(This analysis is a preview of the
Dept. of Commerce section in the forthcoming AAAS Report XXXIII: Research and
Development FY 2009, a comprehensive look at the President's budget for R&D
in FY 2009. 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 2009 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) benefit from the President’s American Competitiveness Initiative
(ACI) with substantial proposed increases. NIST’s Scientific and Technical Research
Services (STRS) would see its R&D funding increase 16.1 percent to $447 million
to keep the program on track to double between 2006 and 2016. The intramural Construction
of Research Facilities (CRF) account for R&D appears to fall $10 million to
$99 million because of the proposed elimination of a $30 million extramural competitive
construction program initiated by Congress in 2008, but funding for NIST construction
would increase 44 percent.
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Once again, the Bush Administration proposes to eliminate NIST’s external Technology
Innovation Program (TIP), a year after it was reauthorized, restructured and renamed.
The proposed budget would close out the non-R&D Hollings Manufacturing Extension
Partnership (MEP) program with a $4 million request. Congress has repeatedly rejected
efforts to eliminate or downsize these two programs.
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Total NIST R&D would increase 4.7 percent to $546 million (see Table
II-14) within a total budget of $638 million (down 13.4 percent).
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R&D in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) would
fall slightly to $576 million (see Table II-14),
but after taking out 2008 earmarks the 2009 increase for core NOAA research programs
would be 7.5 percent. Total Commerce R&D would gain 1.2 percent to $1.2 billion.
Commerce
R&D in the FY 2009 Budget
President
Bush’s proposed FY 2009 budget continues to propose substantial increases for
key physical sciences research agencies as part of the American Competitiveness
Initiative (ACI), first announced in his 2006 State of the Union address. The
ACI proposes to double funding for three key physical sciences agencies between
2006 and 2016, but the effort is badly off track after appropriations setbacks
in 2007 and 2008. 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 would receive a substantial increase for its intramural
programs in 2009 to get back on track to doubling by 2016.
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 cuts like most domestic
programs in the tight overall domestic budget. Total Commerce R&D would
barely increase by 1.2 percent or $14 million to $1.2 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.
NIST
intramural research, performed in NIST facilities in Maryland
and Colorado, would climb 16.1 percent
to $447 million within the Scientific and Technical Research and Services (STRS)
account. Construction funding for NIST research facilities appears to fall, but
subtracting $30 million in 2008 funding that would go to extramural construction
outside of NIST results in a $20 million increase in NIST construction from $69
million to $99 million in 2009. The large proposed increase for intramural research
would start new initiatives in nanotechnology for environmental health and safety
measurements, biosciences measurements and standards, cybersecurity, and optical
communications and computing. The increase would also allow for expansion and
improvements for the NIST Center
for Neutron Research, and augmented current NIST efforts in areas such as neutron
research, quantum information science, climate change measurements and standards,
biometrics, and measurement science. The $99 million construction request would
include funding for operational maintenance and repairs of NIST facilities and
three new initiatives, including a $44 million extension of state-of-the-art laboratory
space at NIST’s Building 1 in Boulder, CO.
Congress added $30 million in 2008 to the normally intramural construction account
specifically for new extramural laboratory facilities grants, to be awarded on
a competitive basis to universities and other nonprofit research institutions
performing R&D related to NIST activities. There would also be $51 million
in the construction account for non-R&D extramural earmarked projects for
specific performers, bringing total Construction funding to $160 million in 2008,
but the 2009 request would eliminate external spending to concentrate on intramural
construction.
Figure 1. (click on the image for
PDF)
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 Technology Innovation Program (TIP), as it has in the past
several budget requests. The TIP was formerly the Advanced Technology Program
(ATP) but was restructured, reauthorized, and renamed the Technology Innovation
Program (TIP) in the August 2007 America COMPETES Act; the TIP received a 2008
appropriation of $46 million, down 40 percent from the previous year, but the
2009 request would bring funding down to zero. The 2009 request would also eliminate
the non-R&D Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) with $4 million
just for close-out costs instead of the roughly $100 million annual appropriations
of recent years. 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. Congress
has repeatedly saved these two programs from elimination, and will try to do so
again in the 2009 appropriations season.
The
proposed cuts to NIST’s external programs would leave the total NIST budget down
$99 million to $638 million. But total NIST R&D would increase 4.7 percent
to $546 million.
National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) R&D would fall $5 million or
0.9 percent down to $576 million based on preliminary data (see Table II-14).
Within Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), the Climate Research program would
increase by $3 million to $195 million, with increases for the competitive research
program partially offset by cuts in earmarks and intramural programs. The National
Sea Grant College Program would see its funding decline $2 million down to $55
million, and the National Undersea Research Program (NURP) would be merged with
the Ocean Exploration and Research program at a funding level of $28 million,
down slightly from 2008.
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 2009 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 except 2008, and would fall 21 percent
below the 2002 funding level if the 2009 request is enacted as is. Both NOAA and
NIST have lost ground over the last several years, although NIST has begun to
rebound thanks to the ACI.
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 and if the 2009 request makes it through Congress,
there should be an upswing in Commerce support for the physical sciences, engineering,
and computer sciences.
Commerce
R&D is highly concentrated geographically: more than 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 19 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
2009 budget, NIST would receive an increase even within an extremely tight domestic
budget. The Democratic Congress has already demonstrated its strong support for
both NIST and NOAA programs by boosting spending for both agencies in the 2007
and 2008 appropriations, trimming the request for NIST laboratory programs somewhat
but restoring funding for the ATP/TIP and adding millions to requested cuts at
NOAA. It is likely that the same appropriators will follow the same course in
2009 appropriations.
(More
materials on R&D in the FY 2009 budget, historical data and charts, and more
information on AAAS Report XXXIII: Research and Development FY 2009, can
be found on the AAAS R&D Web site at http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd.)
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March 10, 2008 (revised March 21)
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
