Highlights
- The Senate would draw a sharp contrast with House and Administration plans
to cut R&D in the Department of Commerce, instead proposing a record-breaking
$1.3 billion for Commerce R&D in FY 2005, a substantial increase
of 17.9 percent or $203 million (see Table).
Nearly every Commerce R&D program would receive a large increase,
in contrast to cuts in the House proposal.
- The Senate would boost Advanced Technology Program (ATP) funding to $203
million, in sharp contrast to Administration and House plans to eliminate
the program. The Senate would join the House in tripling funding for the Manufacturing Extension
Partnership (MEP) back up to last year’s funding level.
-
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) R&D
would climb dramatically by 21.3 percent to $748 million in the Senate
proposal, again contrasting sharply with House and Administration plans
to cut funding. The Senate would respond to the recent U.S. Commission
on Ocean Policy report by dramatically boosting NOAA funding of ocean-related
research, and would also create a new NOAA scholarship program to encourage
U.S.
citizens to study oceanic and atmospheric science.
- The National
Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) intramural laboratory
R&D programs would be one of the few R&D programs to do well
in both the House and Senate plans, rising 17.8 percent to $333 million
in the Senate and slightly less in the House.
FY 2005 Commerce
R&D in Senate Appropriations
On September
15, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its version of the
FY 2005 Commerce/Justice appropriations bill (S 2809). The $40 billion
bill, in addition to Department of Commerce programs, funds the Department
of Justice, the Department of State, and miscellaneous international
programs. The Senate bill follows a House version (HR 4754) approved
by the full House in July; the full Senate hopes to debate the bill
before the October 1 start of FY 2005, but meeting that deadline is
unlikely. The Senate would draw a sharp contrast with House and Bush
Administration plans to cut Commerce R&D, instead providing a record-breaking
$1.3 billion in FY 2005, an increase of 17.9 percent or $203 million
(see Table). The Senate would boost funding
for nearly every Commerce R&D program, while the House would cut
nearly every program substantially and would eliminate one (the Advanced
Technology Program). (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)—would
do extremely well in the Senate bill and poorly in the House, with the
Senate undoubtedly hoping that the final budget will meet in the middle
for a net modest increase. NIST R&D would climb 14.6 percent in
the Senate and NOAA R&D would increase 21.3 percent; in the House,
NIST would lose nearly a quarter of its R&D funding and NOAA R&D
would fall 11.7 percent (see Table).
Once again, the Senate would save the Advanced Technology Program (ATP)
while the House would eliminate it, leaving the program’s fate up in
the air. Although the House has voted repeatedly to eliminate the
program in previous Commerce/Justice bills, 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
would go along with the latest proposal. The Administration proposed
to eliminate ATP based on its belief that other federally funded research
programs are more effective, that ATP funds have gone to major corporations
that do not need subsidies, and that ATP-funded projects are often similar
to those initiated by firms not receiving ATP
support. But the most recent Senate bill would give ATP $203 million
in FY 2005, 13 percent above this year’s funding level. Once again,
the fate of the program will be resolved in House-Senate conference
negotiations.
Total NIST
R&D would rise 14.6 percent in the Senate bill to $540 million,
far above the House allocation of $369 million because of the ATP funding.
The main NIST R&D activity—Scientific
and Technical Research and Services (STRS), which funds intramural research
at the NIST laboratories—would gain $50 million in R&D funding to
$333 million, a 17.8 percent increase. The House would agree with the
Senate by providing a similar increase. 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 this year compared
to last year. In FY 2004, these cuts have led to announcements of forced
early retirements and layoffs of NIST scientists. The FY 2005 House
and Senate appropriations should provide sufficient funds to avoid such
tough choices next year. Both the House and Senate would agree to provide
funds to invest in state-of-the-art instrumentation for the new Advanced
Measurement Laboratory on NIST’s Gaithersburg, MD
campus, which was dedicated in June, and also provide some new funds
for improvements at the NIST
Center for Neutron Research,
and for advanced measurement science and standards.
The House
and Senate would also agree on increasing 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 House would
give MEP $106 million, nearly triple the FY 2004 funding level and the
FY 2005 request of $39 million, while the Senate would go even higher
with $112 million. These proposed boosts, though dramatic, would only
restore funding back to the FY 2003 level. The FY 2004 appropriation
and the FY 2005 request of only $39 million would phase out the federal
contribution to this federal-state partnership, but the FY 2005 congressional
appropriations could restore the federal role.
The
only Commerce R&D account to decline in the Senate plan would be
NIST’s Construction of R&D Facilities,
funded at $43 million in FY 2005, slightly below this year’s level and
$17 million below the request. The Senate would actually appropriate
$87 million for the account, well above the $59 million request, but
$44 million would be earmarked for a variety of non-R&D projects
to specific institutions, including $5 million for a science museum,
$1 million for civic education programs, and $1.5 million for a community
center. The House would provide $43 million, none of it earmarked.
The Senate would respond to the recently released U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy report by dramatically
boosting NOAA funding of ocean-related research. Overall, NOAA R&D
would rise dramatically by 21.3 percent to $748 million in the Senate,
in contrast to requested cuts and even steeper House-proposed cuts.
The Senate bill looks 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. The Senate bill identifies $454 million
in FY 2005 funding to meet the recommendations of the Commission, nearly
double the spending on comparable programs in FY 2004. The Senate would
provide $74 million for the National Sea Grant College Program, up from
$62 million this 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 would receive $19 million,
up from $17 million; the Ocean Exploration program would receive $36
million, up from $30 million. All are key to the Commission recommendations. In the National Ocean
Service (NOS), the emphasis on ocean research would lead to a near-doubling
of the NOS R&D effort to $75 million.
Primarily
because of the additional Commission-related funding, R&D in NOAA’s
core Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) account would climb 16.5
percent to $379 million. OAR climate research would climb from $170
million up to $190 million, while weather and air quality research would
stay nearly even at $54 million. There would be increases for most OAR
programs, in contrast to House cuts.
Elsewhere
in the bill, the Senate would create 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 Senate would set aside 0.1 percent of the NOAA budget for these
scholarships, for a total of $4 million in FY 2005. Because the House
did not include this program in its version of the bill, it is unclear
whether the program will see the light of day in the final Commerce
budget.
The dramatic
Senate boost to Commerce’s R&D portfolio, though unlikely to prevail
in the final FY 2005 budget, would take the portfolio to an all-time
high, 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 and changing construction needs at the NIST laboratories.
The FY 2005 House appropriation of $946 million for Commerce R&D,
by contrast, would be the smallest Commerce R&D investment since
1992.
Figure 1.
(click on the image to view of download a full-page color PDF version
of the chart)
Next Steps
The House version
of the Commerce-Justice bill was approved by the full House on July
8, but the Senate version is stalled. Although FY 2005 starts on October
1, the Senate will not debate and approve the bill by then and perhaps
not even by the October 8 target adjournment date. The Senate may not
debate the bill at all because of the crush of other appropriations
bills and other legislation that must be completed this year. If the
Senate does not approve its version as a stand-alone bill, then the
Commerce-Justice bill will be rolled a year-end omnibus appropriations
bill. In omnibus negotiations, it remains unclear whether there is enough
support in the Senate for the ATP and other Commerce R&D programs
to reverse the proposed House and Administration cuts.
- September 28, 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
