for science and technology programs are generally very supportive of them, and are more aware of these circumstances than other Members of Congress. Building support for science and technology programs has to be done more on a Member-by-Member basis, and that is where constituents come into play.

Communicating with Congress can be done through both correspondence and personal visits. The next series of FYIs offers guidance.

The place to start is with your own elected Members. The time to do so is now.