Senate Appropriations Bill Recommends Cuts in FY 2006 Defense S&T Funding

Last week, the full Senate passed H.R. 2863, the FY 2006 Department of Defense Appropriations Bill. Under this legislation, total funding for the 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3 science and technology programs would be cut 6.6% or $863.9 million to $12,206.8 million. These figures and those below reflect the successful amendment offered by Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Susan Collins (R-ME) that increased basic research funding (see http://www.aip.org/fyi/2005/146.html ).

The House passed its version of this bill in June, which would maintain total funding at approximately the current level, declining 0.6% or $83.6 million. Total funding for these three accounts across all three service branches and defense-wide (such as DARPA) was $13,070,676 in the last fiscal year. It would decline to $12,972,384,000 in the House bill and to $12,206,782,000 in the Senate bill.

The Quadrennial Defense Review, issued in 2001, incorporated a recommendation by the Defense Science Board that total spending for these programs be 3% of the total DOD budget. The House bill provides 3.17% of total funding for the three S&T programs. The comparable Senate figure is 2.7%. It is important to note that university funding is provided by 6.1 and, to some extent, 6.2 program funding.

Many of the following figures were provided by the Coalition for National Security Research (http://www.cnsronline.org/ ) to which AIP and several of its Member Societies belong. The full text of the Senate and House reports from which these numbers are drawn can be viewed at http://thomas.loc.gov/home/approp/app06.html under Defense. The numbers below are as compared to last year’s funding levels.

AGGREGATE 6.1 (basic research) funding would decline 4.0% from $1,513 million to $1,454 million in the House bill.
In the Senate bill funding would decline 1.9% to $1,485 million.
The administration requested $1,319 million.
AGGREGATE 6.2 (applied research) funding would increase 4.3% from $4,850 million to $5,057 million in the House bill.
In the Senate bill funding would decline 0.3% to $4,833 million.
The administration requested $4,139 million.
AGGREGATE 6.3 (advanced technology development) funding would decline 3.7% from $6,708 million to $6,462 million in the House bill.
In the Senate bill funding would decline 12.2% to $5,889 million.
The administration requested $5,064 million.
TOTAL AGGREGATE 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3 funding would decline 0.8% from $13,071 million to $12,972 million in the House bill.
In the Senate bill funding would decline 6.6% to $12,207 million.
The administration requested $10,522 million.

ARMY 6.1 funding would decline 10.5% to $352 million in the House bill.
In the Senate bill funding would decline 5.3% to $372 million.
ARMY 6.2 funding would increase 6.2% to $1,187 million in the House bill.
In the Senate bill funding would decline 5.8% to $1,053 million.
ARMY 6.3 funding would decline 0.8% to $1,374 million in the House bill.
In the Senate bill funding would decline 19.3% to $1,118 million.
TOTAL AGGREGATE ARMY 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3 funding would increase 0.6%, from
$2,896 million to $2,912 million in the House bill.
In the Senate bill funding would decline 12.2% to $2,542 million.
The administration requested $1,735 million.

NAVY 6.1 funding would decline 2.1% to $481 million in the House bill.
In the Senate bill funding would decline 3.2% to $475 million.
NAVY 6.2 funding would decline 12.9% to $716 million in the House bill.
In the Senate bill funding would decline 6.0% to 773 million.
NAVY 6.3 funding would increase 0.6% to $981 million in the House bill.
In the Senate bill funding would decline 6.5% to $912 million.
TOTAL AGGREGATE NAVY 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3 funding would decline 4.8%, from
$2,289 million to $2,178 million in the House bill.
In the Senate bill funding would decline 5.6% to $2,160 million.
The administration requested $1,776 million.

AIR FORCE 6.1 funding would decline 8.1% to $352 million in the House bill.
In the Senate bill funding would decline 1.8% to $376 million.
AIR FORCE 6.2 funding would increase 8.6% to $1,027 million in the House bill.
In the Senate bill funding would increase 7.8% to $1,019 million.
AIR FORCE 6.3 funding would decline 4.4% to $957 million in the House bill.
In the Senate bill funding would decline 5.0% to $951 million.
TOTAL AGGREGATE AIR FORCE 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3 funding would increase 0.3% from
$2,330 million to $2,336 million in the House bill.
In the Senate bill funding would increase 0.7% to $2,346 million.
The administration requested $1,980 million.

DEFENSE-WIDE 6.1 (DARPA, etc.) funding would increase 9.3% to $269 million in the House bill.
In the Senate bill funding would increase 6.1% to $261 million.
DEFENSE-WIDE 6.2 funding would increase 8.3% to $2,127 million in the House bill.
In the Senate bill funding would increase 1.2% to $1,988 million.
DEFENSE WIDE 6.3 funding would decrease 5.4% to $3,151 million in the House bill.
In the Senate bill funding would decline 12.7% to $2,909 million.
TOTAL AGGREGATE DEFENSE-WIDE funding would increase 0.1% from $5,542 million to $5,547 million in the House bill.
In the Senate bill funding would decline 6.9% to $5,159 million.
The administration requested $5,031 million.