(This
analysis is an update on progress of the FY 2009 budget through Congress, and
also an update of 2008 and 2009 appropriations. This analysis provides details
on the House and Senate versions of the FY 2009 economic stimulus appropriations
bill. This February 10 analysis is updated with the latest Senate actions from
the January 28 and January 16
versions, and will be updated again as congressional debate continues.
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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AAAS estimates that the Senate-approved version of the 2009 economic stimulus
appropriations bill contains $17.8 billion in federal research and development
(R&D) funding, $15.8 billion for the conduct of R&D and $2.0 billion for
R&D facilities and capital equipment (see Table).
Senators added $6.5 billion for biomedical research in the National Institutes
of Health (NIH) to the original Senate bill during floor debate, but also trimmed
spending on other science programs. The House version of the bill contains
$13.2 billion in R&D funding, with far less than the Senate for NIH but more
for most other R&D priorities. The bill is expected to go to House-Senate
conference immediately.
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Basic competitiveness-related research, biomedical research, energy R&D, and
climate change programs would be high priorities for both the House and the Senate
in the economic recovery bills. The National Science Foundation (NSF), the
Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE OS), and the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST), the three agencies highlighted in the America
COMPETES Act of 2007 and President Bush’s American Competitiveness Initiative
(ACI), would do well in the House and Senate bills, though less well in the final
Senate version than an earlier version. The Senate would give NIH $10.4 billion
in stimulus funding (compared to $3.9 billion in the House). Both the House and
the Senate would provide billions for energy R&D at the Department of Energy
(DOE) and would fund climate change-related projects in the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA).
R&D in the FY 2009 Stimulus Appropriations Bill
The
full Senate gave final approval on February 10 to its version of the long-awaited
and much-negotiated American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill of 2009 (HR 1), an
$800+ billion economic stimulus package to deal with the current economic crisis.
During floor debate, the Senate approved several amendments to the original draft
Senate bill, including an amendment that would cut $83 billion in spending from
the original bill. The final Senate version contains $283 billion in discretionary
appropriations, down sharply from the $358 billion in
the House version of the bill as approved by the full House on January 28 (the
remainder of the bills would be tax cuts and mandatory (entitlement) spending).
The large differences between the House and Senate versions of the bills, despite
their similar overall price tags, will be difficult to reconcile in a House-Senate
conference expected to get underway immediately.
The
revised AAAS analysis of the House and Senate stimulus bills estimates that, despite
a smaller price tag for appropriations, the Senate bill now contains $17.8 billion
in federal research and development (R&D) funding and the House version $13.2
billion (see Table). Although the House and
the Senate started off with similar amounts for R&D, the Senate amended its
original bill to add $6.5 billion for NIH and trimmed smaller amounts for other
R&D programs. The Senate would allocate $15.8 billion for the conduct of
R&D (compared to $9.5 billion in the House), while the House would provide
nearly twice as much for R&D facilities and large research equipment as the
Senate ($3.7 billion in the Senate and $2.0 billion in the House; see Table).
There is also additional money for non-R&D
but science and technology-related programs, higher education construction and
other education spending of interest to academia. (House and Senate totals have
both been adjusted since earlier versions of this analysis to reflect revised
estimates, and approved Senate amendments to the original bill.)
The
three agencies highlighted for their support of economic competitiveness-related
basic research in the America COMPETES Act of 2007 and President Bush’s American
Competitiveness Initiative (ACI) would receive $5.5 billion in the House bill
and less than half that in the Senate bill, with the Senate total shrinking during
floor debate. In the House, the National Science Foundation (NSF) would receive
$3.0 billion; the Department of Energy’s Office of Science (DOE OS) would receive
$2.0 billion; and Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
would receive $520 million; nearly all of these supplementals
are for R&D activities. The House’s $5.5 billion appropriations to these three
agencies would finally put all three budgets on track to double over the next
7 to 10 years as envisioned in the ACI, America COMPETES, and Obama campaign promises. The Senate bill would give NSF $1.2
billion (reduced from an original $1.4 billion), DOE’s
Office of Science $330 million (reduced from $430 million), and NIST $595 million
(reduced from $495 million) for a total of $2.0 billion, putting NSF and NIST
on a doubling track but not the Office of Science.
The
Senate would give the National Institutes of Health (NIH) $10.4 billion in stimulus
funding, pushing NIH’s total budget near $40 billion in FY 2009. The original
Senate bill contained $3.9 billion for NIH, the same as the House, but on February
3 the Senate accepted an amendment to add another $6.5 billion. The House would
divide its appropriation roughly evenly between research and infrastructure (construction
and maintenance of facilities) but the amended Senate bill tilts overwhelmingly
toward research. The stimulus funding would turn around a NIH budget that has
been in decline since 2004, and could boost the total NIH budget to $40 billion
if the Senate version prevails (see Table 2). The
Department of Energy’s (DOE) energy programs would also be a winner with $2.0
billion in the House and $2.6 billion in the Senate for R&D and related activities
in renewable energy and energy conservation, with billions more for DOE in weatherization,
loan guarantee, and clean energy demonstration funds. And the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA) would receive $600 million in the House and $1.3
billion in the Senate with an emphasis on climate change-related satellite missions.
Only the
House bill would provide billions of dollars for universities to construct or
renovate laboratories, although both bills would invest in research infrastructure.
The House version of the stimulus would provide $3.7 billion for R&D facilities
and capital equipment, to pay for the repair, maintenance, and construction
of scientific laboratories as well as large research equipment and instrumentation.
Considering that R&D facilities funding totaled $4.5 billion in FY 2008, half
of which went to just one laboratory (the International Space Station), the $3.7
billion supplemental will be an enormous boost in the federal government’s spending
on scientific facilities. The House would provide $2.3 billion for extramural,
competitively selected R&D facilities projects, nearly entirely at universities,
through programs in NIH, NSF, and NIST that received no federal money in FY 2008.
Within the Senate’s less generous $2.0 billion total for R&D facilities, the
Senate would not allocate any money for university laboratory projects,
though NIH would receive $300 million for large research equipment needs in academia.
Instead, the Senate would join the House in devoting resources to intramural laboratory
repair and renovation at NIH and DOE Science laboratories, and only the Senate
would fund construction needs at NIST and DOE weapons laboratories. And other
agencies such as the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), NASA, the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC), and NOAA are set to receive stimulus funding in
both House and Senate plans for construction and maintenance, which while not
technically R&D facilities funding will be used to renovate existing laboratories
or construct new ones.
Both
the House and the Senate are poised to provide a big boost to the fortunes of
federal research in FY 2009 with their billions for the conduct of R&D (basic
and applied research, plus development). Both the House’s $9.5 billion and
the Senate’s $15.8 billion for the conduct of R&D are heavily weighted toward
basic research, with some applied research funding but relatively little development
funding. For a federal research portfolio that has been declining in real terms
since FY 2004, a final stimulus bill could provide an immediate boost and could
allow federal research funding to see a real increase for the first time five
years. Under the current CR and the few completed FY 2009 appropriations,
the federal research portfolio stands at $58.3 billion in FY 2009, up just 0.3
percent and thus short of inflation, but assuming enactment of the stimulus and
final FY 2009 appropriations at CR levels the federal research portfolio could
jump to $70 billion or more and could go even higher if final FY 2009 appropriations
are above CR funding levels.
Both
the House and Senate bills require nearly all of the funding to be awarded within
120 days of when the President signs the bill into law, with staggered deadlines
of 30 days for formula funds, 90 days for competitive grants, and 120 days for
competitive grants in brand-new programs, with the intention of spending the funding
as quickly as possible to provide immediate economic stimulus. Nearly all of the
money is designated as FY 2009 money, with agencies allowed to obligate funds
until the end of FY 2010. But there are extensive accountability and transparency
mandates, including separate appropriations for agency inspectors general and
the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to monitor stimulus spending. There
will also be a recovery.gov web site to provide detailed public disclosure of
how stimulus funds are allocated and spent.
In
a highly unusual move, this stimulus appropriations bill, technically an emergency
supplemental appropriations bill, appears before an FY 2009 omnibus appropriations
bill to provide federal agencies with their final, regular FY 2009 budgets. 9
out of the 12 FY 2009 appropriations bills remain unfinished, meaning only the
Departments of Defense (DOD), Homeland Security (DHS), and Veterans Affairs (VA)
have their final FY 2009 budgets. All other federal agencies are temporarily operating
at or below FY 2008 funding levels under a continuing resolution (CR) through
March 6.
The
accompanying Table lists key R&D and other science
and technology-related items in the House and Senate stimulus appropriations bills.
Key R&D funding agency highlights of the bills include:
National
Science Foundation (NSF) - $3.0 billion in the House, $1.2 billion in the
Senate (see Table. Note: FY 2008 total budget $6.1 billion). The House would provide
twice as much for NSF as the Senate. Within Research and Related Activities (R&RA),
NSF’s core research account, $2.0 billion in the House bill would go to research
grants distributed through NSF’s regular peer review process. The Senate would
provide $1.0 billion, half the House’s appropriation. The House would provide
$300 million and the Senate zero (after passage of an amendment cutting out $200
million in the original Senate bill) to the Major Research Instrumentation program
(FY 08: $94 million) of competitively awarded instrumentation grants for university
researchers, and the House but not the Senate would give $200 million to restart
the Academic Research Infrastructure program, dormant since FY 1996, for competitively
awarded laboratory construction grants, primarily for universities. The $100 million
House education and human resources (EHR) appropriation would provide $60 million
to the Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program (FY 08: $11
million) and $40 million to the Math and Science Partnerships program (FY 08:
$49 million), while the Senate’s $50 million EHR appropriation allocates $15 million
to a new Professional Masters Science Program authorized in the America COMPETES
Act. Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC) spending of
$400 million in the House and $150 million in the Senate (FY 08: $205 million)
would accelerate the construction of major research facilities with unique capabilities
at the cutting edge of science. Depending on final FY 2009 appropriations, even
the Senate’s lower $1.2 billion appropriation could put NSF well ahead of the
$7.3 billion authorized for FY 2009 in the America COMPETES Act of 2007 and thus
on track to double over a decade.
National
Institutes of Health (NIH) - $3.9 billion in the House and $10.4 billion in
the Senate (FY 08: $29.6 billion). In the House, $1.5 billion would be distributed
proportionally among the NIH’s institutes and centers
(ICs) through the Office of the Director (OD) to fund intramural and extramural
research, divided equally between FY 2009 and FY 2010 funding of $750 million
each year to enable NIH to award grants in FY 2009 and fund the second year of
these grants in FY 2010. With NIH success rates running below 20 percent for grant
competitions, the hope is for NIH to distribute these funds through regular, already
scheduled grant review cycles without sacrificing quality. The Senate accepted a $6.5 billion amendment
to its original bill on February 3 that would give NIH $9.2 billion for research,
all in FY 2009 but meant to be spent over two years, of which most ($7.85 billion)
would be divided proportionally among the ICs and some ($1.35 billion) retained
in the Office of the Director. Both the House and the Senate would give NIH $500
million for intramural construction in the Buildings and Facilities account. A
key difference in the bills is that the House would provide $1.5 billion for competitively
awarded extramural grants through a dormant National
Center for Research Resources (NCRR)
program that last received $30 million in FY 2005, exclusively for the repair
and modernization of existing academic research facilities. But the Senate would
give NCRR just $300 million and would limit awards to instrumentation and other
capital equipment for research. And both the House and Senate provide $400 million
to be transferred from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) for
'health care comparative effectiveness research.'
The
enormous Senate stimulus appropriation would give NIH a total FY 2009 budget of
$39.9 billion (see Table 2), a total that could
go even higher in final FY 2009 appropriations. Under the Senate plan, most NIH
institutes and centers (ICs) would enjoy increases of 27 percent between FY 2008
and FY 2009 (see Table 2) to record-breaking budgets.
Funding in the Office of the Director (OD) would more than double to $2.6 billion,
though some of the OD funds would eventually be transferred to the other ICs.
Department of
Energy (DOE) Office of Science – There would be $2.0 billion in the House
and a far smaller $330 million in the Senate (FY 08: $4.0 billion) for a mix of
extramural basic research, DOE laboratory research, facilities upgrades and construction,
and advanced scientific computing. Of the total, $400 million in the House appropriation
would be carved out to start up the ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency
- Energy), authorized in the America COMPETES Act of 2007 but never appropriated
until now. The Senate bill contains no money for ARPA-E, and its $330 million
would go toward laboratory facilities, after a floor amendment stripped out $100
million in research funds for advanced scientific computing. The House stimulus
appropriation combined with the regular appropriation could leave DOE OS with
a FY 2009 budget of $6.0 billion or higher, well above the $5.3 billion authorized
for FY 2009 in the America COMPETES Act of 2007 and thus on a track to double
over a decade, but the Senate supplemental could leave DOE Science short of the
doubling goal.
NIST
- $520 million in the House, $495 million in the amended Senate bill (FY 08:
$737 million). In the House bill, there would be $100 million for NIST laboratory
research (FY 08: $441 million), $70 million for the Technology Innovation Program
(formerly the ATP), $30 million for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, and
$300 million for a competitively awarded extramural construction grants program
that was congressionally initiated a few years ago but only received $30 million
for one year and was able to make only three awards out of 90 applications. The
Senate would allocate a similar amount but would spend it differently, including
$168 million for NIST laboratory research, nothing for the two extramural programs,
and $307 million for intramural rather than extramural construction and renovation
of NIST facilities. The proposed stimulus appropriations combined with a regular
appropriation could leave NIST with a FY 2009 budget of $1.3 billion or higher,
well above the $882 million authorized for FY 2009 in the America COMPETES Act
of 2007 and thus on a track to double over a decade.
Department
of Energy (DOE) energy programs – The House would provide $2.0 billion for
energy efficiency and renewable research, development, demonstration, and deployment
projects, of which $800 million is set aside for biomass (FY 08: $198 million)
and $400 million for geothermal energy (FY 08: $20 million). The Senate would
allocate even more, $2.6 billion, without specifying which energy technologies
might benefit.
NASA
- $600 million in the House, $1.3 billion in the amended Senate bill (FY 08:
$17.2 billion). In the House bill, there would be $400 million for the Science
portfolio of earth science, planetary science, heliophysics,
and astrophysics, of which $250 million would be dedicated solely to accelerate
the development and launch of key earth science climate research missions highlighted
in a 2007 National Academies Decadal Study as being critical to future U.S. climate
research and requiring extra funds to stay on track. The Senate’s $450 million
Science appropriation appears to be entirely for the earth science missions. Both
the House ($150 million) and the Senate ($200 million) would provide stimulus
funding for aeronautics research, and funding ($50 million in the House, $200
million in the Senate) to reimburse NASA for construction and repair costs associated
with 2008 natural disasters. The Senate, unlike the House, would provide $450
million in development funding to Constellation Systems to narrow the looming
gap in U.S. human
space flight capabilities between the 2010 retirement of the Space Shuttle and
the 2015 launch of its replacement.
Department
of Defense (DOD) – There would be $350 million in the House and $200 million
in the Senate for energy-related R&D at DOD, which already has its final FY
2009 budget.
HHS
BARDA – There would be $430 million only in the House bill for advanced biodefense
countermeasures R&D (FY 08: $102 million) in the new Biomedical Advanced Research
and Development Authority (BARDA) for federal government efforts to research,
develop, and test potential countermeasures for the Strategic National Stockpile.
Other
R&D funding agencies receiving funding in the stimulus bills include: the
U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS), $209
million for deferred maintenance work at USDA laboratories only in the House bill;
USDA’s Agricultural Food and Research Initiative (AFRI) of competitively awarded
research grants, $50 million only in the Senate; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) in Commerce, $1.0 billion in both the House and the Senate
for (non-R&D) habitat and fisheries restoration projects and (non-R&D)
acquisition and development of NOAA satellites and sensors, although some of these
satellites will eventually be used for climate research and climate modeling;
the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Interior, $200 million in the House and $135
million in the Senate for repair and restoration of science facilities and laboratory
equipment for USGS’ nationwide network of federal laboratories; the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in HHS, $462 million in the House and $412
million in the Senate to modernize aging laboratory facilities at CDC headquarters
in Atlanta; the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), $1.1 billion
in both the House and Senate for health care comparative effectiveness research
divided between a $400 million transfer to NIH (already included in NIH totals
above), a $400 million transfer to the Office of the HHS Secretary, and $300 million
for AHRQ; and the Office of the HHS Secretary, $420 million in the House and zero
in the Senate (after a Senate amendment stripped out $870 million in the original
Senate bill) in mostly non-R&D funding to respond to possible pandemic flu.
Next Steps and Possible Impacts
The
Senate approved its version of the stimulus bill on February 10 after a 61-36
cloture vote the day before allowed the bill to move to a final vote. Congressional
leaders still hope to send a compromise final version of the bill to President
Obama by February 16, although large differences between
the House and Senate versions of the bill will make it difficult to agree on a
final version in House-Senate conference. For the science and engineering community,
the two versions of the stimulus bill are a welcome acknowledgement that scientific
research, often regarded as long-term and future-oriented, also has a role to
play in short-term economic recovery.
(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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January 16, 2009 (Updated February 10)
AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program
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