Highlights
- The latest Senate budget plan would boost the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) R&D
by $127 million or 5.7 percent in FY 2005 to $2.4 billion, matching
a similar increase the House approved this summer. Both plans contrast
with a requested cut (see Table). Nearly
the entire increase would go to laboratory construction projects, leaving
basic and applied research even with this year.
-
Both the House and Senate would add more than $200 million to
the Administration’s request, mostly to reinstate earmarks that USDA
had proposed to eliminate, including $109 million in the Senate for
Special Research Grants.
- The Senate would provide $183 million for the National Research Initiative
of competitively awarded extramural research grants, up nearly 12 percent
from this year.
- While the Senate
would provide only $122 million, the House would fully fund the requested
$178 million to complete animal research and diagnostic facilities at
the National Centers for Animal Health in Ames,
Iowa, that would be the heart of
a USDA-wide food and biosafety initiative.
On September
14, the Senate Appropriations Committee reported its version of the
FY 2005 Agriculture appropriations bill (S 2803), providing funding
for the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) and other food-related agencies. With
time running out on the congressional session and FY 2004, which ends
today (Sept. 30), the Senate bill may never make it to the Senate floor
but will most likely be rolled into a year-end omnibus appropriations
bill. The full House of Representatives approved its version of the
bill (HR 4766) in July. Despite the delays, both the House and Senate
would agree on substantial increases for the USDA R&D portfolio,
mostly for R&D facilities. The Senate would give USDA a total R&D budget of $2.4 billion in FY
2005, an increase of 5.7 percent or $127 million that stands in sharp
contrast to a requested cut (see Table).
The House would provide just $8 million more for a similar increase.
(For more on USDA R&D in FY 2005 House appropriations, see the July
8 AAAS R&D Funding Update. For more on R&D in the USDA FY
2005 request, see Chapter 11 of AAAS Report XXIX: R&D FY 2005.)
USDA R&D in FY 2005 Senate Appropriations
In contrast to
a requested cut of 3.5 percent down to $2.2 billion, both the House
and Senate would fund USDA R&D at $2.4 billion, 6 percent increases
over this year’s funding level. In February, USDA proposed to eliminate
$220 million in FY 2004 R&D earmarks, and hold other USDA R&D
funding flat overall. The request contained a major facilities proposal
of $178 million to complete animal research and diagnostic facilities
at the National Centers for Animal Health in Ames,
Iowa, with cuts in other R&D
programs. Both the Senate and House bills find enough money to restore
most of the earmarked funding and add research funding for other priority
areas in order to bring USDA R&D just a few million dollars short
of an all-time high in inflation-adjusted dollars. The House would fully
fund the animal research facilities request, while the Senate would
fund most of it.
The House appropriation of $178 million in new funds for the Ames facility would continue strong USDA and congressional
attention to homeland security since the terrorist attacks of 2001.
The Senate would provide $122 million, still a large investment for
a single project. In the first few years after the attacks, USDA facilities
funding went primarily to improve security at agricultural research
facilities, many of which house dangerous pathogens, but now the focus
is shifting to creating new scientific capabilities for homeland security-related
research. The renovated National Centers for Animal Health will serve
as the nation’s premier animal research and diagnostic laboratory and
will enhance the nation’s ability to respond to attacks on the food
supply. The $122 million Senate allocation is contained in the $173
million Senate appropriation for Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
Buildings and Facilities, nearly triple this
year’s funding level, with the remaining $51 million parceled out to
17 congressionally earmarked construction projects at USDA laboratories.
In addition to the construction funds, the Senate would provide $15
million for new intramural research on food and agriculture defense,
and $15 million for homeland security-related extramural research grants.
Total ARS R&D
would climb 10.0 percent to $1.3 billion because of the Iowa
and other facilities appropriations, but ARS funding for the conduct
of R&D (excluding facilities) would edge up just 0.7 percent to
$1.1 billion in the Senate plan and would decline slightly in the House
Agriculture bill. ARS funds intramural research through a nationwide
network of intramural laboratories and agricultural experiment stations,
including research on congressionally designated topics.
Overall, USDA extramural
R&D would remain flat with FY 2004 funding levels in the Senate
bill. USDA’s extramural research grants, nearly entirely to colleges
and universities, are administered by the Cooperative State Research,
Education and Extension Service (CSREES). Total
CSREES R&D would be $620 million in the Senate Agriculture bill,
a very modest increase of $1 million over FY 2004 but $108 million more
than the request. The difference comes from the insertion of $127 million
in congressional earmarks that the Administration proposed to terminate.
The Senate would provide $109 million for Special
Research Grants, down from the current-year level of $111 million
but up dramatically from the request of $3 million. This program has
traditionally been home to congressionally designated, performer-specific
research projects. The Senate bill would fund 174 itemized projects,
partially overlapping the House’s 131 itemized projects totaling $88
million. The Senate bill contains 29 other earmarks totaling $21 million
in other parts of the CSREES budget, again partially overlapping the
House’s 30 other earmarks totaling $35 million.
At the same time,
the House and Senate would hold the line on competitively awarded research
grants, also administered by CSREES. The
National Research Initiative (NRI) would receive $183 million from the
Senate, slightly above the House and the request and $19 million more
than this year. USDA also provides formula funds for agricultural
R&D to qualifying institutions in programs such as the Hatch Act,
which would remain at $180 million in FY 2005.
The other major
USDA R&D agency is the Forest Service; it would have $325 million
for its R&D programs in FY 2005 under the Senate plan, an increase
of $9 million or 2.8 percent. Although the primary focus of its R&D
portfolio is forestry and ecosystems research, in recent years the Forest
Service has emphasized its fire science and wildfire management research
portfolio as well. Most of this research is performed in intramural
laboratories, although there is also an extramural fire science grants
program that would receive $21 million next year.
Figure
1. (click on
the image to view or download a color, full-page PDF version of the
chart)
Both the House and Senate FY 2005 Agriculture bills would bring the USDA
R&D portfolio just a few million dollars short of its all-time peak
in inflation-adjusted dollars (see Figure 1). USDA R&D peaked in
FY 2003, but has been at historical highs for the past few years. Since
hitting a recent low in FY 1996, the funding trend has been generally
upward, first because the federal budget surplus made more discretionary
funds available to congressional appropriators, then in FY 2000 and
FY 2001 from the release of mandatory competitive research funds, and
then since FY 2002 because heightened concern about agricultural terrorism
and the security of USDA laboratories resulted in millions for security
upgrades and other homeland security-related investments.
Next Steps
The House approved
its Agriculture bill in July, but the Senate version faces a more difficult
path. With the October 1 start of FY 2005 and the October 8 target adjournment
date looming and other legislative priorities stacked up, the Senate
will run out of time to debate and approve the Agriculture bill as a
stand-alone bill. Thus, USDA programs will operate through at least
November 20 at FY 2004 levels under a continuing resolution (CR; temporary
appropriations bill) approved by Congress this week. After the November
elections, Congress will try to finish up appropriations; the most likely
scenario is that the Agriculture bill will be rolled into an omnibus
appropriations bill along with the other unfinished appropriations bills
in a post-election lame duck session. With the House and Senate USDA
appropriations so similar, USDA is almost certain to get the large increase
in R&D facilities and flat funding for research outlined above,
but the big question remaining is when.
- September 30, 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
