Senators Call on Administration to Request Increased R&D Funding

While science and technology funding received significant support from both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue in 1998, there is concern about the outlook for next year. Twenty-four senators have written to President Clinton urging that, in his budget submission for FY 2000, he request a six or seven percent increase in federal R&D funding.

Room for funding increases in the FY 2000 budget is expected to be minimal. The caps set forth in the 1997 balanced budget agreement will pinch heavily in FY 2000. In the last-minute scramble to pass the huge, final FY 1999 omnibus appropriations bill, Congress and the Administration postponed payment for some items into FY 2000, and designated as one-time “emergency” spending a number of items that are expected to continue - and need further funding - in FY 2000. According to various sources, this will result in up to $28 billion of unplanned-for spending that appropriators will have to accommodate within the FY 2000 budget caps. Yet another factor is that the “firewalls” separating defense and civilian discretionary funding will vanish; thus, efforts to increase DOD funding could cut into other federal programs.

How all this will affect R&D, in the President’s request and Congress’s budget deliberations for FY 2000, cannot be predicted. It is a warning, however, not to take the good fortune science experienced in FY 1999 for granted in the upcoming appropriations process.

The House vote to impeach the President and the ensuing Senate trial are also likely to affect Congress’s ability to proceed with its normal legislative duties, including the FY 2000 appropriations process. There are already reports that the two parties will have little inclination to work together next year, even on areas of significant bipartisan consensus, such as science funding.

Twenty-four senators - almost one-quarter of the Senate - signed a December 11 letter to President Clinton, calling for White House leadership “in promoting a six to seven percent investment level [for R&D] as the budget is drawn up by the Office of Management and Budget.”

The text of the letter follows:

Dear Mr. President:

We are writing to express our concerns about the level of investment in federal research programs included in your fiscal year 2000 budget request. The Constitution of the United States requires government to “provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.” It is striking to realize that, in this era, science and technology are the de facto foundation of each of these fundamental missions. Our nation’s defense is rooted in the concept of technological superiority. Our nation’s health is the product of substantial advances in medical research. Finally, as many economists have shown, over fifty percent of our nation’s economic growth is the direct result of technological progress. The inescapable conclusion is that, if government is to fulfill its primary functions, it must support and embrace science and technology.

It was with similar sentiment that the Senate recently passed, without opposition, S. 2217, the Federal Research Investment Act. This bill calls for a doubling of civilian federal R&D funding over the next twelve years. It is supported by a broad constituency of universities, trade groups, technical and professional societies, and ordinary citizens. The bill was co-sponsored by thirty-six Senators: eighteen Democrats and eighteen Republicans. S. 2217 recognizes the importance of science and technology to the future of this country, and is designed to halt the steady erosion in R&D funding, relative to gross domestic product, that has occurred over the last thirty years. The motivation behind S. 2217 is very similar to that for the Administration’s Research Fund for America.

While there is general agreement that science and technology are the foundation for America’s future - and we made significant progress on that front in the Senate this year - implementation of the vision will require White House leadership. In particular, we are hopeful that the Administration’s fiscal year 2000 budget will reflect its, and our, priorities for a healthy scientific enterprise. S. 2217 calls for approximately a six percent increase in civilian R&D for fiscal year 2000, bringing the total level of investment for civilian R&D up to $33.6 billion, if fiscal year 1999 figures reported by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (currently showing $31.65 billion for fiscal 1999) are used as a baseline guide. We would appreciate your active help in promoting a six to seven percent investment level as the budget is drawn up by the Office of Management and Budget.

This past year, S. 2217 and the Administration’s initiative spurred Congress to appropriate a ten percent increase in federal R&D investments, according to Office of Science and Technology Policy data. That represents a significant science and technology policy development. We are committed to the Federal Research Investment Act and plan to reintroduce this legislation at the beginning of the 1999 Congressional session. We expect continued support in the Senate and new interest in the House. Without a strong signal of support from the Administration in its forthcoming budget request, we will have difficulty sustaining the momentum created this past year for substantially higher levels of federal investment [in] civilian science and technology programs.

Thank you for your consideration of this important national initiative.

Spencer Abraham (R-MI) Wayne Allard (R-CO)

Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) Barbara Boxer (D-CA)

Conrad Burns (R-MT) Max Cleland (D-GA)

Thad Cochran (R-MS) Mike DeWine (R-OH)

Christopher J. Dodd (D-CT) Pete V. Domenici (R-NM)

Richard J. Durbin (D-IL) Bill Frist (R-TN)

Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) Robert J. Kerrey (D-NE)

John F. Kerry (D-MA) Carl Levin (D-MI)

Joseph I. Lieberman (D-CT) Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY)

Charles S. Robb (D-VA) Pat Roberts (R-KS)

John D. Rockefeller, IV (D-WV) Olympia J. Snowe (R-ME)

Paul S. Sarbanes (D-MD) Fred Thompson (R-TN)