Highlights -
In the first appropriations bill of the fiscal year (FY) 2007 appropriations season,
the House would reject steep proposed cuts in the U.S. Department of
Agriculture’s (USDA) R&D portfolio by adding nearly $300 million to the request
for a total of $2.3 billion (see Table). The House
appropriation would be $100 million or 4.1 percent below this year’s funding level.
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The House once again plunges into the annual tug-of-war between Congress and
the Executive Branch over earmarks. The $300 million in add-ons to the request
are nearly all for congressionally designated, performer-specific R&D projects,
which the request would have eliminated. -
In order to fund earmarks, the House would trim a requested boost for the National
Research Initiative (NRI) of competitively awarded research grants, from a record
$248 million request down to $190 million (up 5 percent over FY 2006). But the House would boost formula funding for
research, providing an increase in Hatch Act funding for the first time this decade
to $183 million (up 3.6 percent). -
The completion of the National Centers for Animal Health in Ames,
Iowa, and the proposed elimination of earmarked
facilities projects led USDA to propose a drastic reduction in intramural facilities
from $139 million down to $8 million, but the House would add back earmarks for
a $140 million total in FY 2007. Earmarked add-ons would result in $1.1 billion
for intramural research, $56 million more than the request but still $73 million
below this year’s funding level. USDA R&D in FY 2007 House Appropriations On
May 9, the House Appropriations Committee kicked off the FY 2007 appropriations
process by approving its version of the FY 2007 Agriculture appropriations bill
(HR 5384), which funds most of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). It is
the first of the FY 2007 appropriations bills in either chamber to be drafted,
and was followed a day later by the Interior appropriations bill (HR 5386), which
funds USDA’s Forest Service. Both bills will be debated and likely approved by
the full House this week. Back in February, USDA proposed to cut 16.5 percent
from the USDA R&D portfolio between 2006 and 2007, mostly through the proposed
elimination of a bumper crop of FY 2006 R&D earmarks, but the House responds
in the annual struggle over earmarks by adding most of them back. The House bills
would provide $2.3 billion for USDA R&D in FY 2007, down $100 million or 4.1
percent from the current year but nearly $300 million more than the request (see
Table). (For details of the President’s request for USDA R&D, please see Chapter
11 of AAAS Report
XXXI: R&D FY 2007 or the
March 3 USDA R&D Funding Update.) The
House restoration of $300 million in funding suggests that most of the FY 2006
earmarks proposed for elimination back in February will be renewed in USDA’s FY
2007 appropriation. The AAAS analysis of the final FY 2006 budget counted $331
million in USDA R&D earmarks in FY 2006. These earmarks are distributed in
both intramural and extramural accounts, and primarily fund research grants but
also fund facilities construction at USDA laboratories. USDA’s
extramural research funds, distributed through earmarks, competitive grants, and
formula funds, come from the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension
Service (CSREES). Total CSREES R&D would fall 4.8 percent down to $635 million
in the House appropriation, but this would be a dramatic $95 million improvement
over the request (see Table). The House would add
$100 million to the meager $3 million request for Special Research Grants for
a total of $103 million. Almost $97 million of the total would go for 135 congressionally
designated, performer-specific research projects, with the small remainder going
to ongoing competitive programs or to congressionally designated research topics
with competitive awards. Although the program would receive less than the $127
million 2006 appropriation, many of the 2006 grants were Senate-initiated and
will likely reappear when the Senate takes up the USDA budget. In addition to
these grants, the House would add $15 million in R&D earmarks in other parts
of the CSREES budget. At
the same time, the House would reaffirm the importance of formula funding for
research. The main formula funding program, the Hatch Act, would receive the first
increase this decade with a 3.6 percent boost to $183 million after stagnating
at the current level since 1999. Other formula funding programs would also receive
modest increases. The Agriculture bill, however, is silent on the USDA’s proposal
to shift a large portion of Hatch Act funding from formula distributions to competitive
grants, leaving it unclear whether formula funding would actually rise or fall
in 2007. The
large boost in earmarks and smaller boost in formula funds would come at the cost
of competitively awarded funds. The National Research Initiative, USDA’s main
competitive research grants program, would see its funding rise $9 million to
$190 million, but funding would fall far short of the requested 37 percent or
$67 million boost to an all-time high of $248 million. In real terms, the
House boost would be a cut because NRI is scheduled in 2007 to take on competitive
grants currently funded in the Integrative Activities account. 
Figure
1. (click on the image for PDF) Most of USDA’s intramural research is performed in
the Agricultural Research Service (ARS). ARS R&D would fall 5.6 percent or $72
million to $1.2 billion. The House
would add $132 million for facilities and $56 million for research to improve
on a nearly 25 percent requested cut. As with the extramural side, most of the
additions would restore earmarked R&D and R&D facilities projects that
USDA proposed to eliminate in its budget request. The other major USDA R&D agency is the Forest
Service, whose R&D budget would gain $19 million over the request for a total
of $321 million, an $8 million or 2.6 percent gain over FY 2006. 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.
Impacts of the USDA R&D Portfolio The House FY 2007 USDA R&D portfolio would be a reduction, but would
keep the department’s R&D funding near record highs in inflation-adjusted
dollars (see Figure 1). USDA R&D has been at historical highs this decade.
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 on the extramural CSREES side. Since FY 2002,
because of heightened concern about agricultural terrorism and the security of
USDA laboratories, millions of dollars have poured into the ARS intramural side
for laboratory security upgrades and other homeland security-related investments.
With homeland security-related construction needs waning at locations such as
Ames, the FY 2007 budget brings USDA
R&D down from record levels. USDA
is the sixth-largest supporter of R&D in the federal government, and its support
is especially important for key disciplines. USDA is responsible for just 5 percent
of all research support in the broad area of the life sciences, but dominates
funding for two disciplines within life sciences, agricultural sciences and environmental
biology. USDA is also an important supporter of chemistry and biology, and represents
a majority of federal support for economics through the Economic Research Service
(ERS). 
Figure
2. (click on the image for PDF) Recent
increases for USDA R&D have boosted USDA support of research (see Figure 2),
with most of the increases going to the life sciences. USDA support of other disciplines
has declined steadily over the years and will likely decline even further when
the FY 2006 and 2007 budgets are distributed. 
Figure
3. (click on the image for PDF)
USDA’s R&D portfolio is the most evenly distributed geographically
among federal R&D funding agencies. 70 percent of USDA’s R&D goes
to its own laboratories in a nationwide network of agricultural experiment stations
located in all 50 states. Another 28 percent of the portfolio goes to colleges
and universities, again to all 50 states because of the nationwide network of
land-grant colleges and minority serving institutions that often receive USDA
funds through formula distributions and geographically dispersed R&D earmarks.
The top 10 state recipients of USDA R&D funds account for less than half the
USDA total (see Figure 3), in contrast to the overall federal R&D portfolio
in which just 6 states receive half of all federal R&D. Outlook
and Next Steps The full House
will debate the Agriculture and Interior bills this week, and will most likely
approve both bills with large margins. The Senate versions of the bill, however,
may not be drafted until July or later. Although there has been much debate over
the past year on the practice of congressional earmarking, and there are several
pending legislative proposals to try to curb the practice, if these first few
FY 2007 appropriations bills are any indication then congressional appropriators
are not ready to give up or scale back their power to designate money for research
performers in their states or districts. For USDA, which has always been one of
the most heavily earmarked R&D agencies, it means that the traditional struggle
between formula funding, competitive funding, and earmarked funding for R&D
will continue to be fought in the appropriations process. (This analysis is the first
of a series of AAAS R&D Funding Updates on FY 2007 congressional appropriations.
The complete series of AAAS R&D Funding Updates, including continually updated
analyses of R&D in FY 2007 appropriations, is available on the AAAS
R&D Web Site (http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd)
in the “FY 2007 R&D” or the “What’s
New” sections.) -
May 16, 2006
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
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