Highlights
- The Advanced Technology Program (ATP) in the Department of Commerce won
a reprieve with a total budget of $136 million, 24 percent below last year but
an improvement over House and Administration plans to eliminate the program.
- Total
Commerce R&D increases 4.6 percent to $1.2 billion (see Table).
-
Congress responded to the recent U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy
report by dramatically boosting National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) funding of ocean-related
research and creating a new scholarship program to encourage U.S.
citizens to study oceanic and atmospheric science. NOAA R&D climbs
10.7 percent to $684 million.
- The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) intramural
laboratory R&D programs do well in FY 2005 with a 16.2 percent increase
to $328 million.
Dept. of Commerce R&D in FY 2005 Final Appropriations
On November
20, Congress came to an agreement on an FY 2005 omnibus appropriations
bill (HR 4818), which incorporates the final version of the FY 2005
Commerce-Justice appropriations bill. The House gave final approval
on December 6, and President Bush is expected to sign the bill into
law on December 8. The omnibus bill keeps funding for domestic programs
flat in FY 2005; the Department of Commerce R&D portfolio does far
better than the average for domestic programs, even after factoring
in a 0.80 percent across-the-board cut for most domestic programs and
a further cut for Commerce programs. (All figures in this analysis reflect
the across-the-board cuts.) The omnibus bill gives Commerce a total R&D budget of $1.2 billion in FY 2005, an
increase of 4.6 percent or $52 million that stands in sharp contrast
to a requested cut and an earlier House appropriation with deep cuts
(see Table). (For details of R&D
in House appropriations, see the July 8 AAAS R&D
Funding Update. For details of R&D in the FY 2005 request, see
the March 16 AAAS R&D Funding Update on Commerce
R&D.)
Both of
Commerce’s two major R&D agencies—the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST)—end up above the request. NIST R&D declines 0.5 percent to
$468 million, but this amount is nearly 10 percent more than the request
(see Table). NOAA R&D gains $66 million
or 10.7 percent to $684 million.
Once again, Congress has saved the Advanced Technology Program (ATP),
although with a sharply reduced budget. Although the House has voted
repeatedly to eliminate the program in previous years, the program has
been saved every year by the Senate. In February, the Bush Administration
proposed to eliminate ATP for the third time in the last four years;
the House went along with the latest proposal but the Senate approved
a large increase. The Senate prevails in the final omnibus bill, but
the ATP budget of $136 million is 24 percent below last year’s funding
level and may not be enough for ATP to award new grants in FY 2005,
only to pay continuing costs of already-awarded grants. Most of the
ATP budget is for R&D activities.
Total NIST R&D
falls 0.5 percent to $468 million because of the ATP cuts. The main NIST R&D activity—Scientific and Technical Research and Services
(STRS), which funds intramural research at the NIST laboratories—is
a big winner in the budget with a 16 percent boost in its R&D funding
to $328 million. Last year,
the Administration requested a similar increase for the NIST laboratories
and the elimination of ATP. Congress saved the ATP but found the money
by cutting NIST’s intramural R&D nearly 10 percent. In FY 2004, these
cuts led to announcements of forced early retirements and layoffs of
NIST scientists. But the omnibus bill provides sufficient funds to avoid
such tough choices in FY 2005. The NIST increase goes for state-of-the-art
instrumentation for the new Advanced Measurement Laboratory on NIST’s
Gaithersburg, MD
campus, which was dedicated in June, and also for improvements at the
NIST Center
for Neutron Research, and for advanced measurement science and standards.
Congress also boosts
funding for the non-R&D Manufacturing
Extension Partnership (MEP), a program to operate a nationwide network
of extension centers to disseminate better manufacturing technologies
to small- and medium-sized manufacturers. The FY 2005 appropriation
of $108 million is nearly triple the FY 2004 funding level and the FY
2005 request of $39 million but the boost only restores funding back
to the FY 2003 level. The omnibus bill also renames the program the
Hollings Manufacturing Partnership Program after retiring Senator Ernest
Hollings (D-SC), a longtime champion of both the MEP and ATP.
NIST’s
Construction of R&D Facilities account receives $73 million in FY
2005, above last year’s level, but $43 million of the total is earmarked
for a variety of non-R&D projects to specific institutions. As a
result, the funding available for construction, repair, and maintenance
of NIST laboratory facilities falls from $43 million last year down
to $30 million.
Congress responds to the recently released U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy report by dramatically
boosting NOAA funding of ocean-related research. Overall, NOAA R&D
climbs dramatically by 10.7 percent to $684 million, in contrast to
requested cuts. Earlier in the year, the Senate Commerce-Justice bill
looked favorably on the Commission’s report, “An Ocean Blueprint,” reaffirming
NOAA’s leading role in U.S.
ocean policy and calling on dramatic expansions in NOAA ocean investments,
including ocean-related research. Although the omnibus bill scales back
some of the Senate increases, there are still increases for many ocean
programs. The omnibus bill provides $63 million for the National Sea
Grant College Program, up slightly from $62 million last year. Begun
in 1966, Sea Grant provides research grants to more than 200 universities
to gain better understanding of marine life and marine resources through
education, outreach, and technology transfer. The National Undersea
Research Program receives $17 million, the same as last year. Both are
key to the Commission recommendations. In the
National Ocean Service (NOS), the emphasis on ocean research would lead
to a dramatic boost in the NOS R&D effort to $68 million.
Primarily because
of the additional Commission-related funding, R&D in NOAA’s
core Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) account increases 3.0 percent
to $335 million. OAR climate research increases from $170 million up
to $177 million.
Elsewhere in the
omnibus, Congress creates a new oceanic and atmospheric
science scholarship program in honor of retiring Senator Ernest Hollings
(D-SC). The bill envisions NOAA awarding undergraduate scholarships
in oceanic and atmospheric science to U.S.
citizens through a competitive process, in the hopes of increasing undergraduate
interest in these fields and in oceanic and atmospheric science careers.
The omnibus sets aside 0.1 percent of the NOAA budget for these scholarships,
for a total approaching $4 million in FY 2005.
The modest increase
to Commerce’s R&D portfolio in FY 2005 keeps Commerce R&D at
close to $1.2 billion in today’s dollars for most of the past decade,
as shown in Figure 1. Although Commerce R&D grew substantially in
the first half of the 1990s as NIST’s technology programs and NOAA’s
environmental programs gained in priority, Commerce R&D funding
has stagnated since FY 1995, with large swings due to the up-and-down
fortunes of the ATP, changing construction needs at the NIST laboratories,
and shifts in NOAA funding.
Figure 1.
(click on the image for PDF)
Impacts of the Commerce R&D Portfolio
The differing
missions of NOAA and NIST mean that Commerce has a diverse research
portfolio in terms of science and engineering disciplines, as shown
in Figure 2. NOAA funds environmental sciences and life sciences research
related to its oceanic and atmospheric missions, while NIST funds engineering,
physical sciences, mathematics, and computer sciences research. Although
Commerce is not the leading funding source for any of the science and
engineering disciplines, the department does provide key support for
specific areas in oceanography, atmospheric sciences, standards research,
measurement technologies, and physics most closely related to NIST and
NOAA missions.
The vast majority
of Commerce R&D is performed internally in NOAA and NIST laboratories.
83 percent of Commerce R&D is performed in federal labs, both NOAA’s
network of laboratories throughout the country and NIST’s
large facilities in Maryland
and Colorado. Only 13
percent of the Commerce R&D portfolio goes to universities, while
just 2 percent goes to industrial firms. As a result, Commerce’s R&D
portfolio is heavily concentrated geographically (see Figure 3). Maryland
and Colorado alone receive
nearly half of Commerce’s R&D funds because of NIST’s
presence in these two states and NOAA’s main
laboratories in Maryland.
The other states in Commerce’s top 10 are locations of large NOAA laboratories.
Figure 2.
(click on the image for PDF)
Figure 3.
(click on the image for PDF)
Next Steps
President Bush
is expected to sign the omnibus bill into law on December 8. The FY
2006 budget proposal due in February is expected to call once again
for the elimination of ATP and steep cuts in NOAA R&D programs.
- December 7, 2004
(This analysis is one of a series of AAAS R&D Funding Updates
on FY 2005 congressional appropriations. The complete series of AAAS
R&D Funding Updates, including continually updated analyses of
R&D by agency in FY 2005 appropriations, is available on the AAAS
R&D Web Site (http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd) in the "FY
2005 R&D" or the "What's New"
sections.)
AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program
1200 New York Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 326-6607; -6600
www.aaas.org/spp/rd
