Congress Sends FY 2004 Defense Funding Bill to President

Last night the Senate approved the FY 2004 appropriations bill for the Department of Defense, bringing to a conclusion congressional action on this legislation. The $368.2 billion bill is up $3.8 billion over this year, although $3.5 billion less than the President requested. Spending for DOD science and technology programs rose by 13.3% over FY 2003, with the vast majority of this funding designated for 6.3 Advanced Technology Development programs.

The conference report language is still being prepared, and should soon be available at http://thomas.loc.gov/ under Status of FY 2004 Appropriations Bills. The following figures were provided by the Coalition for National Security Research (www.cnsr.org ) to which AIP and several of its Members Societies belong.

Under this legislation, total spending for defense S&T programs is 3.3% of total funding. The comparable figure this year was 3.2%. The Quadrennial Defense Review Report recommended that defense S&T programs receive 3% of the total defense budget (see 2001 FYI #130 at www.aip.org/fyi/2001/130.html .)

The changes from the current budget in the FY 2004 appropriations bill are as follows:

AGGREGATE 6.1 (basic research) funding would increase 0.1%%, or $2 million, to $1,418 million.
AGGREGATE 6.2 (applied research) funding would increase 4.7%, or $200 million, to $4,489 million.
AGGREGATE 6.3 (advanced technology development) funding would increase 24.3%, or $1,229 million, to $6,296 million.
TOTAL AGGREGATE 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3 funding would increase 13.3%, or $1,431 million, from $10,772 million to $12,203 million. This is $1,971 million above the Administration request.

In the figures below, note that some research that was funded through the Defense-Wide programs has been shifted or devolved into the service branches.

ARMY 6.1 funding would increase 57.8%, or $141 million, to $385 million.
ARMY 6.2 funding would increase 26.2%, or $225 million, to $1,083 million.
ARMY 6.3 funding would increase 17.3%, or $180 million, to $1,220 million.
TOTAL AGGREGATE ARMY 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3 funding would increase 25.5%, or $546 million, from $2,142 million to $2,688 million.

NAVY 6.1 funding would increase 18.9%, or $78 million, to $490 million.
NAVY 6.2 funding would decline 9.2%, or -$74 million, to $732 million.
NAVY 6.3 funding would increase 25.6%, or $208 million, to $1,021 million.
TOTAL AGGREGATE NAVY 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3 funding would increase 10.4%, or $212 million, from $2,031 million to $2,243 million.

AIR FORCE 6.1 funding would increase 53.2%, or $116 million, to $334 million.
AIR FORCE 6.2 funding would increase 9.2%, or $76 million, to $905 million.
AIR FORCE 6.3 funding would increase 54.8%, or $386 million, to $1,090 million.
TOTAL AGGREGATE AIR FORCE 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3 funding would increase 33.0%, or $578 million, from $1,751 million to $2,329 million.

DEFENSE-WIDE 6.1 funding would decline 61.4%, or -$333 million, to $209 million.
DEFENSE-WIDE 6.2 funding would decline 1.5%, or -$27 million, to $1,769 million.
DEFENSE WIDE 6.3 funding would increase 18.1%, or $455 million, to $2,965 million.
TOTAL AGGREGATE DEFENSE-WIDE funding (for DARPA, defense labs, etc.) would increase 2.0%, or $95 million, from $4,848 million to $4,943 million.