AAAS R&D Analysis Reports on Progress:
Finds Funding at or Near FY 2003 Levels

Before leaving for the August recess, members of the U.S. House of Representatives approved a spending bill that would provide NSF with fewer funds than necessary to put the agency on a proposed track for doubling its funding by 2007, according to a AAAS R&D Budget Update.

The AAAS analysis adds that both the House and Senate have made significant progress on appropriations for R&D in the FY 2004 federal budget. Overall, however, funding is either flat or will result in cuts or modest increases, a legislative trend that seems to respond to the President's original budget request.

On July 25, the House approved a spending bill that would provide $5.6 billion for the National Science Foundation (NSF) budget in FY 2004, $329 million or 6.2 percent more than FY 2003. The House would add to the Administration's more modest request and would allow each of the research directorates to receive an increase of at least 2.7 percent, in contrast to the Administration proposal in which some directorates' budget would have remained flat or declined. An NSF authorization bill calling for a doubling of the NSF budget between 2002 and 2007 was signed into law last December, but even the funds added by the House would leave the NSF budget nearly $1 billion below the 'doubling track' funding level.

For the full analysis, including detailed funding tables, see the "What's New" or "FY 2004 R&D" sections of the AAAS R&D web site. The full URL of the NSF analysis is:

http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/nsf04h.pdf

The House also approved a $15.5-billion budget for NASA, but the amount will probably change after the release of a report on the accident that destroyed the Columbia, according to a AAAS R&D Budget Update.

"...[T]he majority of the budget would only be a placeholder budget until the (Space Shuttle) Columbia Accident Investigation Board's work Is complete and NASA reacts to the Board's recommendations," notes the AAAS analysis. "NASA hopes to receive the Board findings in August, and Congress ho0pes to begin reworking the NASA budget in response to its recommendations in September.

NASA's R&D programs receive $11.1 billion in the House plan, a modest 0.9 percent increase. Most of NASA's R&D is funded through the Science, Aeronautics, and Exploration (SAE) account, which would receive $7.7 billion, a 3.4 percent boost over FY 2003. Most of these activities have been unaffected by the Shuttle disaster. Space Science would be the big winner in the budget, winning an increase of 10.6 percent to $3.9 billion.

For the full analysis, including detailed funding tables, see the "What's New" or "FY 2004 R&D" sections of the AAAS R&D web site. The full URL of the NASA analysis is:

http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/nasa04h.pdf

In the same bill that funds NSF and NASA, the House approved last Friday a budget plan for EPA that would reduce its budget by $74 million down to $8.0 billion in FY 2004. EPA's R&D funding would decline 1.5 percent to $634 million, primarily because one-time emergency funding for anthrax-related research funded in FY 2003 would not be renewed next year. The Bush Administration had requested even less, for both EPA's total budget and its R&D programs.

For the full analysis, including detailed funding tables, see the "What's New" or "FY 2004 R&D" sections of the AAAS R&D web site. The full URL of the EPA analysis is:

http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/epa04h.pdf

AAAS has been posting analyses on R&D in the major R&D funding agencies as Congress acts on the budget, in the "What's New" and "FY 2004 R&D" sections of the AAAS R&D web site. The site features several new analyses, with more to come shortly.

—Kei Koizumi

1 August 2003