Looking Ahead: Senate Projects Cuts in Future Civilian R&D

It has been two months since the Clinton Administration sent its budget request to Congress for the fiscal year starting on October 1. Appropriations subcommittees have held hearings, and there are more to come. The bills these subcommittees draft will be central in determining science and technology budgets.

Before going on its two-week recess, the Senate passed on a nearly party line vote of 57-41 its FY 1999 budget resolution. As described by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-NM), a budget resolution is “a fiscal blueprint, a guide, a road map.” It serves as a rough outline for how much money will be available for the appropriations bills.

Domenici first laid out his spending plans in a document called a “Chairman’s Mark.” It “assumes an increase for the National Science Foundation above the BBA [Balanced Budget Agreement] for NSF Research and Related Activities. The Chairman’s Mark continues strong funding for basic research programs and activities of the federal government, especially those activities within NSF and the Department of Energy. For NASA activities within this function, the Chairman’s mark assumes the President’s request for the international space station, while also assuming the President’s requested reduction to NASA Human Spaceflight activities beginning in the year 2000.”Domenici provided a small increase in total funding for this category over what is called the “freeze baseline.”

The Democratic Membership of the House Science Committee issued a press release critical of the budget resolution. Using figures provided by the Congressional Research Service for all civilian R&D, then adjusted for inflation, based on flat 1998 funding, the release stated that the Senate Budget Resolution “actually cut non-defense R&D by more than $3.5 billion from current levels between 1999 and 2003. Non-NIH civilian R&D fared even worse with a cumulative cut of $10.5 billion from current levels.”

The release was even more critical of the resolution’s civilian R&D spending projections when compared with the targets contained in S. 1305, the authorization bill calling for a doubling of federal research money over ten years. The resolution, the release states, “provides $37 billion less than S. 1305’s authorization level for civilian R&D and $32 billion less than S. 1305 for non-NIH civilian R&D.” Rep. George Brown (D-CA) commented, “I regret to say that all the sloganeering about doubling science in a decade turned out to be nothing more than talk. Even with key champions for S. 1305 in the [Budget Committee] room, when it came time to make hard choices, the cheap talk stopped and dollars went to other purposes. I viewed S. 1305 as useful to the degree it raised the visibility of science and technology programs in the budget. However, I have been worried that the science and education community viewed the double-in-a-decade proposal as evidence that their struggles were over. I think the Senate Budget Committee’s actions should serve as a wake-up call to the community that it has yet to find its way out of the desert.”

During consideration of the budget resolution, the Senate by voice vote passed a block of Sense of the Senate resolutions. One of them was cosponsored by Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Phil Gramm (R-TX), and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) stating “It is the sense of the Senate that the assumptions underlying the function totals in this budget resolution assume that expenditures for civilian science and technology programs in the Federal budget will double over the period from fiscal year 1998 to fiscal year 2008.” Lieberman declared that “Robust federal support for R&D and the American research enterprise is one of the key elements in sustaining high levels of economic growth in the future. We cannot take America’s current economic and technical leadership for granted. If we are to maintain our nation’s leadership position, we must be prepared to make the requisite investments in our R&D system -- the most productive in the world.”This resolution is non-binding.

The House Budget Committee, chaired by Rep. John Kasich (R-OH), will consider its version of the budget resolution toward the end of this month. Whether it and the Senate version can be reconciled in time for the appropriations committees is unknown. The appropriations bills that the House will be working on in May and June are the ones to watch. Rep. Brown’s warning is apt. In coming weeks, FYIs will be issued with the names of the House and Senate appropriators, and guidance on communicating with them and other Members of Congress.