(This analysis is a preview of the
Dept. of Commerce section in the forthcoming AAAS Report XXXII: Research and
Development FY 2008, a comprehensive look at the President's budget for R&D
in FY 2008. This analysis contains revised AAAS estimates of Commerce R&D,
different from figures originally presented in the President's budget. More tables
and continually updated supplemental materials on R&D in the FY 2008 budget
can be found on the AAAS R&D Web site at http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd.)
Highlights
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The intramural research activities of the National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST) would be favored with substantial proposed increases in the
2008 budget in the second year of the President’s American Competitiveness
Initiative. NIST’s Scientific and Technical Research Services (STRS) would
see its R&D funding increase 12.8 percent to $420 million, while intramural
Construction of Research Facilities (CRF) R&D would jump 60 percent to $94
million after similar increases in 2007.
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But proposed cuts in other Commerce R&D programs would more than offset
the proposed gains. Total Commerce R&D would fall 2.7 percent to $1.1
billion (see Table II-14).
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Once again, the Bush Administration proposes to eliminate NIST’s
external Advanced Technology Program (ATP). The proposed budget would also
slash the non-R&D Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program
to less than half current funding levels. Congress just rejected both of these
proposals in the recently finalized 2007 budget.
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R&D in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) would
fall sharply by $57 million or 9.5 percent down to $544 million (see Table
II-14) from a 2007 total just finalized by Congress with an unexpected funding
boost.
Commerce
R&D in the FY 2008 Budget
President
Bush’s proposed FY 2008 budget continues substantial increases for key physical
sciences research agencies as part of an “American Competitiveness Initiative”
(ACI) that was first previewed in the 2006 State of the Union address in response
to a growing wave of concern about the state of U.S.
innovation. The ACI proposes to double funding for three key physical sciences
agencies over the next decade, and after a mostly approved first installment in
2007 the 2008 budget continues to move forward with this ambitious plan. The National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the Department of Commerce is
one of the three favored agencies (the others are the DOE Office of Science, and
the National Science Foundation), and received a substantial increase in the 2007
budget and another large increase in 2008 after years of flat or declining funding.
The increases would
go only to NIST’s intramural laboratories and intramural construction,
and would be offset by steep cuts in NIST’s external
programs. Commerce’s other main R&D agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) whose portfolio is oriented toward environmental R&D
rather than the physical sciences, would be in line for
R&D funding cuts like most domestic programs in the declining overall domestic
budget. Total Commerce R&D would fall 2.7 percent or $30 million to $1.1
billion (see Table II-14), with cuts in NOAA R&D
and NIST external R&D offsetting large proposed increases for NIST’s intramural portfolio.
The
NIST laboratories in Maryland and
Colorado would once again be favored
in the 2008 R&D budget as part of the ACI. NIST intramural research would
climb 12.8 percent to $420 million within the Scientific and Technical Research
and Services (STRS) account, while construction funding for NIST research facilities
would jump 60 percent to $94 million. The large proposed increases would allow
for more of everything: there would be increases for R&D across the broad
range of NIST programs, with particular emphasis on nanotechnology research, quantum
information science, measurements and standards for climate change science, and
disaster resilient structures. On the construction side, the large increase would
allow for major renovations at NIST’s Boulder (CO) site, repair for aging facilities, and
continuing construction of NIST’s Center for Neutron
Research.
But once
again, the increased investments for the NIST laboratories would be offset by
cuts in other NIST programs, even though they all support the physical sciences
and related research. The Bush Administration once again proposes to eliminate
NIST’s extramural Advanced Technology Program (ATP), as
it has in the past several budget requests. The ATP just won a total budget of
$79 million in FY 2007 in the recently finalized 2007 budget, after being on the
verge of elimination for most of last year. The unexpected reprieve means that
the ATP will be able to award new grants in 2007 for the first time in years.
Congress has repeatedly saved the program from termination, and will be asked
to do so again in the 2008 appropriations process. In another repeat of previous
requests, the budget would cut the non-R&D Hollings Manufacturing Extension
Partnership (MEP) by 56 percent down to $46 million; an identical proposal was
rejected in the 2007 appropriation. MEP is a program to operate a nationwide network
of extension centers to disseminate better manufacturing technologies to small-
and medium-sized manufacturers on a cost-shared basis with state governments and
with users. The $105 million current budget for MEP is in line with historical
trends; the request would phase out the federal contribution to this federal-state
partnership and leave MEP center funding heavily in state hands, a move that Congress
has strongly resisted in past budgets.
Figure
1. (click on the image for PDF)
The cuts
to NIST’s external programs leave the total NIST budget
down $34 million to $641 million. Because the budget cuts affect the non-R&D
MEP in the 2008 budget to balance out the large increases proposed for intramural
R&D, total NIST R&D would increase 4.7 percent to $514 million.
National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) R&D would fall $57 million or
9.5 percent down to $544 million based on preliminary figures (see Table II-14).
(These NOAA data are preliminary, and will be revised shortly to reflect more
detailed NOAA data on R&D in the budget.)
Impacts of Commerce R&D
Despite
the good news for NIST’s laboratories, a broader look at all Commerce R&D
investments shows that the 2008 budget would continue a steady fall in Commerce
R&D for most of this decade (see Figure 1). Since 2002, the Commerce R&D
budget has declined in real terms every year, and would fall 24 percent below
the 2002 funding level. Both NOAA and NIST have lost ground over the last several
years.
Figure
2. (click on the image for PDF)
The
differing missions of NOAA and NIST mean that Commerce has a diverse research
portfolio in terms of science and engineering disciplines. NOAA funds environmental
sciences and life sciences research related to its oceanic and atmospheric missions,
which are not favored in the ACI, while NIST funds more ACI-relevant
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. Commerce funding for all of these
disciplines has declined in recent years because of the downward trends in overall
Commerce R&D funding (see Figure 2). Once the NIST 2007 and 2008 increases
are spent, there may be an upswing in Commerce support for the physical sciences,
engineering, and computer sciences.
Commerce
R&D is highly concentrated geographically: fully half of Commerce’s R&D
is performed in Maryland and Colorado,
where NIST’s laboratories are located along with NOAA headquarters
in Maryland and a major NOAA laboratory
in Colorado. California
and Washington also receive large
portions because of the presence of several NOAA laboratories. Almost 80 percent
of all Commerce R&D is performed in the department’s own laboratories, while
universities receive 18 percent of the total R&D portfolio, mostly from NOAA.
Outlook for the Commerce Budget
Because
the American Competitiveness Initiative continues to be a high priority in the
2008 budget, NIST would receive an increase even as most other domestic agencies
face cuts within a declining domestic budget. The new Democratic majority in Congress
has already demonstrated its strong support for both NIST and NOAA programs by
boosting spending for both agencies in the recently finalized 2007 appropriations,
trimming the request for NIST laboratory programs somewhat but restoring funding
for the ATP and adding millions to requested cuts at NOAA. It is likely that the
same appropriators will follow the same course in 2008 appropriations.
(More
materials on R&D in the FY 2008 budget, historical data and charts, and more
information on AAAS Report XXXII: Research and Development FY 2008, can
be found on the AAAS R&D Web site at http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd.)
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March 21, 2007
AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program
1200 New York Avenue,
NW
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 326-6607
AAAS R&D Web site: http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd
