Looking Ahead: S&T Organizations and Senators Press for Strong FY 2000 R&D Budget

President Clinton will soon be making major decisions about the FY 2000 R&D budget. In separate letters, eight Republican and Democratic senators, and 33 scientific and technical organizations, asked Clinton to submit a budget request with significant increases for R&D.

Senators Bill Frist, Jay Rockefeller, Pete Domenici, Jeff Bingaman, Alfonse D’Amato, John Breaux, Conrad Burns, and Joseph Lieberman sent Clinton a letter earlier this fall stating, “your FY 2000 budget request represents a golden opportunity to capitalize on the growing movement toward increased R&D investments and establish a bipartisan national consensus on doubling non-defense federal R&D over the next twelve years. We urge that you take the lead on this important issue and include significant across-the-board increases in R&D investment in your budget request. We know that there are always difficult tradeoffs to be made among competing priorities but we hope that your Administration can provide leadership on this vital issue with realistic budgetary support.”

This letter was sent before the Senate passed S. 2217 authorizing the doubling of the non-defense R&D budget. This week, 33 scientific and technical organizations sent a letter requesting similar support. The American Institute of Physics and the following AIP Member Societies or Affiliated Societies signed this letter: American Association of Physicists in Medicine, American Association of Physics Teachers, American Astronomical Society, American Geophysical Union, The American Physical Society, and the Materials Research Society. The letter follows:

“Dear Mr. President:

“We recognize and applaud your efforts to boost federal investments in research and development in your Fiscal Year 1999 budget proposal. We urge you to take advantage of the bipartisan support for research and development shown in the Fiscal Year 1999 appropriations bills, as well as by S. 2217, which passed the Senate on October 8, 1998, and accord R&D a continuing high priority within your administration.

“Your Fiscal Year 2000 budget request represents an unprecedented opportunity to capitalize on the growing bipartisan movement toward increased investment in federal research and development. We urge you to take the lead on this critical issue and include in your FY 2000 budget R&D support that meets or exceeds the Federal Research Investment Act (S. 2217) target for doubling federal research and development over the next twelve years.

“Despite its importance for our nation’s prosperity and security, federal R&D investments today are less than half of what they were thirty years ago when measured against the gross domestic product. Moreover, during the last three decades, civilian R&D spending has fallen from 6.5 cents of every federal dollar to 1.9 cents.

“The research investments we made a quarter of a century ago led to the technologies of today, upon which we depend so heavily: for our jobs, our national security, our standard of living, our health and our quality of life. As we approach the 21st century, technological development, fueled by investments in research, will be increasingly critical for maintaining our global competitiveness and addressing the urgent national issues of environment, health care and education. The research investments we make today will determine how our children will live tomorrow.”

The White House and the Office of Management and Budget are operating under different conditions this year. A year ago, there was talk of projected surpluses. A booming economy produced an actual surplus. While this and future budget surpluses should improve the over-all outlook at OMB, there are huge pressures coming from the across the street at the White House, and from Capitol Hill. The President has vowed that Social Security is to be rescued, and that will cost money. High on the priority list for congressional Republicans is a major tax cut, and that will also cost money.

It was with great fanfare that the Administration announced its R&D budget request last February. Vice President Gore personally unveiled the administration’s request. Research was, Gore said, one of the “top priorities in this budget.” A White House document released two weeks ago boasts that the among the FY 1999 achievements were “advances...[in] a strong health and technology research agenda.”

A major question is whether research will remain a top priority in the next budget request. Against the background of the Senate’s endorsement of a doubling of federal civilian R&D, joined with the combined voices of many S&T organizations, it is now up to the President and Vice President to answer that question.