Senators Seek Increases in DOD S&T for FY 2000

Nine Republican and Democratic senators have written to Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen asking him to reconsider DOD’s “position on science and technology investments.” This letter comes amid increasing concern about requested reductions in defense S&T. The March 3 letter was signed by Jeff Bingaman (D- NM), Mike DeWine (R-OH), Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX), Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), John F. Kerry (D-MA), Joseph I. Lieberman (D-CT), Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY), Rick Santorum (R-PA), and Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), and was as follows:

“We are writing to express our concern over the decline in military R&D in the President’s FY2000 budget. We were particularly surprised that these R&D decreases occurred even as significant additional military funding was sought in that budget. As you know, the 6.1-6.3 accounts have declined approximately 30% in the last six years. This year’s 6% R&D budget cuts accelerate that decline. Although each of the services spends 60-80% of their funds on readiness issues for today’s military (i.e., operations and maintenance) and 20-40% of their funds on modernization tasks for incremental improvements (i.e., procurement, testing and evaluation), they currently spend less than 2% of their obligation authority on science and technology, the military of the future.

“This lack of planning for the future may represent the path of least resistance, but it is by far the path of greatest risk. The sheer number and rapidity with which nations are entering the high tech arena should give us pause; any one of them may soon be capable of making a credible asymmetric threat based on the limited, but targeted technologies it develops. Because emerging countries do not have a vested interest in a legacy force, they are freer to make these strategic investments than we are.

“An examination of the proposed budget shows that not only is military S&T continuing its long decline, but that the extent of the decline is even worse than it first appears. As you may be aware, the Air Force moved the programs Space Based Laser and Discoverer II, previously classified as 6.4, into its 6.3 accounts, effectively masking the true extent of the decline in the Air Force 6.3 portfolio. Projections for DoD S&T are not only falling short of the $8 billion investment called for by the Defense Science Board, they are moving progressively away from that target in the out years. The bipartisan, bicameral support for Section 214 of last year’s defense authorization bill - which calls for 2% increases per year - appears to have been completed ignored for years after 2000. Finally, the projected decline in S&T contrasts sharply with increases for readiness and modernization: a $12 billion increase in FY00 and $112 billion (projected) for the next 5-6 years. The fact that no funds were allocated to S&T in these requests makes it clear that the problems of the present - though undoubtedly pressing - are actively preventing adequate long-term strategic planning.

“There is no question that our past military success has resulted from a strong base of superior technology. That the military provided the seeds for that technology can be seen from the statistics for Nobel Prize winners in the science fields:

Nobel Laureates Who Received Funding from DoD Before Winning their Nobel Prize

Physics (1950-1997): 43% of all US Nobel winners funded by DoD; 28% of all Nobel prize winners worldwide funded by DoD

Chemistry (1950-1997): 58% of all US Nobel winners funded by DoD; 27.5% of all Nobel prize winners worldwide funded by DoD.

“We urge you to reconsider the military’s position on science and technology investments, especially in the context of the budget increases you are requesting. We need to correct the trend of declining funding which threatens to divest the military of the technical superiority we now take for granted.”