 
Congress has made little progress
on the federal government's budget for fiscal year (FY) 2009, which begins October
1, leaving federal funding for research and development (R&D) in limbo. Congress
is preparing to leave Washington for the rest of the year after completing action
on a bailout for the financial sector, postponing final budget decisions for most
federal agencies until 2009. To keep the government operating, lawmakers approved
a continuing resolution (CR) extending funding for all programs in unsigned 2009
appropriations bills at 2008 funding levels through March 6. The CR contains final
FY 2009 appropriations for the Departments of Defense (DOD),
Homeland Security (DHS), and Veterans
Affairs (VA); all three receive substantial increases for their R&D portfolios,
but other federal agencies in the remaining 9 of the 12 appropriations bills will
be operating temporarily at or below 2008 funding levels for several months. Earlier
in the year, congressional appropriators endorsed large increases for the three
physical sciences agencies in the American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI), increases
for human spacecraft development, increases for biomedical research in the National
Institutes of Health (NIH), and increases in other parts of the federal research
and development (R&D) portfolio. But instead, most federal programs will continue
to operate at or below 2008 funding levels for several months into the new fiscal
year. In real terms, the federal investment in basic and applied research has
already declined since 2004, and under the CR federal funding of research would
decline again in 2009 for the fifth year in a row. The AAAS
September R&D Funding Update provides details of R&D funding as of
the start of FY 2009. The complete series of AAAS R&D Funding Updates
on FY 2009 congressional appropriations is available on the AAAS R&D web site
on the "FY 2009 R&D" page. These updates
supplement AAAS Report XXXIII: Research and Development
FY 2009, a comprehensive analysis of R&D in the proposed federal budget
for FY 2009 that was published in April. Also available is a
continually updated table on the status of FY 2009 appropriations.
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September 26, 2008
 Since
1976, the R&D Budget and Policy Program has been providing timely, comprehensive,
and independent analyses of R&D funding trends in the federal budget as a
service to the science, engineering and policymaking communities.
Through its
Web site and email list, the Program makes available continually updated coverage
of R&D funding trends, ongoing budget debates in Congress and the Executive
Branch, and potential impacts of budget legislation. The Web site also offers
a guide to R&D funding data as well as downloadable copies of its printed
reports. Every spring, the Program hosts the annual AAAS
Forum on Science and Technology Policy (formerly the AAAS Colloquium), the
nation’s premier conference devoted to S&T policy. The next Forum will
be held May 8-9, 2008, in Washington, DC.
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