AAAS S&T Policy Forum to Focus Pentagon R&D Spending, Other Issues

Pentagon spending on research and development will fall short of inflation for the first time in a decade, and other federal research programs will suffer real cuts under President George W. Bush's proposed 2006 budget, according to an analysis to be presented at the 30th annual AAAS Forum on Science and Technology Policy.

After several years of stagnating R&D budgets for most non-defense agencies, the Pentagon now seems poised to join the trend, according to the AAAS analysis. The Defense Department's spending on basic science and early technology development would be particularly hard hit.

Science-related spending proposals for the Pentagon and other federal agencies will be analyzed in a comprehensive AAAS report to be posted online Tuesday 12 April in advance of the upcoming forum. The forum—the premier meeting in the United States on science and technology policy issues—is expected to draw more than 500 participants to the Loews L'Enfant Plaza Hotel in Washington D.C. on 21 and 22 April.

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