Science Committee Republicans Release Overview of President’s R&D Request

The majority members of the House Science Committee released an “Overview of the President’s FY 1999 Budget” last week. The administration’s R&D request is seen from a different perspective in this analysis, which is to be expected since it was written by the Republican majority on the committee. Some major conclusions from the twelve-page document follow (designated by quotation marks); the entire document - with many illustrations - can be viewed at http://www.house.gov/science/budgetreview_02-26.htm .

Inflation, as usual, erodes future dollars: Total R&D spending (civilian and defense) would increase by 3 percent over this year. For each of the years FY 2000-2003, “real spending would be less than FY 1998 levels.”

Civilian R&D would increase, despite inflation: “The President’s budget makes a significant investment in non-defense R&D. Actual spending increases by 6 percent in FY 1999. Non-defense R&D fares better than defense R&D. In fact, non-defense R&D will surpass defense R&D by FY 2001. Non-Defense R&D experiences an increase through FY 2003 in actual and real dollars.”

Much of the better outlook for civilian R&D goes to projected increases for health: “When you subtract health (including NIH, which receives the largest R&D increase) and other agencies with programs outside the Science Committee’s jurisdiction, scientific research experiences an overall decline through FY 2003.”

Some civilian R&D programs do better than others: “The President’s proposal supports funding of `key’ research programs. Other R&D programs fair less well. Research at NIH, NSF, and NIST is strongly supported in the President’s budget through 2003. Other R&D agencies, including NASA, experience decreases in real funding.”

The analysis is critical of the financing of the Administration’s Research Fund for America: “The problem is that funding...is based on uncertain tax increases and uncollected money from the proposed tobacco settlement.”

Looking ahead at future years, the analysis states: “Actual spending increases dramatically in FY 1999, and then dips before recovering in FY 2002. In real terms, the conduct of R&D receives a smaller increase in FY 1999. In all other years through FY 2003, the total spending for R&D in real dollars will be less than it was in FY 1998. ...the conduct of R&D is a term used in the President’s budget that accounts for R&D spending excluding facilities.”

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What to make of all of this? Revenue and spending projections for future years, while important indicators, tend not to be very reliable. Attention should best be focused on the R&D request for FY 1999, which begins in less than seven months. The first public step in determining R&D budgets for next year are hearings before House appropriations subcommittees that start next week.